Jakarta. “Borderlands”, the upcoming movie adaptation of the first-person shooter game of the same name, comes with a star-studded cast, but the final outcome is just alright. 

Directed by Eli Roth, “Borderlands” has a quite sluggish, boring start — as seen in a recent press screening. 

The story kicks off with outlaw Lilith (Cate Blanchett) embarking on a mission to find the missing daughter of the business titan (and the eventual big bad) Atlas (Edgar Ramirez). The girl supposedly holds the power to open a cave-like vault that holds lost treasure. 

The fun only starts when the six-person alliance takes shape, which includes ex-elite mercenary Roland (Kevin Hart), clumsy robot Claptrap (voiced by Jack Black), demolitionist, and the missing daughter Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt) as well as her musclebound Krieg (Florian Munteanu). Scientist Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis) also joins these unlikely heroes later in the movie as they fight evil bandits and alien monsters to protect the girl. 

“Borderlands” does not get too technical with the terms, meaning that those who have not played the game can still follow the storyline. Although the movie has great visual effects, the action sequences are just okay, but not enough to get your adrenaline pumped. And if you are an avid gamer, some scenes might feel familiar regardless of the titles you play. There will be times when you might think “if this were an actual game, this would definitely be the first boss fight. Or that part would be a cutscene.” 

“Borderlands” mainly relies on Claptrap for the humor department. The robot’s antics, coupled with Jack Black’s impressive voice acting, make Claptrap a good comic relief character. Blanchett suits the confident bounty hunter Lilith. Greenblatt does not get overshadowed despite acting with the veterans. Lilith and Tiny Tina’s mother-and-daughter-like chemistry is top-notch and surprisingly heartwarming — something that the audience might not expect out of such a movie.

But something feels like it is missing in “Borderlands”. The acting by the big names — and some heartwarming scenes — are not enough to make “Borderlands” memorable. The one-hour-and-a-half-long movie turns out to be your average sci-fi action comedy. And does “Borderlands” pique my curiosity into wanting to try out the game? Not really. 

“Borderlands” is scheduled for Indonesian release this Friday.

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Japanese director Nobuhiro Yamashita (“Linda Linda Linda”) was represented by no less than three features at Montreal’s Fantasia Fest this year, including anime “Ghost Cat Anzu” and high school seriocomedy “Swimming in a Sand Pool.” The shortest, most outwardly simple yet also possibly best of the lot might well be “Confession,” a manga adaptation in which two mountaineering refugees from a blizzard spend a long, discomfiting night in a cabin. The fact that one of them has just admitted to murder means that that particular type of crime could well recur before dawn arrives. 

More or less a single-setting two-hander, this thriller proves a small master class in eking maximum value from a premise one might assume too limited to sustain more than a short’s length. It’s a sharply honed, pleasurably nasty cat-and-mouse thriller that could attract remake interest overseas. 

A brief prologue informs us that Sayuri (Nao Honda, seen in flashbacks) disappeared on a college hiking-club trek, her body apparently never found. She’d formed an inseparable trio with now ex-boyfriend Asai (Toma Ikuta) and Korean exchange student Jiyong (Yang Ik-june); since then, the two men have annually climbed the same mountain in her memory. 

Sixteen years later, that tribute has taken a dire turn — Jiyong is injured in an apparent fall amidst freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall. Having no idea how far they remain from reaching shelter, he decides he’d rather give up, saying “I deserve to die.” He admits to his old friend that he himself had strangled Jiyong to death, out of frustrated desire and jealousy, leaving her body in the wilderness.

Moments later it turns out that the desired mountaineers’ cabin is, in fact, just out of sight, around the corner. Asai manages to successfully wrangle his wounded friend inside, then light a fire. Once they’ve realized no one is going to expire in the cold, however, the awkwardness of that prior confession begins to sink in. Soon Jiyong begins to regret his candor, and Asai to fear his friend can’t let him live with the incriminating knowledge they now share. First expressed as mutual mistrust, then escalating violence, their death struggle is further complicated by an occasional hallucinatory quality. Despite his bum leg, Jiyong keeps disappearing and re-appearing with such jump-scare suddenness, we begin to wonder if what we (and Asai) are seeing is real, supernatural, or a paranoid delusion. 

While one might question why a lodge at this frigid elevation would be so spacious, and thus hard to heat, that interior is complicated and expansive enough to give Yamashita with plenty of opportunity for spooky atmospherics. Likewise, it provides characters space for unpleasant hide-and-seek games that turn into frantic attempts at inflicting or or evading grievous bodily harm. 

The two actors ably sustain separate journeys into hysteria, ones stylized enough that we aren’t much bothered by niceties of credible psychology or action. “Confession” retains a knowing self-consciousness about itself as a pulp contrivance, even as it succeeds in milking the situation for plentiful tension, jolts and black humor. There could have been a bit more shock value eked from the fadeout revelation, but until then you can’t fault the director for missing any opportunity in his taut progress. 

Making first-rate contributions to elevate this grisly little tale are D.P. Shinya Kimura’s elegantly moody widescreen compositions, and an unexpectedly big symphonic score by Masa Takumi that surges between long stretches of queasy quiet. 

TRAP is the latest thriller from suspense master M. Night Shyamalan. Josh Hartnett stars as Cooper, a seemingly nice father. Cooper takes his tween daughter to see her favorite pop singer. Cooper discovers the arena’s swarming with police and FBI agents. They’ve locked the concert down as an elaborate trap to catch a brutal serial killer called “The Butcher.” In fifteen minutes, the movie reveals that Cooper is the serial killer. An intense, often scary, roller coaster ride ensues. Cooper engages in an incredible battle of wits with a swarm of police.

By revealing the killer’s identity early, TRAP turns upside down Shyamalan’s usual formula of waiting until the end to deliver a big twist. This change enables the knife-sharp script to dish out a treasure trove of surprises the rest of the way, especially in the third act. Josh Hartnett delivers a knockout performance in the lead role. TRAP has only a few strong obscenities and profanities. Also, much of the violence is implied and offscreen. However, the scary ending alternates between some nice moral resolutions and a surprisingly dark, disappointing final twist.

(PaPa, BB, C, Ab, LL, VV, N, AA, MM):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Mixed pagan, moral worldview as police and others heroically try to stop a serial killer and there is a beautifully done moment of redemption for a side character, but the movie also has a surprisingly dark twist that shows bad forces winning at another moment;

Foul Language:

Five obscenities (including one “f” word), one GD profanity, 18 light profanities (mostly OMGs);

Violence:

A man trips a drunk woman so that she falls hard down some concrete steps, a man is seen in scary peril several times, and a man is tasered in a long and intense scene, but most of the other violence is just discussed or unseen.

Sex:

No sex;

Nudity:

A man is shirtless in one scene in a non-sexual context;

Alcohol Use:

Woman is briefly shown stumbling drunkenly;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

A man uses deception and threats throughout the movie and has been living a double life as a serial killer while lying to his wife and children for many years.

TRAP is the latest thriller with a twist from writer-director M. Night Shyamalan (THE SIXTH SENSE, SIGNS). It centers on a seemingly nice and perfect suburban dad named Cooper (Josh Hartnett), who takes his tween daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to see her favorite pop singer, Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan) in concert. Cooper discovers the arena is swarming with police and FBI agents who have locked the concert down as a trap to catch a brutal serial killer called “The Butcher.”

The movie breaks the usual Shyamalan formula by not just having a huge twist near the end, but actually giving away a big surprise just 15 minutes into the movie. That’s when Cooper goes into a bathroom stall and looks intensely at a livestreamed video of a young man named Spencer, who’s chained up in a basement and screaming for help.

Cooper doesn’t offer help, because the movie reveals he’s actually the Butcher. So now viewers are taken along for a nail-biting ride, as Cooper tries to figure out how to outwit the cops and federal agents in numerous clever ways to try to make it out of the concert without being caught.

You may think that that’s the entire point of the rest of the movie, but it’s just the starting point for an incredible amount of twists that take the movie in new directions seemingly every few minutes, leaving viewers rattled as their expectations are upended over and over. Rather than having just one big twist, TRAP has at least a dozen of them. Some of these twists might seem far-fetched as they happen to some viewers. However, some stunning revelations and twists in the third act make everything come together.

Josh Hartnett had a few shots at stardom in the early 2000s that never quite took off at that time. He’s largely been off the radar for well over a decade. Here, however, he makes a tremendous comeback with what might be the best role of his career, as he perfectly crosses the lines between sweet family man and psychopath with ease. His too-large grin and gee-whiz attitude in his moments of trying to appear like an innocent, average dad bring some clever dark humor to the story.

Saleka Shyamalan is the filmmaker’s daughter and portrays the pop singer, Lady Raven. This might seem like an obvious nepotistic showcase, but she delivers a surprisingly strong acting turn. As her character’s drawn into the action in the third act, the young actress gives a smart and compassionate performance that helps keep the movie running strong.

Also, the movie’s pop songs fit the musical genre well. They sound like they could actually play on the radio alongside Taylor Swift. This helps give the movie some extra plausibility that was sorely lacking in the laughably bad songs in Harry Connick, Jr’s current movie FIND ME FALLING on Netflix. That said, the movie’s weak spots lie in two slow segments that drag out concert scenes unnecessarily for five minutes apiece. Despite these annoying scenes, the intensity of the main story overcomes this problem.

TRAP should be commended for having a minimal amount of obscenities. However, it does have one “f” word, a strong profanity and a bunch of light profanities. The movie is incredibly intense the further it delves into the serial killer’s battle against the police. However, much of the violence is implied and unseen. This is a truly impressive feat for a movie that’s sometimes full-on frightening.

TRAP has no sexual content or explicit nudity. However, it has a mixed worldview. Without giving anything away, the movie alternates between some nice moral resolutions and a surprisingly dark final twist. The mixed ending in TRAP makes the movie slightly excessive.