Agak Laen

I think Indonesian comedy movies are saturated with stand-up talents with one-liner jokes that spread throughout a simple, nice backdrop for the main story. This caused a string of box office hits but no substance that could differentiate one movie from the others. Agak Laen proved that the formula could be fresh if brought by a really amazing story backdrop and sense of realism.

The movie has a perfect sitcom setup. A haunted house attraction becomes viral after a real person died there. It's full of great scenes with cool comedic timings, they know how to turn between drama and funny scenes well. I feel like the four characters are too many since their traits seem to be similar, hence it's blurry to remember who's who. The plot tries to give nuance with more chemistry and personal issues, and it works!

The climax is one of the best I've ever seen. It goes realistic and does not ignore basic logic even though it's comedy. I am still hugely disappointed by how they keep making blunt advertisements throughout the movie, which I think could be better. Still, watching Agak Laen gives me hope that Indonesia comedy movies do have great future.

Muhadkly Acho's most impressive work to date is undoubtedly "Agak Laen." This film stands out as an unexpectedly powerful piece that adeptly blends multiple genres while maintaining a well-balanced mix of humor and heartfelt moments. It represents a rare breed of comedy that consistently delivers laughs throughout its runtime, thanks in large part to the remarkable chemistry among its four lead actors. Acho brings boundless energy to the project, crafting a comedy that resonates with genuine humor and enthusiasm. Although the film does include some noticeable product placements that might be off-putting to some, this minor flaw does not detract from its overall success. "Agak Laen" is a film that is both smart and silly, courageous and conceptual, satirical and irreverent, yet deeply rooted in its character development. It's another standout entry from Imajinari that truly deserves a greater level of attention and appreciation.

'Agak Laen' may be a bit all over the place in terms of tone, but it is quite a fun flick all in all. It's well made too, it oddly gave me vibes of 2018's 'The Festival', particularly lighting-wise, for some reason - I didn't think I'd be making a connection between those two!

Oki Rengga, Boris Bokir, Indra Jegel and Bene Dion make for good casting, they fit as a four and do come across as a friends group. Rengga and Bokir are the standouts, for me. Arie Kriting is the one I'd rank highest of the other cast members; all of whom are absolutely fine, at worst.

The plot is a strange choice, I gotta say, for a comedy, I'm not convinced by how they blend it together but it works; even if the more sincere moments didn't quite hit as intended, at least to me. Oki's part at the conclusion is the closest a non-comedy bit came to hitting.

Also, the product placement is kinda mad, proper egregious stuff. This is my first taste of Indonesian cinema, I assume this is the norm? I only guess that because I do know that their football broadcasts are/were ad-heavy; that's how I know what Torabika is, lol.

When I was walking in to watch this movie, I didn't have any big expectation. I thought , "ah maybe this is just like most of the comedy movie where joke is in 1-3 scenes." But I was wrong, all of these comedy movies that I have watched, I've never been laughing this hard all time. Every scenes are delivered with really good punch joke where whole cinema laughing constantly. They are milking bataknese stereotype joke with bataknese accent so hard hahaha. This movie is definitely rewatchable. Although this film might be hard for you who watch dub or sub since most of the jokes are delivered in Indonesian but it's okay, just bring your Indonesian friend to watch together haha.

The story of this comedy film was done very well and succeeded in combining comedy, horror, sadness, love, conflict and satire. The transitions between story segments flow very neatly, for me the concept and story style of this film is reminiscent of the style of Coen Brothers films.

In several scenes, the audience can be sad and smile and even laugh at the same time. The director and writer, Mukladi Acho, was very successful in packaging and mixing all the scene transitions very well.

Another thing that I think is extraordinary is the cast, almost all of whom have stand-up comedian backgrounds. Their roles and acting are so good and very natural.

This film has succeeded in making a new breakthrough in the style of comedy films in Indonesia, the challenge now is to maintain the continuity of the subsequent films.