Kejar Amerika

My girlfriend is Indonesian and she brought the VCD back with her from Indonesia this summer. But she heard that the DVD version was better (true) so we got it from Amazon. (The VCD also doesn't have English subtitles.)

First, this is definitely not a conventional film, sort of like "Run Lola Run." But in the end, it all hangs together. It's even hard to describe the story without giving anything away, so I'll just say it starts when two Indonesian guys win a contest and arrive in San Francisco. From there, the weirdness starts.

The photography is a mix of DV and 35mm, and it's almost the best DV I've seen. Excellent color and virtually no artifacts. The 35mm shots look great, of course. There's some great split-screen work, and some ironic visual gags at the end, like a Homeland Security alert color of "Burnt Umber."

On the downside, the acting is uneven. By far the best is Richard Chang, who also appeared in the indie "Windhorse." The worst is the guy who plays "Bayu," one of the characters from Indonesia. His performance is wooden and flat and it seems like he stutters half his lines.

But luckily there are many other characters who carry the story along. It's also pretty funny to listen to the director's commentary track. He says if you want to learn how to make films, make a film using the money you would have spent on film school. (I'm in my second semester at NYU and I'm starting to understand what he means.)

Anyway, that's my opinion. Peace.

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.

'Kejar Amerika' interestingly got a share of good comments from IMDb users. Funny because for a movie that didn't get a theatrical release in Indonesia (that's saying something because they put anything on theaters here as long as it has picture and sound), some people who admitted to be scholars even had time to write long comments on it.

I saw this at its first screening (with many walks-out). The movie was jaw-droppingly bad. Technically-inept with a direction that could have come from a 13 year-old. The acting is embarrassingly awful with a convoluted, super-dumb plot that only managed to create some unintentional giggles for the first five minutes, until it becomes a total boredom. Clearly written by someone who doesn't speak Indonesian because the dialogues do not make much sense.

How's this for a story: an Indonesian boy whose biggest dream is going to the U.S. won a lucky draw from a soft drink company to go to California. Well, actually the bad guy arranged his winning, so they can smuggle a paper containing a formula for a powerful drug in his back pack. Why don't they just e-mail the goddamn formula?

The rest of the story is just an excuse for over-acting and director Sungkar's ambition to make a movie. Sungkar is Canadian and he probably thought Indonesian audience are very stupid to swallow his movie. Well, guess the audience are smarter than he thought.

Avoid at any cost. This is no excuse for low budget film-making. This is simply unwatchable crap.

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.

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.