Friday, September 9, i planned to watch a new released movie titled ‘Warkop DKI Reborn : Jangkrik Boss Part 1’, but the cinema was so freaking full with audiences who also wanted to watch the same movie as me. When i finally got a chance to buy a ticket, the teller said that all of the tickets were sold-out.
So i pushed my plan forward to watch this movie until Tuesday, 13 September. Why did i pushed my plan for around 4 days? Because i know a lot about the kind of movies which are made by Anggy Umbara (the so called Indonesian Michael Bay) turn to be. The movies which are not worthy enough to spend your money on with the weekend-price ticket.
And then i finally watched the movie.
Warkop DKI Reborn : Jangkrik Boss Part 1 fails to impress. It is totally a joyless and boring movie that full of shallow jokes. For the entire movie i only laughed 3 times, when the biker gets ticketed by Indro (Tora Sudiro), cheesy pickup lines inside the taxi in Malaysia, and the bloopers which are way funnier than the movie itself.
The original Warkop DKI movies use low comedy as their humor basic. Usually contain slapstick and making fun of other’s visual appearance or stupidities. So does this Warkop DKI Reborn.
Basically, the jokes are not bad. Some of them have potential to be funny scenes. But with that abysmall storyline, plot, and content, the jokes become shallow and joyless.
The movie is too full with punchline jokes, but almost all of them do not give any setup to the punchline. It is repeated again and again so many times until up to the point where we would think “what the hell are you joking about with those messy storyline.”
The movie also uses a lot of sarcasm, such as when Dono (Abimana Aryasatya), Kasino (Vino G. Bastian), and Indro get a treasure map and they decide to go to Malaysia to find the treasure they talked about. At that scene, Kasino says, “What the use of going to other country just to find some gold?”.
Indro answers, “It’s okay even In Papua people from other country steal our gold.”
There are so many sarcastic jokes like that. But baby, that ain’t sarcasm, learn more about the form of speech please. Why? Because what they said are factual, truth, politically correct, and too obvious without any implicit messages. Some of the jokes also try to be satire, but they ain’t satire either.
The movie is inspired by 3 original Warkop DKI movies, they are CHIPS, Setan Kredit (Credit Devil), and IQ Jongkok (Low IQ). It’s like that the jokes from all those 3 movies are put together without any selection process to this Warkop DKI Reborn. Maybe it is intended to make people, especially from the Warkop DKI’s era, feel nostalgic. But it fails.
The story also is very shabby, poor, and not well-organized. From the trio forget about their home key, find out about their boss (Ence Bagus) scandal with a sexy girl (Nikita Mirzani), get some credit-bills, chase robbers, destroy an art exhibition, get the punishment in the court, go to uncle house, find a treasure map in neighbour country. There should be a linkers about why some scenes continue to another ones, but the linker from scene to scene, from act to act in this movie are also very weak.
Look at the story when the trio need Rp 8 billion. The trio chase a robber, but they get an accident where they destroy a small shop, art exhibition, and accidentally swap the face of an elder couple, and then they are punished by the court to pay the fine for Rp 8 billion. Inside the court also the movie tries to give a joke about the forest in Sumatra when it was caught on fire last year, the judge also accidentally asks for money.
The trio ask Dono’s uncle for money, but they get some fake money instead which lead them to get into trouble with local merchants. When they are inside of a taxi going somewhere, they see a man who is dying and give the trio a treasure map because the trio look like good people. What the heck. What kind of linkers are those? Even a pure comedy movie should have a strong structure, either in a storyline or in cracking some jokes.
Beside the kind of jokes that usually appears in the original movies, another trademark from Warkop DKI which also comes up in this movie is the appearance of sexy girls. Warkop DKI movies in the 90s have this as one of their trademarks.
Actresses like Hannah Al Rashid who plays Sofie in the movie and Nikita Mirzani who plays Niki, become the eyecandies in this movie. There are also some other unknown actresses who pull off sexy costume in the movie. But only Sofie (Hannah Al Rashid) who has a lot of lines, the others do not have more than two lines dialogue. Such a waste.
Despite just being sexy, those actresses also could show stronger impact with their characters. Distracting the main trio on their mission maybe or whatever.
Warkop DKI Reborn is also branded as a tribute movie to the original Warkop DKI as one of the legendary comedy groups that is ever existed in Indonesia. But wait, for me the use of Warkop’s name in this movie is only for branding and marketing. With this kind of quality, this ain’t a tribute at all.
The original movies also use low comedy, sarcasm jokes and comments, and sexy girls. But they have good setup when cracking humor, they have a strong structure and storyline.
Overall the so-called-tribute comedy movie is joyless and no jam. The bloopers which appear for 2-3 minutes at the end of the movie are way funnier than the entire movie. I don’t think if the second part can attract more viewers than the first part that achieved 1 million viewers in just 3 days. But again baby, quality does not depend on how much the ticket are sold.
Our Score (3/10)
Title : Warkop DKI Reborn : Jangkrik Boss Part 1
Production : Falcon Pictures
Producer : HB Naveen, Frederica
Director : Anggy Umbara
Casts : Abimana Aryasatya, Vino G. Bastian, Tora Sudiro, Hannah Al Rashid, Ence Bagus, Indro Warkop, Nikita Mirzani
Putu Radar Bahurekso
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