Margin Call is In Time for Fright Night

movie time with syigim again! mr. khairul got me a whole lotta movie this week, and i watched a tenseful drama that takes place 24 hours before the global economic crisis of 2008 called ‘margin call’, a sci-fi action movie ‘in time’ starring the artist who ‘brought sexy back’ – justin timberlake, and another one a horror movie about vampires that does NOT involve vampires having twinkling skin under sunlight. heh.

 

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i never thought i’d ever enjoy watching a movie about numbers, economic and finance. ‘margin call’ is a movie about all that, and there was never a dull moment in that movie. was it the incredible assemble of actors? was it the 24-hour clock of the movie that makes it so intense? was it the controversial issue presented in the movie?

was it the incredible assemble of actors? YES. imagine a movie starring kevin spacey, stanley tucci, demi moore, paul bethanny, that dude who played the villain skylar in ‘heroes’, the cute guy in ‘gossip girl’ – each of them played their role wonderfully eventhough it was just saying out endless lines about numbers.

was it the 24-hour clock of the movie that makes it so intense? YES. the whole movie takes place 24 hours before the crash of the world economy in 2008. so the speed of the movie was what captured me, as the characters dealt with the problem hour by hour – from the moment they found out about the ‘glitch’ in the system, to the moment when they finally made the life-changing decision that will alter the face of the world economy as we know it now. all this while keeping the suspense on high.

was it the controversial issue presented in the movie? YES. i don’t know much about economy or finance or what REALLY cause the economic downturn, but how they simplify the issue makes me more interested to find out what really happen. it was a shocking revelation on how the top management handled the problem, but that’s what makes the movie more exciting.

a highly recommended drama for movie fans, and a must-watch-or-die for all you numbers-geek out there. hihi.

 

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justin timberlake is one hot stuff. he was in a smashing teeny-bopper boy band when we first know him, then he shot to superstardom with his awesome music as a single artist, and now he’s in a new movie in his first starring role in ‘in time’.

‘in time’ is a sci-fi movie about how literal is the saying ‘TIME is money’ because in this movie, time IS money – they somehow have ‘time’ embedded in their wrist, and when they want to ride the bus, or buy food, or give their son some pocket money, they pay using TIME. a scanner will scan their wrist, and deduct the time they have. if you’re exchanging money = time, two people simply shake hands and the ‘time’ will transfer between the two.

the problem with this is – the ‘time’ in your wrist also acts like a ticking clock. when it goes 0:00:00 – you’re dead. so in this world, the rich can live forever, and the poor die young. and speaking of young, everyone in this sci-fi world STOPS AGING at age 25. a bit ridiculous, but it gives the movie-makers an excuse to put ONLY young, beautiful people in this movie.

ok, back to the being dead part – imagine if you only got like 5 mins on your ‘wrist-clock’ and you know it needs 15 mins for you to get back home and get some money from your mom. what happens if you don’t get back IN TIME? you’re dead, man. so this movie also instils the RESPECT FOR TIME.

at the end, i get the ‘robin hood’ vibe from this movie – the hero steals from the rich and gives to the poor, and the phrase ‘don’t WASTE my time’ certainly has more meaning here in ‘in time’.

 

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familiar film title, unoriginal plot, cheesy-looking movie poster and b-grade tagline. so why did i watch this movie?

‘fright night’ was all hot in the top 10 box-office countdown, so we’re kinda curious. my take – if you’ve seen ‘disturbia’ starring shea labeouf, i’ll tell you that it’s like that, but instead of a psychotic killer, they’ve got vampire living next door. at least ‘disturbia’ is so much better in so many levels – shea labeouf is a better actor than that lembik nerdy guys starring in ‘fright night’.

it’s not really an original plot – no need spoiler alert lah. it’s actually a remake of a 1985 movie with the same title.hello – if you wanna do a remake, make yours better or otherwise what’s the point!

well, in this movie, the vampire will be all mysterious and suspicious – surprise-surprise, it’s the neighbour, no one will believe him at first, we can guess who will kena first, and the vampire will try to get freaky with his girl. what’s new?

don’t bother with this if you have other options…

 

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so what’s on the next-change board?