Cinta. The Movie.

Cinta would be the fourth (PGL, Sepet, Gubra. Ada Apa doesn't count, it's Indon.) local Malay movie I've ever seen. I've always shied away from watching local movies for the most obvious reason - they suck. Aw shut up, don't lie, you KNOW they do. Unless you've been stuck in a cave all your life with no television while living on insects and completely missing the evolution process bit....... Anyway. Let's get straight to the point.

Cinta was so much better than expected!!!

It did NOT suck.... But it wasn't perfect either.

What is Cinta about?
In less than 15 words, it's 5 love stories of 10 connected characters, basically a Malaysianised version of Love Actually. But if you're one of the 5 jokers on this planet who hasn't watched Love Actually, then well, I suppose, a warm greeting is in order.

Welcome back to earth! Was it dark and cold up in Uranus?

Why it did not not suck.
The stories were set in the local scene, played by local people, tackling local issues and dilemmas. It was real. It was human. You and I could relate to it. Aren't we all suckers for on-screen realism in fairytales? Rich handsome men who will love you forever through anything and everything? LIES motherfuckers. Feed us with LIES. We thrive on it like fungus on pond scum.

I like the originality in a couple of the stories. I won't bother going into detail which stories they are because I already know which one I like and why. Hehe!

How did the cast do? Sharifah Amani so cute can put in my pocket, though it feels like she may be a tad bit overacting sometimes. Dato' Rahim Razali kicked some ass with Fatima Abu Bakar. And the rest of the cast looked like they just stepped off the fashion runway - freaking hot.

There were 2 side characters in the movie who I think deserves mention. The Central Market Troubadour who was SO real it was fucking hilarious, and the 10 (11?12?) year old Daughter Of Architect who almost made my cold black heart cried WITH her. Give her an award already!

Zainal Abidin's music in the background makes me SO HAPPY!

Not Perfect.
Some shots looked a lot like advertisements you've seen before. In fact some of the ACTORS, I'm pretty sure, were IN those advertisements before. It has to be a bad thing when a movie reminds you of an advertisement, right?

It's a love story lah. What have we NOT seen? It's like the producers got together and binged on Bridget Jones, Notting Hill, Love Actually, and all the other modern English love stories during their brainstorming session, dissected them up, and made an all new Frankenstein of love stories. And like a typical love story, it can also get overly cheesy, so if you're allergic to that kinda bullshit, bring a barfbag. Or get wasted first.

The pacing of the movie can get a little draggy sometimes. Get by it quickly by pissing off your neighbour with your in depth knowledge of Malay songs.*

Some of the acting was so stiff it killed the flow of the story and the whole emotion of the moment. They are hot no doubt, but they looked so similar as if they were mass produced from a factory in China one can easily mistake a character for another, like what happened to Suanie - who got confused with one girl for another.

Seriously though, enough of the the damn twin towers already. Nothing else to see in KL is it? I'm bloody sick of seeing those 2 ugly pieces of metal jagung after every 10 fucking minutes (exaggerated). Isn't it enough we see it like fucking EVERYWHERE all the FUCKING TIME? Billboards. Magazines. TV. Movie Screens. Newspapers. Which freaking media channel hasn't raped and overexposed the twin tower like it's Amber Chia (not exaggerated)? Cliche giler babi.

I absolutely REFUSE to accept that I still have gripes about the quality of production. I'm not sure if it was the cinema's fault, but seriously the imperfections of the audio can get very annoying. Bits of conversations get chopped off, sometimes completely disappears - you see the actor's mouth moving - but it's silent and then you're like WHAH? What did the fucker say? Sure it's probably nothing significant but still! Is it too much to ask for good audio? Sometimes conversations are clearly DUBBED - Annoying! Why can't they record the sound DURING the take? A lot of effort has been put into the quality of production - but it is still NOT ON PAR with international standards. Why should we still be complaining about the quality of AV, TODAY? WHY?

{begin rant}
You know what what else? I'm damn fed up with out country losing out to freaking Thailand and Indonesia in the movie industry in terms of quality of production. WE are the ones with the fucking Twin Towers for fuck sakes. With the KL Tower. With the longest suspension bridge. With the most idiotic records ever created in the history of mankind. So don't fucking tell me we don't fucking have the technology or the people with the necessary know-how to create a decent watchable movie with a decent level of acceptable audiovisual quality GODDAMNIT!
{end rant}

Not saying it was horrible in Cinta or anything. But it could be better lah, ya know.

Kesimpulannya.
All in all, I'll still say it's a good watch. Definitely one of the better movies out this year. It's ridiculous how much shit they pass out for movies this year, both internationally and locally.

Watch it when it's out on 30 November! Cinta IS worth your 10 bucks!

Other inanities.
-It freaking awesome when the producers (Hello Tengku!) actually recognised who you are and gives you a shout out just before the preview in front of the entire cinema-watching crowd. It's like having an incredible orgasm after an awesome wank. In public. Except without the mess and the jail part.

-Ally Iskandar is the hottest local emcee I've ever set my eyes on. With the sexiest voice evAr. I really wanted to camwhore with him so badly... but shy lah. And too sober. Sigh. Bad camwhore. :( I think I'm in love. Please, your number. I want. We MaKe FrIeNd OkAY~~??//?

-It's interesting to note that out of the 200 odd seats available, only about 10 were occupied by yellow coloured arses.

*For some odd reason, Suanie, KY and myself thought it was most appropriate to start showing casing our in depth knowledge of Malay songs just before the movie. KRU, Jamal Abdillah, Search, Sudirman - semua masuk. Man, you can NEVER take us anywhere without muffs. And a tranquilizer gun.

Thanks for the invite, sultan. More please! I absolutely LIVE for free shit.

More:
Cinta. The website.
The Suan was there!
KY was there too!
Budiey writes a less ganas review.
Mimpi Pari loved it.
Lyanna cried a lot.