Cicakman 3: A Movie Review

Guest Review by Mehmed Hossein

A potential new direction but a bad execution.

You don't need to watch the first two films to understand the film (For I myself did watch these two but it faded in my memory like dust). They reset the movie to a new character, a new era, and a new direction. The filmmakers sought to bring a gritty, added realism into the film which the first two lacks (its a satire spoof, come on). What they bring us is a story of a troubled father on the verge of divorce and he was given the chance to prove himself as he became the new Cicakman.

**SPOILER ALERT**
Click to read more...at your own willingness to be spoiled!

Puaka Balai Gombak : Movie Review

Guest Review by Mehmed Hossein

An unexpected surprise of a malay horror film

My expectations were low. To me its a cheap going in the trend kind of horror movie, such as Villa Nabila, then we have Puaka Balai Gombak. I enter the cinema with extreme distaste and biasness, and boy I was wrong.

The film caught me in the first 30 minutes, its suspenseful, thrilling, edgy, an interesting premise with an absolute NATURAL acting I've ever seen in a Malay movie.

The premise sets of a group known as Puaka X which does ghost hunting at supposedly abandoned places. It also sets a culture, which in this country we have a lot of paranormal ghost hunting team that eagers to explore abandoned places, and its competitive. Following the likes of nightcrawler I should say, it introduces a certain culture more than just a plain documentary film. Puaka X goes to various abandoned places until they receive an anonymous email inviting them to Balai Polis Gombak, and its there where it all goes wrong. The story is cliche but execution wise is good, forgivable.

The acting was superb, I got caught in seeing this movie it feels like a real documentary because it feels real, this was the one thing that made me latching throughout the film because it is convincing. The actors, unknown at the time, gave a good performance as a film crew with energetic dialogues.

The creepy factor was well done, its not exactly in your face jump scares, but they rely more on creepy subtle appearances. The subtlety gives a nice touch for the film that knows what its doing, its just right and not too forced.

The low point of this movie is only around the climax and end, where the crew are being attacked by real ghosts. You know where this is going, its like the blair witch project scenario that in the end the crew never survive. Whatsmore the CGI takes away the realism of the mockumentary. At this point, I forgive it because it has effort.

I applaud this film for giving a change of perspective of local films. This was my first in 2015. I never thought it was a mockumentary until I saw the actors alive and well. Give it a go, its worth it.

I rate this movie: 8/10

Other Photos

Dendam Orang M4ti: Movie Review.

One dark and stormy evening, Silvy decided to embark on a harrowing annoyed trip to e@Curve for a movie premier. The journey was as slow as a tortoise, filled with a multitude of curses and dark, stormy skies. But fortunately for her she had arrived to the destination with some extra time to spare (phew!). As to why it was an annoyed trip, well. Flash floods everywhere caused traffic to be practically on standstill almost everywhere on that day.

Okay so lame introduction aside, I was invited to attend a KRU Production movie premier: Dendam Orang M4ti. Sounds scary, doesn't it? To be frightfully honest, I don't think it is a scary movie per say, but more of a case of psychological instability. But let me take things slow before I take a step further :)

Before attending the movie premier, I had decided to run a quick search on the synopsis of this movie. This was what I discovered:

Official Movie Trailer

Synopsis

Produced by KRU Studios, this psycho thriller follows the story of Lena, who awakens from a coma with a shakey memory and various unanswered questions.

Movie Release Date: 23 October 2014
Language: Malay
Subtitle: Chinese / English
Genre: Thriller
Running Time: 81 minutes
Director: Jason Chong
Main Cast: Lisa Surihani, Fizz Fairuz, Miera Leyana

*****

For the heck of it, here's the movie ticket =P

Malaysian sweetheart, Lisa Surihan i, being interviewed after the movie

Press Conference in session

Fizz sharing his filming experience with the audience

The celebs, along with the row of 'zombies' for the night. Those zombies gave me a shock of my life when they started slithering in the movie hall during the movie and touched my arm. I think I both startled and amused the crowd with my ear-splitting scream LOL.

Okay, so that sounds pretty vague with a lot of possibilities of what's about to happen...right? Promising, but not so much for me. I'm not exactly the greatest fan when it comes to horror/thriller movies so for this movie review, I brought a friend along. Movie review will be done by him and not me (seeing that I kept my eyes closed ALMOST throughout the entire movie) but you'll see some of my comments interjecting his review in blue :) P/S: Friend's also into filming so his review is pretty much on the technical side.