cicak-man — funny and lame, all at once
We had to watch Cicak-man, we just had to. So we did.
I’m not going to elaborate on what/how/when etc of it, will just quote some news piece that I read from somewhere and comment on it. Probably from The Star? I dunno.
Lead actor Saiful Apek said the movie, which would be released during Hari Raya, had the potential to penetrate the Western market.
Not going to happen, sorry.
“This movie is so full of high-quality special effects that even Putrajaya, where the film was shot, looks different on screen,” he said.
I really want to remain patriotic and proud that this is the first Malaysian CG film etc etc etc, but then I remember that we *are* talking about heavy CG usage here….
Saiful said Cicak Man proves that Malaysia had creative talents to take the filming industry far.
Yes,definitely. But honestly I would rather see the money go to improving actors’ performances (not picking on Saiful Apek alone), and great on-location audio capture. I absolutely DETEST watching the words and lips not in sync. And it makes me absolutely UPSET because I KNOW it could have been SO MUCH BETTER.
When you record the audio in a studio, it’s damn different la. You’d feel compelled to add sounds that seem too out of place, tak secocok with the acting. I HATE the extra sounds the actors make. The extra hmms, tskk, hmmmm, tsk… quite killed my enjoyment.
In SEPET, the mobster’s sister’s acting was a bit kayu. But even in her kayu-ness, I liked her a lot better than Fasha Sanda, because her voice was recorded real-time. I don’t know whatever technical terms you want to call it, but to me it makes a HUGE ASS difference.
I don’t understand why Malaysian producers cannot invest more money in sound production. It’s only like one of the most important things in a good movie.
“Cicak Man is one of my greatest achievements in my 12-year acting career. It is high time we catch up with Hollywood, Bollywood and Hong Kong,” he said, adding that he had acted in 38 films.
Cool. I like Saiful Apek because he was funny in Senario, and I felt that he was better there.
Honestly, as an avid movier-goer, Cicak-man cannot fight HKG or Bollywood movies. Standards are like one heaven one earth. Cannot fight lah 
Maybe set lower, more realistic goals first, such as… I don’t know, a more fulfilling storyline?
Maybe Yusry should hire me as special consultant for Cicak-man 2 
Not to say there weren’t good things. Some parts were absolutely hilarious and I LOL-ed in the cinema. But many parts were quite lame, and could have been so much better! So much wasted time and talent.
Haiya since it’s not going to run for long now, plus it made all the money it could make when it first opened, Yusry and gang are laughing all the way to the bank now. So I’m not going to write anymore la.
Don’t want to waste my talent 
omg you finally wenttttttt.
was a disappointments, lost opportunities everywhere
Poor audio-dubbing is the Malaysian local film trademark.. So far I have yet to see any local production where the voice go exactly how the lips move.. somehow the voice will always come out a few miliseconds slower/faster.. i still don’t know why they don’t want to take those things seriously..
Sadly lame more than funny.
Repetitive, stupid, annoying and cliched.
cliches can be satirical, but when it’s the same cliche over and over again it’s such a pain in the ass.
i was falling asleep most of the time but aznil’s voice kept waking me up. i personally think he ruined the whole film i can safely say it’s the most wasted two hours of 2007 of my life, even worse than transit shit of smoke.
Honestly Suan, I’d find it difficult to presume that a movie called Cicak Man would be up to scratch. Or maybe I’m just being a movie snob? Have not seen it myself but judging by what you guys are saying it’s a waste of time.
On par with Hollywood, my butt. The CGI quality alone turned me off at times.
I’m patriotic but sometimes, it cannot be helped.
I haven’t watch the show but can you tell me if the twin baddies can vanish upon a car ramming towards them and then hor reappear again inside the car? Or is the cicakman have super hearing power that he can see things illuminated when he is in the dark or have his eye shut? Gosh dun tell me they go all the way: dun tell me the cicakman is blind pls.
Hollywood? Hong Kong? Bollywood? haha.. that’s so funny. We can’t even match Thai and Korean movies.
Cicakman? i rather watch Star Wars complete saga at home.
Agree lah Suan.. especially on the voice dubbing.. and especially on the laser-mouthed actor. They seriously need a better screenwriter. A thousand billion ringgit vested in special effects and promotions is nothing without a decent screenplay. (the same rule applies for slapstick comedies, IMO)
Trivia : The first Malaysian film to not do voice-dubbing was Aku Kaya : The Movie (shameless plug : http://www.izadsyah.com/articles/akukayamovie.htm)
i hate saiful apek with a passion (for personal reasons).
‘nuf said.
huh. i bet the geniuses are gonna start marketing cicakman accessories, masks and toys (”made in malaysia” mah!)
the horror… the horror…!
Voice dubbing is common for Hollywood. The problem is the “tidak-apa” post-production work. So beside director, the producer must share the failure.
malaysia audio mmg not good
You kidding? With a name like Sicko-man, it would be BIG in da ghetto!
Movie was ok - the problem lies in the directing and production. After all, Alfred Hitchcock did once say that “all actors should be treated like cattle”, meaning that they need to be guided around sometimes.
The baddies were TRULY, TRULY irritating.
Suanie, love your take on the ‘photoshopped Yusry’.
[...] Suan’s take on Cicakman. [...]
hahaha, yup i prefer some local movie e.g ciplak or sepet…im quite choosy in movie but this 1…haih…if u guys enjoy malaysian jokes then its entertaining…after all this movie for me…2 out of 5…i laughed cos saiful apek talking just like senario movie…but i WANT that poster in saiful’s room (Castlevania fan…) hahaha…
FA: couldn’t miss it
well now thinking back i could have lah 
ky: indeed
zemms: oO there have been a few!sepet and gubra? they used on-location sound. puteri gunung ledang? most of the indie films i watched recently lah… red kebaya and love conquers all.. and cinta also real time sound, if i can remember correctly
no wait, a few scenes were dubbed. grrr 
ST: Thinking back, yeah.
kim: aznil was seriously irritating. the laughter was ok for 5 mins, then redundant the next 1.5 hours
Shan: the trailer looked good
besides, i don’t mind something called ‘cicakman’. i would have thought it was a parody of all the superhero movies, taking the piss. something like the ’scary movie’ series. if done properly, it would have been great to see. unfortunately like ky said, lost opportunity la.
Chapree Da Grande: i thought CGI was ok but then i’m no expert in these matters
beefstew: no lah they no appear in car liddat one. actually the ginger boys could have made it la. so much uncapitalised potential! really a waste of their characters lor, esp seeing one of them was AC Mizal, whom I totally respect after seeing him in PGL: The Musical. no la cicak blind one meh?? I dono hahaha
spiller: thai movies ROCK
izad: generally, malaysian movie makers too comfortable in their current standing. HERRO WAKE UP LAH, YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE YOUR REMAINING AUDIENCE SOON IF YOU DON’T IMPROVE WOI. but there have been exceptions. i’m glad
zeeda: oOOOooo
xpyre: hahahaha i think got liao
moo_t: indeed. yusry is kinda co-producer, he’s on the board of KRU films. well if he’s not, he should be shot.
lainie: oO got good ones
mad: let’s see da skript!
drowmage: yeah the funniest part was the faceless Dj at the beginning of the movie. that cracked me up big time
andrewcha: saiful apek should explore other angles lor. reach more within himself to bring out the best in him. or just see an acting coach.
yay malaysia boleh!
After reading the STAR “tahi kuching review” and “too damn long” by Zeta Lu I was puzzled by her venom at Cicak Man.
Then I asked my 14 year old newphew who has watched DVDs all his life what he thinks about cicak man. And his answer was an enthusiastic okay! The funny part works but the sad part did not. I note from his voice that he was impressed.
So what does it tells you. You are too old to watch cicak man, Susanie. So probably is Zeta Lu.. too old for this kind of movie. Cicakman attracted the 14 year olds and below group and since when is the Mat Rempit an authority on movies. Porn maybe.
Unlike for eg Batman movie, which was on enormous budget and tailored to adults who had grown with batman, cicakman is exciting for schoolboys who never grew up with Batman or spiderman!!
Thus the >RM5 million collection speaks for itself.. you and Zeta Lu are too old and too biased with your Batman era that you don’t understand the excitement of local malaysians boys watching their own face as superheros on screen. They don’t identify with spiderman, local boys don’t speak good english too enjoy spiderman anymore…
so viva cicakman.
allo amused,
1. I didn’t read The Star’s review, or anyone else’s review prior to watching it. We wanted to watch it because the trailer looked damn promising.
2. Maybe Cicakman was not tailored with me in mind. So.. erm, I can’t talk about it meh?
3. I didn’t ‘grow’ with Batman, Superman, Spiderman etc. don’t think i have compared it to any international superheroes?
4. for a local movie, cicakman had a bigger than usual budget. there is potential; the trailer showed plenty of promise, but after watching the movie, from someone who is fed up with the sub standard of malaysian movies, i felt there were a lot of wasted opportunities.
just because it caters to a different age group, or a crowd who does not understand english very well, or wants to pull the kampung crowd, does not mean they could not have done a better job.
when talking about local movies, i always go easier on them. i understand the limited budget, the talent or lack thereof, the works. but some people just don’t want to push themselves. why ar?
many other ‘poorer’ countries have made better movies with less budget than our movies. why ar?
5. At 25 I am positively ancient
Obviously the film caters for certain groups of people, and not everyone is going to be entertained by it. Having the RM5 million collection at the local box office is impressive, hell I personally was responsible to contributing RM50 to that amount, but did I enjoy the movie? Obviously not. Did my nephews and nieces enjoy it? That would be a resounding yes.
But does the gargantuan box office raking mean it’s a much more superior movie than the other movies that are not faring as well? I don’t think so. Ultimately I think it all lies on the level of standards that typical Malaysian cinema-goers have set for themselves for local movies. Yusry, and the likes of Prof Mohaideen, David Teoh, Yusof Haslam etc, knows their target audience. That’s why we’re getting these kinds of movies again and again, and yet they never fail to ’succeed’ in the Malaysian movie scene. Kudos to them for knowing their target audience. It’s a vicious cycle - supply and demand kinda thing. And as we all know, the general audience here mostly just accept what is being given to them. Weak script, terrible acting, big names. Asal boleh ma. So who can we blame really?
I’d rather give away the RM10 to a beggar than watching the film
Every one can comment mah but movies being entertainment, just watch for funlah like teenagers do. We should all be making or own movies we enjoy…
By the way, Zeta Lu’s star review is on the internet. Speaking of STAR movie reviews, I have noticed that their reviews reek of venom and condescending when there is no necessity to be so. Go read review of the Red Kebaya. My first impression after reading the STAR movie review is that the Red Kebaya is a lousy movie. Until I read the Utusan review and it was all praise?? So what goes…Anyway the point is that Red Kebaya being an English language film, depended on the STAR’s review. Thus it was a dismal failure. I didn’t want to c it after reading the English review but after reading Utusan’s raving review now Im curious. See how self serving reviewers can stunt our film industry. Luckily cicakman don’t depend on Zeta Lu middle aged review and thus a RM5 million and 500,000 viewers success! And that despite Zeta Lu’s villainous effort.. Thank you Yusry for creating excitement for my nephew and friends. Mcguire has no meaning to him, Saiful has. They want to c their own faces as superheros…
[...] contact « « cicak-man — funny and lame, all at once | [...]
i study film for quite a while, the worse thing about local film industry is they’re not listen well to critics but fans. the title cicak-man can’t attract most creative people because ‘cicak’ is a disgusting ‘bugs’ and for muslims, ‘cicak’ hated by many of us according to history when prophet hiding in the cave, this cicak make a sound to tell someone is here, and up till now a lot of people hate cicak
am i right or am i right. I heard this story before so I won’t say this was a good idea. Worse case scenario is when saiful apek again and again and again appear in big screen with annoying same old character. I rather watch kluang man series. zzz
you’re sure a pathetic malaysian film critize. know how to give destructive critic only.
poor blogger.
cicak is not a bug, it is a reptile.
and you obviously can’t read. poor cicakman producers for having illiterate fans
i haven’t seen the movie…
but i know how its going to be…bad script, the usual cast (example: saiful apek,don’t they have anyone else?)stereotype baddies, bla,bla…it’s just bad.
if that movie go international, i’m gonna hate myself for being a malaysian.
look around us, our neighbours, who could actually make good films with low budgets.
yeah the producers will say it’s the fans who wants it. i understand they have to make profits, everyone wants to “cari makan”, but pleaseeeee…don’t make more garbage like this.
cgi effects is cool, but it can be use in a ‘wise way’.try to use your brain sometime, eh yusry.( i know u have one)
this actually depicts our movie industry as thrid rate, ed wood-ism if you want to put it.
hey guys.
honestly, i think it was a real good movie. finally got to watch it a couple of days ago.. and i think that since it’s Malaysia’s first ever superhero movie attempt.. i must give high credits to it. i really don’t see how you all can criticise the movie so badly. we have to realise that the idea is there.. and from here.. surely we can only improve. well.. let’s be optimistic there. script was alright, definitely made me laugh. acting was all good , except for Fasha and Yusry who i must say were ‘kayu’. all in all.. a good show. rather promising for the movie industry.. and hopefully it only gets better from here.
[...] (Hahah, I am so not getting an invite to watch Cicak-man 2 ) [...]
To each his own.
Hope Cicak-man2 will be better.
Hope the acting won’t be too irritating.
Hope there will be more originality in the presentation, story-line, etc.etc,etc….
Hope Apek learns to act differently
Hope Yusry learn to be better actor
Hope better director will be directing
Hope AC Mizal be the next Cicak-man (he can act in any kind of movie)
Hope Fasha Sandha will have better guidance from the new director
Hope they can make better script (Maybe should engage Afdlin Shauki?)
Hope cicak-man gain more (& original) superpowers
Hope there won’t be much of ‘kelakar bodoh’
Hope there will be more witty lines
Hope there will be better songs
Hope actors don’t try to act funny - but be really funny
Hope cicak-man2 won’t have any more ‘Badul’ type of acting and jokes.
Hope…. eh brape banyak hope dah????
Will still watch cicak-man2 - bukan suka, cuma nak tengok yang ‘kita’ hope tu terkabul ke tidak!
We can only hope - but MALAYSIA BOLEH!
CUMA RAMAI YANG TAK NAK BUAT YANG SENONOH!
Hee…hee…heee…..
There’s going to be a SEQUEL?
Good. Can we have the hero and ‘heroine’ get together, this time, and stop mourning that prittiboi?
But seriously, I’m the only person in my family who dared to watch Cicakman…and lived.
‘Funny and lame all at once’ just about cuts it.
jgn tau nak kutuk jer. kira ok yusry cuba sesuatu yg baru.. tak mcm korang=, harapkan sesuatu yg bagus tapi diri sendiri tak sebagus mcm yg diharapkan dlm filem…. oleh itu hargailah hasil keja orang… jgn tau nak kutuk jer.. kira ok lah tu, kali ptama org malaysia cuba buat filem yg guna cgi shots… bubbye!!!!! nanti aku sambung balik….
Macam manalah kita nak jadi yang original or at least yang bagus.
Asyik2 fikir first time org kita buat, so kira oklah tu…..
First time org kita buat tapi bukan first time dibuat org…jadi mestilah nak blaja dan kaji mcm mana kita bleh buat yang sama if not better. Knowledge, experience,….. semuanya ada - kita cuma perlu study.
Bkn tak hargai usaha org lain cuma org2 yang produce cicak-man tak hargai resources dorang - akibatnya : AN INSULT TO OUR FILM INDUSTRY!!!
But if untuk budak2 oklah - dorang tak reti nak fikir. Janji cerita ada action dorang suka. Begitu jugalah agaknya mentality producer, director dan sape-sape yg involve dlm pembikinan Cerita ini - when it comes to making this movie, they malas nak pikiak banyak sangat or maybe they feel the mentality org2 kita - SIMPLE!
Agaknya sebab tulah anak2 remaja banyak yang tak berfikiran yang sepatutnya - mungkin sebab banyak sangat di sumbatkan dgn cerita2 sedemikian….
WASSALAM
[...] I was telling James about the movie, and he asked, “Cicak-man vs. Sumo-lah… who wins?” [...]
I missed the theatrical screening in Dec 06 but finally managed to watch it on Astro recently. It’s actually very good despite what most of you said. Of course you cannot compare it with Hollywood standard coz the States, Bollywood and even HK budgets are much higher. However I must say that this is a very entertaining motion picture and a very good effort made by the producer.
Look forward to watch it there is a Cicakman 2
I think my point is being missed here.
Must overacting, over-gesturing, bad sound production, lame slapstick be the norm in Malaysian movies?
Why is this so? Why are we accepting these standards?
Cicakman had a big budget, considering, for a local movie.
Oh well. Malas to reiterate. Even though some actors and people behind the scenes, and entertainment journos agree with me on this, looks like the producers and directors don’t.
ITS ASS!! THATS ALL THERE IS TO IT!! PURE ASS SUCKFEST!!!
Kimberlycun and Shaolintiger i think that u acting so kind,these type of film should not exist,cause this film makes malaysia looks like a very untalented country…seriously =__=
why?
thailand have created some of their masterpiece like Ongbak,Tom yam Gun and shutter (even the hollywood copied some their works).while for malaysia movie industries is just a piece of crap!!!
although they use some high tech stuff! to make sure this film visual effect looks great,but the jokes are just like SHIT.Why dont they just learn from AustinPower,and much more .Lucky for apek cause im feeling good today and doesnt felt to use the F-word in this comment le.
“Great nation produce great jokes,while the weaks stay with apek jokes”-Aiman
The moral here today is Malaysian Film Industries should tend to work harder not just on their visual effect but also the jokes,storyline,dialogs and some other things….