The Big Year [2011]

Director : David Frankel

Stars      : Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Steve Martin

Genre    : Drama, Comedy

The Big Year is about a competition to spot different kind of birds in North America for a year where a birder with the most count win this competition. Our 3 main characters in this movie are Brad Harris (a programmer played by Jack Black), Kenny Bostick (the world record holder of biggest bird spotter played by Owen Wilson), and Stu Preissler (a CEO for his own company played by Steve Martin). As the new year started, Kenny Bostick afraid that his record will be defeated by another person, so he decided that he would enter The Big Year to ensure that he still be the best birder in the world. As for Brad Harris's motivation was because he thought he never achieve something in his life and his obsession of bird would be his way out when he won The Big Year contest. Stu Preissler also entered The Big Year because he really wanted to do it but never have time for it, so he decided that he would enter the competition.

We will see many kinds of bird species throughout this movie. Some of them are really beautiful. For me who lived in Asia never see those kinds of bird, so it really amuse me. The set is also quite nice with some landscape in America.

For a comedy movie this one is not so funny, I barely laugh while watching this movie, but I still enjoy watching it. And also it's kinda nice to see Jack Black acted like in this movie.

IMDB Rating 5.9/10

My Personal Rating 6.5/10

Seeking Justice [2011]

Directed By : Roger Donaldson
Stars             :  Nicholas Cage, Guy Pearce, January Jones
Genre           : Thriller


Will Gerard and his wife Laura were a happily married couple. One day after had a rehearsal, Laura got attacked by unkown guy. She was robbed and raped and must be delivered to hospital.
Will got so mad because of this case and while sitting frustated at the hospital bench, came a guy who named himself Simon and offered Will that he can "handle" rapist .Got driven by his emotion at that time, he agreed to had Simon "handled" the rapist. In a short moment after, he got a package contain photo of the rapist and the jewelry he gave to Laura the night before she got attacked.
Six months later, Will got contacted by Simon again to do something in return of Simon's doing to handle Laura's rapist.
And then the movie told about the action of Will who didn't want to do the thing that asked by Simon and how he tried to uncover who was Simon and his organization.
This movie also gave a twist in the middle end of the movie.

It's not hard to understand what this movie is all about. The movie is moving at a steady pace and I found this movie is quite entertaining.
Nic Cage performed quite nicely actually much better than some movie he acted last year
Guy Pearce (haven't seen him in a long time) also gave quite good performance as the villain in this movie.

Overall this movie offers entertaining thriller for 105 minutes.

IMDB Rating 6.1/10
My Personal Rate 7/10

Hugo [2011]

This movie is telling about an adventure of a boy named Hugo Cabret (played by Asa Butterfield), an orphan who lived behind the walls of train station set on Paris 1930s. On his adventure to solve a mystery left by his father in the form of an automaton (man-like robot) he met an old man named Georges Melies (played by Ben Kingsley) who owned a toy store, who's also became Hugo's boss as Georges let Hugo to work for him. Later he met a girl named Isabelle (played by Chloe Grace Moretz) that will accompany Hugo on his adventures and eventually leading to a secret of Georges Melies. There is also a police officer (played by Sacha Baron Cohen) who wanted to catch all orphans who lived in train station because they often steal from people.
In my opinion, this is a great movie. The design set of the movie is so enchanting. The color tone, the building, and also the atmosphere of the city are stunningly beautiful. I recommend you watch it in HD version of the movie (personally I watched it in 1080p AMIABLE release)

As for the story, this movie offers a family story. A heartwarming and happy ending story. With a simple premise but executed perfectly.
My favorite part of this movie is when the old movie of Georges Melies played. We can see movies where there are no computers and special effects, just film-set and man-power behind it. And other part of the movie that I like is every time Sacha Baron Cohen appears, his look in this movie really remind me of Borat. Maybe it's because the mustache on his face..Hahaha

If you like an adventure movie with a boy as the lead, you will like this movie.

IMDB Rate of Hugo 8.2/10
My Personal Rate of Hugo 8.5/10