Review: Under the Mountain

Under the Mountain is underwhelming. The first truly disappointing movie that I've watched in 2010. Oh, wait, I saw Lu Pikirlah Sendiri in 2010 as well. Boy, do I wish I could get back my afternoon...

I am a massive fan of the supernatural/fantasy genre... especially if there's a horror twist to it... like Lord of the Rings, Spiderwick, Harry Potter, Eragon, Golden Compass etc...

First saw the trailer for this movie when I was watching The Wolfman... I was so excited to go see it... for a number of reasons...

1) Fire wielding twins

2) Some sort of zombie creature as the villains

3) Volcanoes

Who would not want to watch this right? Okay, maybe some people won't want to but I was looking forward to it...

So when this movie was released, I went to Pavilion to go see it. With a colleague...

THE GOOD

1) The storyline... fireraisers, Wilberforces, Gargantuas, Twin-ness... nice touch...

2) The actors that play the twins and the comic relief cousin...

3) Luscious views of New Zealand

THE BAD

1) The storyline... a bit draggy and forced at times...

2) Sam Neill has the same look on his face throughout the movie... (maybe he's thinking "What the hell am I doing in this movie?")

3) The villains are lame

4) Not enough fighting... and definitely no big battle at the end before the heroes emerge victorious...

The movie itself is not a bad production but the bad points dragged its level of enjoyment down quite a lot. I think it would have worked better as a TV movie. Or a miniseries. Yes, miniseries where they can expand on a lot of things and have the twins battle it out more or even have the Gargantua rise or something.

But I think we're spoilt for choices already in this day and age so Under The Mountain seemed tame compared to all those other movies.

I do think if they were to make it more fight-y and less kiddy, the movie would have improved leaps and bounds and would have satisfied the supernatural buff within. :)

Lu Pikirlah Sendiri

Today (11 Feb) is the day Lu Pikirlah Sendiri opens...

I had the privilege (and I use the term loosely) of being invited to attend the movie preview. Actually, my colleague was invited and he asked me to tag along...


Here's a synopsis of the movie:

Mengisahkan tentang mengejar impian, kerjaya dan cinta. Nabil (Nabil Raja Lawak) dan Natasya (Puteri Sarah) merupakan pasangan yang berbeza dari semua perkara. Mereka seperti dua garisan yang tidak mungkin bertemu di dalam kehidupan ini untuk melayakkan mereka bercinta. Mereka mempunyai pandangan hidup yang berbeza kerana seorang di universiti dan seorang lagi terpaksa bekerja menyara diri dan keluarga. Walaupun mereka berdua ibarat garisan yang tidak mungkin bertemu, tetapi takdir menentukan segalanya.

Pada pertemuan yang pertama sahaja mereka sudah tidak sefahaman, bertengkar dan bergaduh. Cinta yang tidak diungkapkan menimbulkan salah faham yang berterusan dan berpanjangan. Apakah kesudahan mereka? Siapakah dahulu yang melafazkan kata cinta? Siapakah Kumpulan Meet Uncle Hussein di dalam cerita ini? Apakah kelainan pada watak-watak yang dibawa oleh pelakon-pelakon hebat tanah air seperti Amy Search, Vanida Imran, Faizal Tahir, Mila AF5, Aziz M. Osman dan lain-lain yang turut terlibat di dalam filem ini? Untuk mengetahui selanjutnya, nantikan kemunculan filem ini di pawagam berhampiran anda.....Jangan ketinggalan..... !!!

The preview was held at Cathay Cineplex, Cineleisure on the 2nd of February at 2pm. Earlier the same day, we had attended the preview of Niyang Rapik. So you know our mood was not exactly light since we'd been there from morning.

It did not help when the event started late. Very late. They also had a lot of things lined up, such as Meet Uncle Hussain performance, featuring Hazama and a new band called L Danielle also performed. After that, they brought out a cake and had all the cast and crew receive bouquets of flowers. Even the sponsors was given flowers. Sigh.

Is it just me or is this stuff usually reserved for the premiere night? More than half of the journos in the room were getting impatient and restless. The movie better bring it, I thought to myself as we sit through the whole shebang.

When the film was finally presented, I thought I could finally kick my shoes off and have a good time since it was a comedy we're watching. But things did not look up. The movie itself was bad and awkward and a lot of things did not make sense.

I'll start with the bad first, then only I'll go into the good...

THE BAD:

1) Poster was misleading. Nabil and Mila on the poster but the movie is about Nabil's life and his clashes with Puteri Sarah. Mila was only in the movie for 15 minutes tops. During the preview, some members of the press said that Puteri Sarah had a hissy fit when she was the poster, understandable as she was the lead.

I was told that the director/producer said Puteri Sarah's face was not suitable with the other two on the poster and that is why she's left out. So it's not a case of trying to capitalize on Mila's fame/popularity.

I also heard from somewhere that the poster's like that because the movie was focused on the relationship between the siblings. Yes, true, for 10 minutes. The rest of the movie shows Nabil working, trying to earn a living while fighting with Puteri Sarah.

2) They're trying to do a 'There's Something About Mary' where after a scene, you get a band singing about that particular scene or the protagonist's feelings... but with this movie, Meet Uncle Hussain showed up every other scene and singing... the first couple of times was funny... but after that, it was just too much and some of their appearance seemed forced and a bit off...

3) A lot of scenes don't make sense... seriously a lot... like throughout the movie, not just once in a blue moon... for instance...

The scene in the beginning where Nabil was showering. Meet Uncle Hussain was lounging about outside the toilet as though they were waiting for their turn but after they got doused by Nabil's showerings, they left and then Nabil finished showering and came out to the kitchen of his house. Why would Meet Uncle Hussain be lining up outside then?

The scene where Nabil was left stranded by the side of the road by Natasya (Puteri Sarah). Nabil walked for a long time and was even caught in the rain. He came to a place and he rested for a bit before Natasya came driving by, parked the car and came out in the rain. Supposedly looking for Nabil but could not find him and promptly left. What the? First of, how on earth would she know Nabil went there? He did not stay at the place she left him. And when she got out of the car, she looked right and then left and she drove off. Nabil was right in front of her. There was nothing blocking her view...

Sigh... so many things to nitpick... don't even get me started on how bad the storylines are... I mean, there was no setting up of anything... we are just supposed to assume everything... like the stranded scene... they were at a highway and Nabil wandered into a R&R, so Natasya went there looking for him... this is the director's explanation...

So explain to me this... how did Nabil/Natasya knows how to find each other? It can't be coincidence... everywhere he goes, she can find him... also, how come towards the end of the movie, we were introduced to the father and brother when it was made to look like Nabil was supporting the mother and sister only before?

And how come Nabil suddenly had the ability to play the guitar quite well to join the band? Okay, sure, he was messing around with the guitar in one scene but he did not play anything, just strumming... I mean, he was shown to work at the market plucking chicken, being a despatch boy, selling kuay teow, fixing bikes and everything under the sun but he was not shown being musically gifted...

I think I am getting a headache now... so I'll skip the bad, guess people can already tell the movie has a lot of 'bad' going for it...

THE GOOD:

Um... well... hmm... kidding... the one thing good about the movie is Nabil. He has some sort of presence about him that's not too bad. I mean, he was the singular thing that was okay in Sifu & Tongga (which was no small feat coz S&T is hands down the worst Malay movie I've seen, second only to Rasukan Ablasa) and he was quite entertaining in his small role in Pisau Cukur.


VERDICT:

Can I have my afternoon back please? Just like with Sifu & Tongga, I'd love to ask for my money back from the Prof...

Also, I've heard that Nabil himself had gone on record saying that he was not satisfied with the end product... Two of the stars are not happy... a lot of the other journos were also not happy coming out of the cinema hall... :(