Kejar Amerika

As a student at University of Indonesia and a member of movie club in my campus, we often get involved with discussion about movies especially Indonesian movies and this is an interesting piece of work since this one is a collaboration of Indonesia and foreign movie maker.

I watched the Video CD version since the movie itself has never been released yet in Indonesia. The story is simple,it's just a blend of American low class action movies and Indonesian irrational and illogical packaging - a perfect marriage of stupidity. The story itself looks fine for entertainment business but the special effect on bomb is awful and makes the movie looks terrible. It looked like the director wants to explode a bag of Chinese fire crackers and fire fountains. The maker should have paid extra attention on dialog and language. In modern Indonesian movies nowadays, most Indonesian movie maker prefer to use informal Indonesian language (the bahasa gaul or slank, the betawi dialect). The artist like Richard Chang should have also exposed himself to informal bahasa Indonesia language since he came from Malaysia and he had so many Indonesian line. His accent looks silly. Kesso as "Bayu" needed a proper direction to maximize his acting. Kesso is not bad for a fresh newcomer His fresh,handsome, plain and honest-but- a-bit-silly character as Bayu should get 2 thumbs up! too bad the director didn't know how to explore and maximize Kesso's talent.

Except for the language, direction and story. The movie is interesting and it gives different color and new breath to Indonesian movie industry. The Indonesian language made the movie looks so stiff like "rock of ages". Yet, the fresh new talents melted down the rigid.

Well photographed story of innocent young Indonesian tourists who find the mean streets of America instead of the famous tourist spots they expected. No gratuitous violence, but there are gangsters, drug dealers, and others who insure that not everyone survives to the last reel. Starring San Francisco and the Bay Area. The original version is in Indonesian only, but an English sub- titled version is in the works. Even without the sub-titles, however, most of the action is understandable. Not surprisingly, there is a love story interspersed within the chase and escape scenes. See if you can recognize the famous bar on the Russian River used for one of the scenes. The young man and woman playing the leads are earnest and appealing, with just the right note of naivete that becomes colored with astonishment at what "Amerika" is really like.

The story of this movie is hard to understand, too many conflict. Is not very clear what's wrong with that. The picture is OK, but not very good. Some of the lighting are bad. The actors is cool. The director should pay more attention about to make a

simple line story compare trying to showing off the green screen effect cause makes this movie looks like a very cheap class C movie (Not even B).

There's a lot of things to do to avoid high budget effect, the producer has to learn more and see lot's of movies before he will make another one. I put 10 because the actor, I really love them. Hire a better cinematographer & director.

James Jarred L A Film School

Hello all--for what it's worth, I'm in a doctoral program on Indonesian politics and returned this semester after about a year's fieldwork, most of it in Jakarta.

I'm a big movie fan generally, so I went out as often as I could, and bought tons of local VCDs while I was there. Ironically, it wasn't until yesterday that I saw THIS one. Although I had bought the VCD in Jakarta, I never had time to watch it. Well, it turns out that one of the characters is played by a professor where I'm in school, who speaks Indonesian and who taught the director (a Canadian, I think), to speak Indonesian several years ago.

Anyway, a group of us whose fields relate to Indonesia in one way or another borrowed the DVD from him to watch it, and it was such a good experience that I decided to see what I could find on the web to tell me more about it. One link led to another and I found IMDb, so I figured I may as well comment on all of the Indonesian films I've seen over the last year.

Back to this one--it's not the best (see "Ada Apa Dengan Cinta" for the best)--but overall it's a unique blend of humor and drama and comedy (definitely watch until the very, very end).

I've read the other comments here and it seems that you either love or hate this one. I don't understand that. It doesn't seem to me that the film is pretending to be anything other than what it is--a low budget, mass market flick. Even so, there are some great touches of humor that probably only an American would understand, which may explain the somewhat confused comment by the Indonesian student that appears here.

It also looks like there's a debate about the actor who plays "Bayu," one of the main characters. Unfortunately, I have to agree with the plain fact that the guy can't act his way out of a "tas kertas" (paper bag). That's why I rated this a 9 rather than a 10. With all the other acting so good--especially Richard Chang, as others have pointed out--you have to wonder how the Bayu actor got cast. Luckily, although he's a main character, there are many sequences where his role is minimized, and the plot is so wacky that you don't have to dwell on him to enjoy the rest of the film.

The music track is also pretty good, especially for such a low-budget flick.

There's a sequence in the desert that has an haunting vocal accompaniment that's fantastic.

Hi there.

I am Hubert, NYU Tisch Graduates on Broadway under Cinema Studies and still taking Actors Studio Drama with Acting Major at The Actors Studio Drama School. Susan Aston is one of my senior lecturer. What a nice revelation to notice there is some of the NYU apprentice here.

I have a big interest of international film. Talking about foreign movie, I bought this Film from Amazon and got the info from IMDb. Writing film reviews can be rewarding and enjoyable. Depending on the audience and the market it is written for.

I examined this feature closely and from time to time I think in actuality I have to see more than once to understand the narrative. This movie, it is not conventional but not a 'Newbie Style' either. Thriller that suggests even you don't know what they're getting into when they mess with and also mix with comedy? I am not familiar with this kind terms of story script or they just simply don't know how to explore visualization probability?

There are a lot of factor to make a good movie. The actor, director, producer, cinematographer etc are separate substances to deal but also something else.

Picture. I do not mind being weird, colorful and metaphor. But the picture did not speak for the whole chronicle. Why films need pictures? Because they want to throw the message!! If they can't do it, that's why we use audio to enhance it. If both audio & visual failed to send these progresses, they are most likely a not so good picture. And I haven't even talked about aesthetics part yet.

Acting. I have big applause to the actors. I can't say is it bad in detail or not since I don't really understand the culture behind those Asians. About Bayu, I don't think his stutter is involuntary unless you know him in person. They won't put those scenes if it's not supposed to be there. Even if he is, that psychological effect will bring the story even more interesting if the producer comprehend enough to bring into play. Cause sometimes flatness is the hardest part of the acting. I do have to say I have to give a credit for him. The only my main concern of them is I do not see any strong enough even one personality to be the main character (I am not talking about the acting but the character in the story).

The Director was right about film school. Everybody including me who's graduate from film school are stupid. Wonder, what else his movie.

Basically is not a bad movie for entertaining but don't hope too much. Just relax, get a pop corn + coke and have a sit.