Hear ABBA songs in MammaMia

I’ve just recently watched MammaMia movie. This movie really made me curious since the trailer said that I could enjoy various ABBA songs in it.

The movie started with a young woman singing ‘I have a dream’. It turned out that this young woman, Sophie, was getting married but she never knew who her father was. One day, she found her mom’s diary and found out that there were three possible men. Thus she decided to invite those men to attend her wedding party. She did this without her mom’s knowing, since her mom would definetely reject the idea. She only told her plan to her two best friends.

Meanwhile, her mom, Donna, is going to fetch her best friends and when they met, they did some crazy little reunion. Unbeknown to her that around the same time, those three men arrived. Unfortunately, Sophie’s effort to hide their presence failed. Then it started a little clash between mother and daughter, and memory-flooding-in reaction for the mother.

Overall, this movie’s plot or story is quite simple. About how a mother prepared her daughter’s wedding to realizationthat it was actually her own desire to wed since she never had one. But what amazing was how the script writter managed to fill in and to connect so many ABBA songs till it became a story. So practically there’re not many dialogues, instead the actors/actresses sang the dialogue. Almost like an opera, but with so much modern athmosphere and of course not with opera songs.

I considered myself as a fan of ABBA, since I really like their songs. But apparetly, I only recognize several of the famous songs. Well, I’m not a big fans to begin with anyway XD But this movie didn’t dissapointed me in the songs performances. And to my surprise, it was actually the actors/actresses themselves who sang the songs!! I thought they just do lip-singing or something like that XD Well, of course I never knew that Meryl Streep or Pierce Brosnan could sing and quite good in it XD

So anybody out there who loved ABBA, this movie is a must see. But don’t expect to see a ‘story’ in it, just enjoy those musics and the way it performed ^_^

‘So I say thankyou for the music and bringing it to me....’

One Piece Movie 9: Episode Chopper Plus

Okay, this OP movie really made me curious. Because eversince its first performance, all I heard are compliments. That’s why I feel really exited when I finally get ahold of this movie.

The story started with the appearance of a word ‘if’. I was chuckled when I saw that. It’s as if the animators already warned OP fans to not complain later on since this movie was an ‘if’ story. Then we saw many wanted posters and prologs to explain the situation in One Piece world, a very good start for nonregular OP watchers.

The story, as explained in the title, was about Chopper recruitment/ retell of Drum arc, but without Vivi as in the original story. Instead, we have Robin, Franky, and Thousand Sunny in it. But unlike movie 8 (the retell of Arabasta arc), this time, they managed to made a great story and somehow managed to fit in all those characters without, we watchers, felt akward. For example, Robin obviously played Vivi’s part, but you’ll saw her as Robin herself without out-of-characterness. And when you saw Franky or Sunny or Wapol’s brother, you won’t saw them as something that shouldn’t be there.

About the pace, this movie had good pace. I mean, you didn’t feel rushed when watching it. Eventhough I still felt that some scene was skipped, but remember, this is an ‘if’ story XD

The animation used what we called Movie 6’s style. Personally I didn’t like it. It looked like the characters were ‘messy’, but it was good in term of consistency and the combination with the 3D backgrounds graphics. Looked at the snow, forests, and of course the ‘sakura’. It was totally awesome!! Beautifull!! Plus the sounds and BGMs were perfect. Notice the sound made when the characters stepped on the snow. Perfect!!

Still I’m a bit dissapointed to see that Robin didn’t get as much fight as Zoro and Franky. Yeah, I know that she played Vivi, but if they could made the extra characters feels all right, they should be able to add extra fight for her isn’t it?? -_- But, that’s, of course, just a personal complain XD

Overall, I would say that this movie was a success, especially when you compared it with Movie 8. But, personally I still prefer a ‘new story’ kind of movie instead a ‘remake with extra story’ kind of movie, and I prefer Movie 7’s art style (exclude the ‘boing-boing’ effect of course), so my favourite OP movie untill now is still Movie 7 followed by Movie 5.

Now I can’t wait to see Movie 10, since it will have ‘new story’ and from I saw from the trailer, it will be awesome ^_^

Value your live in Last Holiday

Being a non worker, I actually have plenty of free time. But usually I help my sis in making her cookies and pastries, not much of a help actually -_-. Then go around here and there. And at night, watch a movie. Yup, I finally can do my hobby to watch movies. The latest movie I watched is titled ‘Last Holiday’. A very good insipire-you-to-value-your-live movie.

Georgia Byrd is a common woman, who live in a small town and does common work as a cooking utensils sales girl. She is a hard-worker, and rarely spent money for shopping unnecessary things. She loves to cook, and always watched certain live-cooking-show. But after she made the food, she never eat it. Instead, she make a photograph and keep the photo in her ‘probability book’. This is a book of her dreams, which she will fulfilled all of it someday in her live, but not nowadays. She also has feeling for another sales boy, who worked in the same store, Sean. But she is too afraid to speak to him. And inspite her friend’s idea to wear more sexy outfit to atract his attention, Georgia stick to her ‘old-fashioned’ clothes.

One day, after she made a cooking demonstration with oldies (and got scolded by her supervisor for a nonsense cause), she accidentally hit her head againts a cupboard, right after Sean asked one of her food. This make her faint, and must see the doctor. Doctor decided to have a CT-scan. And the result really surprising, that this doctor must consult it to other doctor. Apparently, Georgia is infected by a certain deadly virus, and according to her brain image, she will only live for another 3-4 weeks. She, of course, shocked by this fact. And the fact that her insurance can’t help with her operation funding, really make her break down.

Knowing that there’s nothing else she could do, she decided to fulfill her dreams (which listed in her ‘book of probabilities’. Then she took all her money from the bank, and go on vacation. Using a first class flight, and helicopter to go to the very elite hotel, renting a president suit room, buying an expensive and more sexy cloths, and trying every food made by her idolize chef, until trying every adrenalin-pumping sports. And that’s when she knows that live could be chaged if you want to try, and get out from your shell.

Overall, a very good movie to watch. I always like movies who inspiring in meaning of live. Eventhough you could already guess the ending, still I love it. ^_^ Not to forget, the movie has humors slip in here and there. I think, I the message I got is: If you have a dream, don’t just sit there and dreaming, you could gain it if you try.

Reveal the secrets in National Treasure: book of secret

This is the 3rd movie I watched in a row last week. I’m so in love with the first story of National Treasure, so I must see this movie. Eventhough, I always now, that 2nd movies never as good as 1st movies.

Benjamin Franklin Gates is presentating how his ancestor, Thomas Gates, become one of the American hero, because he tried to stop the rebellion which involed murdery of one of the early American President. This story was revealed trough a book which has become the evident of the scene. This book missed a page, that is never found untill now. But, her rival (forgot his name) showed him the missing page that, unfortunatelly, showed that Thomas Gates, actually involved in the rebellion and in fact the mastermind behind the murdery.

B.F. Gates, of course, can’t accept that his ancestor being accoused just like that. Then he started to investigate the paper. Unfortunatelly, the one who could helped him in investigating, is only Abigail Chase, his girlfriend, who currently in a ‘not-friendly’ state, because their little fight. But Gates managed to convince her to help him, and after several investigation, the paper is actually a clue about a missing golden city. Then they started to find this golden city, so that Gates could clean his ancestors’ name.

Overall… I do enjoy the 1st movie more than this. Because the clues in this movie is not that interesting to follow. It’s just like, that, and that, and there it is… But it’s still fun to watch. Btw, the most interesting thing is that the main story is about finding a missing golden city. At that time, as a One Piece fan, I mentally screamed: ‘OMG!! It’s Skypea!! Oh, don’t tell me, that the golden city was actually being thrown by a current to the sky’. Yeah, that’s what I actually think, when I watched the movie. XD

Cooks in No Reservation

Oookay… I know I should write my review after I watched the movie. >_< now I forgot those characters names, and I’m too lazy to search the internet about this movie. Anyway, the main character is played by Catherine Zeta Zones and let’s say her name is Kate (if I’m not mistaken). She is the main chef in a French restaurant, and very well known for her talent in cooking. Unfortunatelly, she has somekind like OCD problem, so she is currently in therapy. She also often make so many rules for herself, e.g. never want to date someone who live in the same building, always punctual at her work hour, etc. And she also can’t take a critic from her customer.

One day, her sister and her doughter (Kate’s cousin) want to visit her. But Kate would stick to her schedule, and won’t come home less than 9pm. Her sister okay with it, because, of course she knows Kate’s habit. But, before 9pm, an accident happen, and her sister died. In grief and full of regret, Kate read her sister letter who asked her to take care of Kate’s cousin, Zoe. At first, Kate doesn’t want to leave her job, but the owner insist her to take some rest. And when she is helping Zoe’s transfer, unknown to her, her restaurant’s owner hire another Sous Chef (Co-chef), Nick.

This Nick, has a very opposite attitude than Kate. He is very comunicative, love to chat, and highly appreciate other people. Knowing this, Kate is very angry, and thought that Nick want to sabbotage her kitchen. Nick counterattack that by saying that it is actually his dream to work with her. So, one and other conflict happens, and at the end, Kate finally able to open herself.

Overall… I would say this drama movie lack in story power. It feels… flat. The conflict is not well describe, or I don’t know how to say it, but… it feels… well… just flat. At first, I was interested to see this movie, because I thought it’s a story about chef and foods. Since I’m still in love with Rattatoulie, I thought, why not watch this. But unfortunatelly, this movie didn’t have too much impact to me. Not to mention that this move has so little humor, and the BGMs don’t feel special. Or … maybe it’s because I watched 2 movie in a day XD But I do like Catherine Zeta Zones ^_^

Happy Ever After in Enchanted

Last week, I did something I never did. I watched 2 cinema movies in a day, and 1 more in the next day. The first movie I watched is Enchanted. I finally watched this movie, because my sister insist in seeing it, eventhough she already watched it twice.

It’s a fairy tale type of story actually. Once upon a time, there’s a beautiful village girl who lived inside a big tree in a peacefull meadow, named Giselle. She is expecting to meet her Prince Charming to come and give her a true love kiss (she is singing it with her animal friends). Meanwhile, somewhere else in the wood, the crown Prince Edward is hunting for an evil ogre. And when he is boasting about how cool he was, he heard a beautiful voice singing about true love kiss. He then follow the voice and start singing too ^_^; Well, as always, the Prince managed to find the beautiful girl, they fall in love, and then they are planning to get married so they will live happily ever after.

That’s actually the beginning of the story. Apparently Prince Edward’s step mother (who currently the queen in charge) doesn’t like the idea. And she wants to cancel the wedding. Thus, she tricks Giselle to look down into a well, and… she push her. So poor Giselle fell down into a well which connect to a world without happy ever after,a.k.a reality world, New York city. Here she went trough harsh treatment from New York people she never met before,until she meet Robert, a guy who work as a lawyer, and his daughter. Then with his help, she will try to survive and find her way home. Of course, Prince Edward won’t stay still, and he will save his princess. On the other hand, of course, his step mother won’t allow it.

So, overall, the story is very common. Typicall fairy tale story, like I said, easy to guess the end, but beautifull nevertheless. The movie itself is also very funny. I never expect Prince Edward to be so overconfident XD And I always laugh at how the chipmunk, Pip, act. And the most thing I like from this movie is, the MUSIC!! It’s very beautiful. I will find the OST album once it’s released ^_^

Okay then, I’ll write another 2 movies in some other time.

One Piece Movie 8: Episode Alabasta

Finally, after some time, I could watch this 8th movie of One Piece. Eventhough I know that this movie got so much critics from those fans, I still couldn’t wait to watch it. And I must say……… I agree with most of the fans.

As you could already predict, this movie retells Alabasta arc. From the first day I heard about this movie, I already thinked: how can they made such a quite long arc into 2 hours movie?? And the movie itself answer my question. Everything feels rushed. So many important scenes and encounters were skipped, so many characthers weren’t there, so many improvement were made etc. No wonder so many fans feels dissapointed in this movie, including me. I so much prefer their original stories movies (like my favourites: Movie 7, of course I put aside those boing-boing thing -_-)

The story started with Vivi dreaming about her country, then suddenly skipped with Mr. Bon Clay encounter, but this time Sanji were there. They still make those ‘X’ mark thing of course, then suddenly they’re at Yuba. Yup, no Nanohana and they didn’t explain how they met Matsuge. Then suddenly they are already on top of that crab, and when Crocodile first dueled Luffy, Robin was there, watching. Then the crab managed to go to the border of Alubarna, no river and they didn’t meet the Super Duck Squad. And that’s just several example of how much they skipped things. No encounter with Dugong, Ace, Smoker and Tashigi, no Rain Base, etc. WOW…….. And not to mention the music. I mean, come on, this is a MOVIE!! How come there’s no new BGMs?? The movie feels so plain…..

But, there’s still some things that I liked though, like how they made the pics. It’s awesome!! Several screen shots are just great. Especially Zoro’s duels, OMG, it’s soo cool…….. And I must say, I like how they add things, like how Nami took off her Clima tact from Miss Double Finger, how Nami found Zoro and shook him awake, Luffy remembered Robin saved him from the sand tomb and thus rescued her from the ‘desert spada’ inside the tomb, how Robin managed to find Going Merry, etc.

Well….. overall, this movie isn’t that great, not like previous movies, but why not enjoy it just like an animated ‘other’ version of Alabasta?? At least you could still enjoy the animation quality ^_^ and as a One Piece fan, I just have to see this movie. Ah, btw, I heard that movie 9 will be a retell about Drum Kingdom but with Robin, Franky, and Sunny. *sigh* I really hope they made more original stories. But I don’t know the detail yet, cause apparently there’s some big monster involved too. Well…. We should just wait and see, shall we?? ^_^

French cuisine in Ratatouille

Today I watched the cinema with my friends. I watched Ratatouille, an animation made by Pixar (with Walt Disney). My sister already watched the movie several days ago, and she recommended me to watch this, eventhough I’ll still go to watch this if she didn’t tell me.

The story is about a rat named Remy who has ‘sniffing’ talent. He could distinguish each ingridients used in a food, he doesn’t like to eat garbage, he like his paws to be clean and walk with 2 feet, and he loves to cook. After several ruckus happened, he got seperated from his family. And after talking with his imaginary late chef idol Gusteau, he finally decided to went up and looked around the city. He finally realized that he is indeed in Paris, and found Gusteau’s restaurant.

At first he just want to take a look from outside, but then he saw a new garbage boy named Alfredo Linguini, who is actually Gusteau’s son, messed up a soup. Remy couldn’t helped but made up something to fixed the soup but he was spotted by Linguini. Apparently the soup was liked by the guests, so Linguini must made another one under supervision by master chef Skinner. Desperated, Linguini made a deal with Remy. Linguini will act as Remy’s body so Remy could cook in the kitchen. From here, the story goes on with troubles that will test Linguini and Remy’s friendship.

Overall, I really liked Pixar’s animation. It’s beautiful as always. The character design is great, I really like Remy’s blue fur who differ him from other ‘ordinary’ rat. The story is, well… quite predictable, but it’s enjoyable. You can laugh a lot ^_^ but I don’t find any interesting songs during the movie. Mm… maybe I didn’t pay much attention.

Btw, talking about French cuisine, for my personal taste, I never like French cuisine. No ofence French people. It’s just because, for me, French cuisine is small in portion and too beautiful to be eaten. Not to say, the tools also too many, and for a full course you need at least 2 hours. For me, I prefer food that could make my stomach full and fast. So that would mean a plate of rice with it’s compliments such as meat, chicken, vegetables (eventhough I don’t like veggie >_<), etc. Hahahha… different in culture I guess. But I must say, I do love French passtries and bakery. Yes, I’m a bread lover ^_^. Okay, that’s enough talking about food XD You should watch this movie if you haven’t.