Sex And The City

Synopsis (with info from Sex And The City Movie).
Based on the popular 6 episodes TV series of the same name, this movie stars fashion icon Sarah Jessica Parker as the successful author, Carrie Bradshaw. She's living in New York City with 2 of her girl friends - the happily married Charlotte (Kristin Davis) & workaholic lawyer Miranda (Cynthia Nixon). Her other friend, Samantha (Kim Cattrall) lives in LA with her actor boyfriend, Jason Lewis (Smith Jerrod) where she is his manager.

The movie is narrated by Carrie herself and is about her & her friends love stories (the getting in love - getting out of love). The highlight is the marriage-to-be of Carrie with Mr Big (Chris Noth) which just got 'big to bigger'.

There is lots of twists & turns in this love drama, showing how the lives of 4 friends of 40 year olds (& decently rich) living in New York city (Samantha flys to see them often).

Academy Award winner, Jeniffer Hudson plays Louise, the personal assistant of Carrie.

Why You Should Watch This Movie
If you are in love with the series, this is like a TV drama on big screen. Or if you would like to see a glimpse of a New Yorker (not sure if it's real enough) or you are a fan of New York itself. Of course, you'll need to like love drama movies.

Why Not
It's just too mushy and draggy. It feels like paying to watch the TV series on silver screen. And the storyline is just a showcase of their lifestyle - you are like sitting aside and seeing them in their everyday lives. There's not much build up apart from the wedding-to-be, which was okay. But after that, the film just continues to drag and though it does serve a purpose to show of a get-back of love, but for movie-wise, it becomes boring.

Conclusion & Movie Rating
2.5 stars for such a highly anticipated movie. If this movie is without the series backing, it most probably will flop in theaters along with other love movies.

Ayat Ayat Cinta - Verses of Love

Synopsis (with info from Ayat Ayat Cinta site).
Ayat Ayat Cinta is an Indonesian mellodrama movie but with a lil twists where Islamic virtues are protrayed in this love story. This movie revolves areound the virtuous Muslim protagonist who overcomes all obstacles of life maintaining pure ideals.

Fahri bin Abdillah (Fedi Nurli) is a poor, intelligent student who wins a scholarship to complete his graduate degree at Egypt's esteemed Al Azhar University. Very disciplined and dedicated by nature, Fahri embraces his life in Cairo, completing his studies and translation of religious books with full enthusiasm, exactly according to pre-determined targets.

He has another target too - that is to get married. But this becomes slightly difficult as he mentions that his religion doesn't allow dating. And even more so when there are so many girls who are sworn over by him.

The most distinctive - Maria Girgis (Carissa Putri), an open-minded Christian neighbour who is attracted to the teachings of the Holy Al Quran.

Then there is Nurul and Noura, but he eventually married the rich daughter - German Turkish, Aisha (Rianti Cartwright).

Things begin to get complicated when he marries Aisha with cases like he going to jail, court proceedings and more.

Why You Should Watch This Movie
If you would like to see and learn the positive side of Islam through a movie. This movie imparts knowledge on reasons for Islamic values (eg on polygamy, handling situations in times of uncertainty, and many more) - giving a better idea and maybe even clearing the mind on the often misunderstood religion.

Also, this movie is uniquely set in Cairo with quite breathtaking views.

Why Not
The never ending twist & turns in the movie - a lil too many towards the end. The movie could have ended at certain points, but to allow more drama, the ending became prolonged.

Conclusion & Movie Rating
This movie is worth the money for those interested in Asian cinema and Indonesian films, despite its poor ending.

3 stars.



Apparently, this movie is based by best-selling novel with the same title by Habiburrahman El. Shirazy.