Let's CHAK! CHAK! CHAK!

Movie: Cicak Man
Genre: Action comedy
Language: Malay
Director: Yusry Abd Halim
Cast: Saiful Apek, Fasha Sandha, Yusry KRU, Aznil Nawawi, Jalaluddin Hassan, Yasmin Hani, AC Mizal, Adlin Aman Ramlie

Cicak Man has not make it to our shore yet. I mean Sibu lah, of course! But I managed to catch a glimpse of the movie (don't ask me how when I'm practically living in ciplak paradise) When I first heard of the movie, I laughed my ass off! LOL!!! After all, it comes from the side of Malaysian film industry that I normally would not go near.

Somehow, somewhat, I ended up checking out the movie after reading my coursemate Foo Kiat's blog. Don't ask to much. Now I go around mimicking Cicak Man's battle cry at anyone who makes the mistake of bringing up the topic. Don't say that I did not gain anything from the movie.

Now, back to the movie. Our unlikely super hero Hairi (Saiful Apek) is a lab drone at a leading pharmaceutical company in the city of Metrofulus. He is the standard mat rock stereotype who does not look like he would have made it into a research lab. His best friend and flatmate is the standard nice guy Danny (Yusry KRU). Hairi is interested in his pretty colleague Tania (Fasha Sandha), who is a secretary to Professor Klon (Aznil Nawawi).

One of Hairi's experimented-on house lizards escapes and falls into his mug of hot coffee, which Hairi proceeds to quaff down. Soon, he starts exhibiting strange behaviour like waking up on the ceiling, making chirping lizard noises and snapping up bugs with his tongue.

Meanwhile, Professor Klon and his henchman the Ginger Boys (AC Mizal and Adlin Aman Ramlie) are up to something big. Hairi and Danny discover this when searching Klon's office for an explanation of Hairi's sudden powers. After also discovering that the powers will eventually kill him, Hairi begs Danny to find a cure while he dashes off to save Metrofulus from Professor Klon's diabolical scheme.

I suppose KRU films deserves some credit for being the first to take on such an effects-loaded genre. 40 percent of the movie was rendered in CGI and it's very obvious because the movie looks like a computer game in some scenes.

They have created an alternate universe version of Malaysia, where buildings are large, brooding and Gothic, it's cold enough for winter wear, and the leading name that cures all your ills is headed by this clown in bright yellow plaid. They are obviously trying to bring a Gotham City look and feel to the movie.

Saiful is perfectly cast. I mean, it's Cicak Man for goodness sake. I certainly can not see Pierre Andre or Harith Iskandar in the role of the unassuming and nearly slapstick superhero.

Fasha and Yusry supplied the requisite eye candy as love interest and best friend respectively. Not surprisingly, their characters end up falling for each other much to Hairi's dismay. *Yawn*

Ironically, it is the flamboyant Professor Klon that I like the best in this flick. If a movie is full of stereotypes, you might as well go all the way and pick the crazy one who breaks into diabolical laughter after every 10 words.

AC Mizal and Adlin supply the requisite villain muscle and additional comic relief as Ginger One and Ginger Two. Don't ask me which is which: One is dumb and communicates through sign language. The other has a high screech of a voice that would have sounded more natural coming from Cicak Man himself.

Watch it if you want to see a major city in Malaysia reinvented in a sci-fi world. It is probably going to be that 'first' we will all cite in the future. Like my friend Foo Kiat said, it was a good try for a Malaysian movie.

CHAK! CHAK! CHAK!