Weekly Features

I'm going to introduce you to some weekly features you'll find in this site:

• Star Of The Week: I will make a short profile of the legendary, well-known or even upcoming rising star in the movie industry. Speaking of the newcomers, I have a pretty good pair of eyes when it comes to 'predicting' who will be 'huge'.
• Movie Recommendation Of The Week: I will review one of my most favorite movie and suggest you to watch it in case you're wondering to watch what movie for the weekend. Please note that the movie could be old release.
• Indonesian Movie Of The Week: I gotta tell you that Indonesian movie industry has been evolving really well, and it has a lot choice of great movies to watch! As a proud Indonesian I'm going to use this blog to promote the Indonesian creations.

OK then, these features will be available next week as I have to choose and write the most interesting topics.

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First Look of Chris Evans in Captain America Costume

What a Marvel day! So earlier I posted about the first look of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man, now it's time for the First Avenger to show off, Captain America!

Chris Evans looks great in this costume, he's bulked up and basically has that 'comical' figure face and figure. It's amazing that he landed two superhero roles in the same alliance, The Avengers, both Captain America and Human Torch from Fantastic Four.

Big thanks to Entertainment Weekly for bringing this exclusive photo to us. "Captain America: The First Avenger" is directed by Joe Johnston ("Jumanji", "Jurassic Park III") and will be released on July 22, 2011 in USA. I don't know the release date for Indonesia yet, but according to IMDB, it will be released July 21 in Malaysia, then August 4 in Singapore.

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Quote Of The Day: Evan Rachel Wood

What do you think about playing the bad girl?

I don’t consider them bad, they’re just human. They just explore things and do things that most people think about but don’t really talk about and don’t really do. They’re just honest. Nobody is good or bad. You know, you only live once.

Source: After Ellen

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Movie Review: "I'm Here"

I just watched Spike Jonze's short-movie titled "I'm Here". No words can describe my feelings, it was simply beautiful! The 30 minutes movie tells about a love story between two robots named Sheldon (Andrew Garfield) and Francesca (Sienna Guillory).

Sheldon is described as a lonely boy with a plainly boring life. He spends his every day life working at the library, riding a bus because he can't drive. One day when he's standing at the bus station, he sees Francesca for the first time, who's driving her car miserably but seems like she's having so much fun. They meet again the next day at the same place, but this time Francesca isn't alone. She's with three friends who invite Sheldon to join them.

While Francesca's friends are having fun, Sheldon takes a walk with Francesca and get to know each other. Francesca attaches some papers in which she drew herself and wrote "I'm Here" on the planks. Francesca falls and injures her knee, but Sheldon repairs it by his own toolkit. Francesca shows him her favorite CD, and Sheldon seems to fascinate her. The next day, they meet again in front of Sheldon's work place and spend more time together. In short, they begin to date.

And this is where the real story begins. I don't want to talk any more details because I'll be spoiling you. So basically, the love story may be familiar for those who loves to watch romance movies (especially the likes of Korean movie themes). It's simply sweet, meaningful, and touchy. But what makes this movie different is the idea of using robots instead of human as the principal characters. The robots themselves are not perfectly formed, their heads are CPU (like Sheldon's), so you can see the CD-Rom and Floppy A drive. But they have a pair of expressive eyes—you can really tell their feelings.

Andrew Garfield as Sheldon

Andrew once again did a good job (in making me cry as well). He totally fits into the character of Sheldon. We can't see his face, but his voice is so vulnerable, and his gesture is so assuring that we can understand what kind of guy Sheldon is. Sienna is also able to portray a cheerful-but-miserable type of girl in the robotic form. This robot couple can complete each other; Francesca brings the fun to Sheldon, while Sheldon brings her the true meaning of loving, that he's willing to sacrifice everything to her. Another cute thing is, that this movie location is Los Angeles, but Andrew and Sienna speak in British accents, which is awesome!

And you may not question Spike Jonze's ability. His movies "Being John Malkovich", "Adaptation.", and "Where The Wild Things Are" are all critically acclaimed. I enjoyed all of them, because Spike seems to emphasize the actors' expressions & the leading characters instead of the screenplay. Hopefully he will make more movies like these!

You can watch "I'm Here" on its official website, or you can see it below.

I'm Here from nappyafro on Vimeo.

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First Official Photo of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man!

This is such an exciting news! The photo of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man finally unveiled! Check out the photo of him wearing the Spidey suit without the mask. Seems like he just had a huge fight, no? And he still brings his backpack, so cute. I think the costume is slightly darker than the previous movies, and Andrew himself has skinnier and more slender figure than Tobey Maguire. But I really love it.

According to articles I read, the "Spider-Man" reboot will be based on The Ultimate Spider-Man comics, with The Lizard (played by Rhys Ifans) as the enemy. Gwen Stacy (played by Emma Stone) will be featured as Peter's love interest, and there will be no Mary Jane Watson according to reports. It's pretty sad since I personally love Mary Jane more than Gwen, so hopefully in the first reboot they will kill Gwen and bring Mary Jane to the next installment.

Marc Webb was chosen to direct this movie, and to be released in July 3, 2012 also in 3D.

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First Look at Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander

Anyone of you is a fan of Stiegg Larsson's best selling novel "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"? Here's the first look of Rooney Mara who has been chosen to play Lisbeth Salander, the leading female character of the movie directed by David Fincher. The beautiful 25-years-old actress looks 'different' than usual, rocking the dark and super short haircut with piercings and tattoos.

W Magazine did an exclusive photoshoot and interview to Rooney and David, talking mostly about the whole casting process and in-depth talks about the movie. From the interview, David said that they had five or six girls audition with some familiar names such as Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, and the young rising stars Jennifer Lawrence and Emily Browning.

The role eventually went to Rooney, as David wanted Rooney from the beginning of the audition. They previously worked together in 2010's most-acclaimed hit "The Social Network", where Rooney played a minor-but-significant character, Erica Albright. David claimed Rooney as incredibly talented and wanted to work with her again in this franchise. For full article and interview, please click here.

"The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" will also star Daniel Craig, Robin Wright, Stellan Skarsgard, and Christopher Plummer, to be released in December 21, 2011.

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Welcome to Nita's Movie Diary Opening!

Hello guys, welcome to the soft opening of my movie blog, Nita's Movie Diary! My name is Nita, I'm 21 years old and I simply love movies! Here I'll be bringing you the latest tidbits of movie world, from casting rumors, news, movie trailers, movie clips, movie reviews, weekly actor profile, and many many more! I focus on the rising career of young actors, but of course you will find full coverage about the world's most wanted movies.

Thanks for visiting I hope you enjoy it!

xoxo
Nita

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Review: "The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader!

A few days ago I went to watch The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader (haha, yes, finally!). I didn't have any high expectation of this movie, but I was so sure that it will be entertaining. But I was wrong. THIS MOVIE WAS SUPER DUPER COMPELLING!

Peter and Susan Pevensie are now in United States, living with Mr and Mrs Pevensie. While Edmund and Lucy who are still underage-but-growing up, staying in their uncle's house along with their annoying cousin Eustace. Everyone wants to kill Eustace at the first time but his character slowly develops throughout the movie, along with the unexpected adventures he has. Eustace is actually a smart kid, but he loves to make troubles with Edmund, and he doesn't believe in fairy tale. One day, when he and Edmund are fighting, Lucy realizes that the painting hung in her room is moving, and suddenly water starts to come out from it.

All three of them are drowned inside the room but when they got on to the surface, they find themselves in the middle of the sea. A huge ship comes in front of them, but it turns out to be the Dawn Treader, King Caspian's expedition ship. Caspian and his crew save the three kids and bring them to the ship. Caspian tells Edmund that Narnia has been in peace for three years, but he is still curious about finding the 6 lost former Telmar kings. And this is where the journey begins.

As you can guess, the adventure is filled with magical creatures and wonderful visual effects. But then, the least thing you can ever expected, the dialogue in every scene reflects a meaningful moral message. This is the best part that you couldn't even find in the previous two movies (The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and Prince Caspian). Most teenagers almost lose their innocence, as they are affected by a desire to be a real man or simply be a beautiful woman (read: puberty). Edmund, who's been always 'number two' since the first and second movie, knowing that Peter is the highest king and oldest brother. And now, he becomes 'number two' again, because Caspian is the new king of Narnia and the captain of Dawn Treader. While the cute little Lucy, grows up into a nurturing and maternal teenager, but facing a new phase of 'attracting opposite sex'. She wants to be as beautiful as her sister Susan, and almost get herself in trouble when she finds a dangerous incantation.

Another best part is the character transform of Eustace, from the least heroic to the likely heroic. He is 'mentored' by Reepicheep, the mouse warrior, who teach him to fight with swords and give him wonderful life lessons (believe me, suddenly I'd love to have a cute mouse bestfriend like Reepicheep—recalling other characters who bestfriend with a wise mouse, in a book I just bought a couple of months ago, Clair de Lune, or even Cinderella! :D).

Overall I give this movie 3.5 stars out of 4. I'm sure the kids loved it! And yeah, I almost cried at the last part of the movie (as usual). And I had to hold my tears because I forgot to bring tissues (as usual). And I gotta say this movie is way better after 20th Century Fox snapped it from Disney—in direction and screenplay. For those who haven't seen it or who simply need an entertaining feature, go see this movie!

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Movie Review: "Let The Right One In"

"Would you let me in?"

What makes this movie creepy is actually not the murder nor blood, but the idea of the story itself. You know when you are attached to someone and that person will never let you go? I'm not talking about possessiveness, it's more like you are 'kept' by someone who has something wrong within her/him, and you know it and you still like that someone without knowing the future impacts because you are still a child. I don't know if you are so in love with that someone (read: love drunk) and you choose not to care about her/his 'frightening habits'. But throughout this movie, all I want to do is scream "Wake up! She's a monster! Run for your life!" at Oskar, the little guy who friends (or let's say, fall in love) with the vampire Eli. No matter how sweet, polite, nice, and protective Eli is to Oskar, no matter how good looking she is... That girl is no human. At all.

And that's what makes this movie damn good. Their friendship begins with their shared similarity: being a loner. Eli refuses to be friend with Oskar at first, knowing the risk of being around her, but then she starts to see Oskar in deeper sense. Oskar seems to be friendly and non-judgemental, but his main weakness is bullies. He is the main target of the bullies at his school, and is too afraid to fight back. Eli encourages Oskar to hit the bullies back, and Oskar tries to strengthen his mental and physical appearance by swimming and weight-lifting. Despite his weakness towards bullies, Oskar puts interest to criminal news and even forensics (I bet his favorite TV show is all kind of CSI!). He collects murder or any criminal articles from the local newspaper. And yeah, as you can guess, the criminal records grow since Eli moves next door to Oskar.

Eli lives with an old man whom people believe to be her 'father'. He is a real loner, when someone asks him to join his table with his friends at a restaurant, he refuses without saying 'Thank You'. I can tell that he's not Eli's real father, because Eli says she's been twelve for a "very long time", but he seems to really love Eli for he is willing to kill people, take their blood, and feed them to Eli (this is actually explained in the English version of the movie, Let Me In). Unfortunately he fails to bring Eli her 'dinner' twice, and at his second attempt he decides to pour his face with accumulator water so the police won't recognize his face. Eli visits him at the hospital, in a very hungry condition, and her 'father' finally gives himself up to her. She drinks his blood and he falls from the seventh floor. This is no love, this is freaky!

As Oskar gets closer to Eli, he knows what kind of 'person' she is. Yes, he finds out that she's a vampire, but instead of keeping him away from her or being afraid, he puts more interest on her. One night, Eli visits Oskar when his mother is away, and Oskar teases her without inviting her in. Eli steps into Oskar's apartment without invitation, and the blood starts to shed from all of her body. Oskar starts to panic and finally tell her the invitation (like I told you before, vampire is quite polite when it comes to entering someone's house—but apparently that Edward Cullen guy is not, since he loves to enter Bella's room by himself haha).

Things are getting worse when Eli kills a local citizen inside her apartment, and she decides to leave the town. Oskar is a bit 'devastated' (but not as annoying as Bella Swan in New Moon who looks like a stupid crazy girl for being left by her boyfriend forgetting the facts that she has many people who care for her—OK I need to stop comparing this cool movie to that sucky movie), but he realizes that he has to move on.

One day the bullies pull a prank for him by asking him to come to school for swimming practice, but it turns out to be a 'bully showdown' instead. The big bully challenges Oskar to stay under water for 3 minutes. If he succeed then the bully will only give him a small nick with his knife, but if he failed one of his eyes will be poked out (I think this kid watched too many Saw or Hostel movies). After the bully holds Oskar under water with his hand, a few minutes later, you will see this unbelievably creepy scene, although it isn't displayed.

OK, spoiler alert: suddenly there's a head falls into the water. And a pair of shaking legs like when someone is tortured. And then... The bully's hand that grips Oskar's hair is truncated and falls down. Another hand pulls Oskar up and saves him. Yes, vampire Eli is back. As the scene is 'zoomed out', you can see the bullies are all lied down without hands, legs, or head, and yeah, blood is everywhere.

You may guess the ending, Eli keeps Oskar to her forever. And ever. Without happily ever after, because in my logical sense, Eli will treat Oskar like the way she did to her 'father'. I bet Oskar will be the person who love her most but also her 'personal assistant' to kill people and help her feed. And this is the creepy idea I'm talking about earlier.

But the movie itself, I really enjoy it! Even though it's too silent because there's no scoring or music background, and the dialogue is just a few. But as a horror and vampire movie, it definitely nails the audience. Next thing I'm going to do is read the novel (yeah I already got it YAY!) and watch the English version.

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Movie Review: "Tron: Legacy"

A couple of weeks ago I made a pact with myself, to ‘control my desire to watch movies at the cinema’ whenever a new one comes out—at least until the end of this month. It isn’t like my usual activity, you know, I’ve been striving myself to watch the latest movie in the premiere date. I don’t know, I had this mindset that watching movie at the exact date of its premiere somehow more ‘prestigious’ and ‘cool’.

I kept the promise and voila, I could resist myself not to go to the cinema even though Rapunzel, Unstoppable, The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and Tron: Legacy were released. For me this is an accomplishment, because I must say I’m a movie mania. I can watch four to five different movies in a month, even watch two movies in a day. It’s probably the same as those fashionistas and shopaholic who can’t help just looking at the ‘new release’ mini dress or shoes. It was rather impulsive.

And eventually today, at 24 December—the Christmas Eve, I went to watch one of those movies. I chose Tron: Legacy, because last week I watched Disney Mara-TRON with Olivia Wilde and Garrett Hedlund on it (they’re super gorgeous!) and was simply curious about this movie. I haven’t watched the predecessor though, but I read Olivia’s tweet that we aren’t obliged to watch the first one to understand this sequel. OK, let’s go directly to my review!

Despite the rather predictable plot, Tron: Legacy is a great movie choice before the curtain of 2010 closed. The movie is just simply cool—I suggest you have to watch the 3D version because the special effect is AWE...wait for it...SOME (trying to pull out some Barney Stinson here, haha)! It’s really nice to see that the director might chose this simple plot because it’s under Walt Disney Pictures production, and Disney movies are mostly (and somehow must be made) suitable for kids (at least teenagers), so they had to create a good balance between the super advanced effects and understandable storyline.

Any of the Grid fights are absolutely my favourite. The motorcycle race is superb—I wonder if that kind of race track actually exist. And I love the design of the Tron world. Jeff Bridges successfully brings the ‘feel of the movie’, as a hopeless father/ inventor who’s ‘alienated’ by his own creations. I gotta say that Bridges is the star, and even though I love Hedlund and Wilde so much, they simply work as the ‘eye candies’.

Since I haven’t watched the first movie, I actually feel that I didn’t watch this movie as a whole. I mean, I still need to figure out some things: Flynn said he created Clu and Tron to help him build the real Tron world. But unfortunately I, as the viewer, don’t have much information about the Tron himself (even though at the end of the movie they reveal it). The ending is cheesy and unsatisfying, but I almost cried when Flynn let his son get away with Quorra and he sacrifices himself (I told you, Jeff Bridges is the man!). Not forget to mention that seeing the incredible effect is so worth it! Plus, Daft Punk did a really great job on scoring this movie. The epic-techno (OK to be honest I don't know the genre name) music suits the movie theme: sophisticated and futuristic.

So what are you waiting for? Go to your nearest theatre to experience the Tron world itself. Don’t forget to choose the 3D version if you have an extra cash. In case you want to go out and hang out with your family in this Christmas holiday, watching Tron: Legacy might be a great choice. Happy Holidays and have a great weekend, people!

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Movie Review: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I"

Last night I finally watched the most awaited, anticipated movie of the year, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1). The movie was inarguably great! Just like David Yates did at the two previous installments, Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince, he brought this deep and dark touch on the movies. Since the beginning of the movie, you’ll somehow feel the horrifying situation that befell to the characters—I was even nervous!

When Hermione ‘obliviate‘d her parents memories in order to protect them, when the Order members disguised themselves as Harry, when Xenophilius Lovegood was so desperate that Luna got kidnapped by the Death Eaters, how Ron felt so insecure joining Harry’s ‘clueless-Horcrux-finding’ adventure because he’s worried that his parents & siblings would be listed in ‘Missing Wizards’ list, and most of all, you could actually see deep deprivation within the actors facial expressions—which was amazing!

The ending was of course left us with a huge expectation, wishing the second part would come out the next day (which is impossible of course, because it’s set to release July next year :<) Don’t ask about the special effect, it was superb! There were shots—but not by guns, simply by the magic wands. Ron and Hermione were so adorable, I can’t wait to see them with children next year! Big four thumbs up for the movie!


I also called this a "Horror Potter", because it's truly horror! Go watch it by yourself if you don't believe me. ;)

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Movie Review: "The Social Network", "Step Up 3D", "Takers", and "Skyline"

I’m not talking about my dad’s favorite cowboy movie here, but I’m just going to do a quick review of movies that I’ve seen for this week. The condition might be unstable because the mount could erupt in any time, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t have spare time to do my favorite activity: watch movies! For the first two weeks of November, I’ve seen Takers, Step Up 3, The Social Network, and Skyline (I’m planning to watch Megamind tomorrow!). And here goes the review:

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