DEATH OF TRADITIONAL CINEMA

COLOMBIANA is full of promise- Firstly, Zoe Saldana seems poised for lead material for an action vehicle given her strong supporting presence in AVATAR, STAR TREK, and THE LOSERS; secondly, the revenge genre never gets old, and; finally, the trailer tells us the movie is loaded with bullets, explosions and what have yous.  In respect, COLOMBIANA manages to thrill during its first act, where we witness the young Cataleya survive his parents' murder and eventually escape to America to take shelter under his uncle (Cliff Curtis).  Curtis seems off here. There is something wrong with his accent, and his acting seems full of effort, as if trying too hard (it shows). As Cataleya grows up (Zoe Saldana), we follow her as she accepts kill missions for money, while sending messages to flush out her father's killers, much to the dismay of her uncle. In between, her clueless lover (Michael Vartan playing his ALIAS character, oddly enough) and the cops are thrown in a wild loop.  ...

One can't help but feel traces of KASAL, KASALI, KASALO and its sequel, SAKAL, SAKALI, SAKLOLO while watching this movie, especially that it's the same director and the same actors and the same situation (technically). But MY HOUSEHUSBAND, in all fairness is a bit more mature than the mentioned films above, since the main characters (played by real-life husband and wife Ryan and Juday) are already at the stage of survival, the struggle to make ends meet, all the while threading the line of gender equality.  The basic conflict, as overtly expressed as possibly could be, is the role reversal between husband and wife, where husband becomes the mother (in the most primitive sense of the word) and wife becomes the breadwinner; husband battles his own ego, first by refusing to accept that he has lost his job, and second by refusing to accept that his wife has become more professionally successful than him. Predictable as it may be, the story is saved by the engaging performances by...

It is quite redundant, so to speak, that a film about the untold story of a notorious figure such as Asiong Salonga, has an untold version (which may never see the light of day). But enough of that for now. The version circulating in theaters as of this writing, as you will vividly notice, is missing a directorial credit. You will not see Direk Tikoy's name, and yet traces of his directorial brilliance can be felt all over the place, at least during the early scenes. Rumor has it that the latter part is the " inepal " (bastardized) version. There were scenes that did not make sense, and another rumor circulated that not only were there edits made without Tikoy's consent, some scenes were even reshot by another director. All sanctioned by Governor E.R. who exercised his authority over the production. So I'm making the most out of my viewing of the abridged version of MANILA KINGPIN. In respect, the film has a lot of angst faithful to the gangster sub-genre of ac...

GHOST PROTOCOL is the fourth installment in the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE franchise, the franchise that solidified Tom Cruise's image as an action star. Brad Bird directs (you might remember him as the guy who directed the Pixar animated movie THE INCREDIBLES) while J.J. Abrams takes a back seat as a producer this time. Almost nothing has been carried over from the previous film, except Simon Pegg's character Benji Dunn, who gets equal screen time here as that of Tom Cruise. That is one of the great things about GHOST PROTOCOL: the four leads get equal importance in the story. No one of the four gets used as a tool, like what happened to Pegg at M:I-3, or that Australian guy in M:I-2. Which makes you wonder, what ever happened to Luther (Ving Rhames)? The fourth M:I works because it retains the elements we've loved from the first film (directed by Brian De Palma)- the deception, the edge-of-your-seat missions (remember Ethan Hunt dangling from the ceiling to avoid tripping off t...

Film within a film-structured movies are always interesting watch. Not only do they provide a much-needed deconstruction of form and content of cinema itself, but also that much-needed emotional punch a cinephile would surely love.  Like in BAD EDUCATION (Almodovar, 2004), we witness the characters tell the back story via montage, as if we are part of the cast of characters watching an actual movie. The form was successful in evoking pain and regret, and also of empathy. In TUHOG, Jeffrey Jeturian and screenwriter Bing Lao tackles sensational media in the Philippines, especially in cinema. The film opens as a film producer hears a pitch for a possible movie- a story of a grandfather who rapes his own granddaughter.  The director of the film soon after visits the victim of the crime, Floring (Ina Raymundo). Coercing both she and her mother, Perla (Irma Adlawan) to sell them the movie rights to their story, we witness as exploitation cinema unfolds. To think of it, capitaliz...

Finally. Tom Tykwer is back in Germany making a film in his native German language. In all respect, THE INTERNATIONAL was a pretty solid action film however incoherent the storyline, and PERFURME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER was over the top and too self-important (beautiful cinematography and production design, though). I suddenly missed RUN LOLA RUN. Tykwer's "3" moves in a slower pace than RUN LOLA RUN, but fast enough that it doesn't border on sleep-inducing. It is a tale of three people, of modern relationships, and in between a truckload of philosophical references.   Freud and Spinoza gets mentioned in the dialogue and the characters debate with their personal ideologies.  The trailer alone prompted me to make this movie mandatory viewing: (and this is also the basic plot of the film) a man and a woman who have never married has been living together for about 20 years. Their relationship has reached a certain stage where nothing is new or exciting anymore; they ...

I have seen Brillante Mendoza's SERBIS (At Your Service) and liked its take on Philippine cinema vis a vis family as intertwined; I have also seen his TIRADOR (Slingshot) and admired it for its wit and ferocity; so when the first few minutes of KINATAY (The Execution of P) unfolded, I wasn't certain where Mendoza is headed, until I realized that what seemed as random events are actually metaphorical devices for later events in the film; the mass wedding at city hall, the classroom discussion about police procedure, and the image of a child so innocent- all have ripple effects for later occurrences. KINATAY, as the second half begins proves to be a difficult experience to go through. Coco Martin plays Peping, a criminology student suddenly pitted in the shadowy underworld of unspeakable violence. Throughout the film we see his transformation from optimistic to disillusioned, from confident to fearful. Via carefully mounted stylistic shots, especially during that lengthy van sc...

There is much to love in Adolf Alix's ROMEO AT JULIET, a film based on an unpublished novel by Jean Altavas. For instance, there's the heavy use of strong colors a la Almodovar or Wong Kar Wai, to highlight the emotional context of the story, which isn't typical Adolf Alix. There was a lot of play with the cinematography and editing (the split screens are most apparent) and the musical score by Teresa Barrozo is hypnotic.  Sadly, there is also much to dislike. The musical score, however beautiful, cues in inappropriately about once or twice. There is too much exposition on the characters' back stories, which in a way felt like spoon feeding, or preachy if you will. Most of all the abrupt cuts from one scene to the next diminishes, if not completely destroys any piece of emotional attachment the viewer could have with what's going onscreen. Mention the names Romeo and Juliet in one sentence or phrase, and connotations of "love story", "Shakesperean...

For me, COWBOYS AND ALIENS is pure mindless fun, a shameless popcorn flick that since it was executive produced by Spielberg, it's a mix of his alien films and Indiana Jones (oh look, Harrison Ford's in this movie!). Daniel Craig is brash and brutish as the mysterious drifter Jake Lonergan. Channeling inner angst of James Bond he previously showcased in his two 007 movies, Craig is down and dirty- exactly the character we enjoy seeing him in. Olivia Wilde is devilishly beautiful (still), but her turn in that wig and fluorescent suit in TRON LEGACY will still be my favorite. Favreau achieves a lot blending western elements with Science Fiction, and at the center of COWBOYS AND ALIENS really is a human heart waiting at the end. This is a nice vehicle for Ford, whom we haven't seen onscreen recently. Think INDIANA JONES, way much older and filled with unstoppable cynicism.  It is not a perfect Western, or Sci-Fi per se, since there's not much exploration on the aliens, ...

Perhaps the most bizarre film I have seen yet, Sergio Caballero's FINISTERRAE is equal parts intriguing, humorous and surreal. It is a film loaded with so much symbols that you just sit back, relax, and hope that you can piece together the plot (or the lack of it) as soon as the credits roll.  The basic premise is that there are two ghosts who decide they want to become human again, and so embark on "The Way of St. James" to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, and on to Cape Finnistera (or Finnisterae), which literally means "land's end". Along the way, they consult with an oracle, meet a hippie chick, elude an unknown assailant, encounter a forest filled with trees who bear ears (literally human ears!), and even find time to go fishing. The adventure is quite funny, at times just plain absurd, but all throughout existential questions abound. Just when I thought two guys dressed in white sheets were just escaped mental patients, Caballero pushes the s...

Like any other mockumentary, Antoinette Jadaone's SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION FROM LILIA CUNTAPAY intends to flesh out a bitter truth out of its subject matter, in this case the role of bit players in local cinema, as represented by one particular bit player, whose presence in film and on TV for about 30 years is extremely underrated. However, unlike any other mockumentaries (Christopher Guest and Jerrold Tarog conveniently come into mind), SIX DEGREES breathes striking vigor to the film medium because the actor is actually playing herself! And not just as a means for comedy, but rather as an echo for her own life story. Jadaone and her crew made a research on Cuntapay's life, located where she lives, and out of it she wrote a performance art that is to become Cuntapay's crowning glory, sort of a retrospective cum tribute to her "non-existent" presence in the movies. In its ultimate, SIX DEGREES is able to achieve a sense of recognition for Cuntapay that she righ...

At the center of BIG BOY, Shireen Seno's dazzling feature debut is the story of a young boy facing the pains and pressures of growing up, circa 1945 in post- war Mindoro. Amidst all the symbolism, surrealism, and variation of experimental techniques,  Seno achieves to recreate a memory of her father's stories with enough tenderness for her subject.  Seno makes good use of literary devices to mirror her story's theme: the young boy, Julio is forced to drink a concoction of cod liver oil devised by his parents, in order to force him to grow taller; his limbs are then pulled in opposite direction, and made to stand under the sun. These are done so his parents can sell the concoction, and have him as a success story. Metaphorically speaking, this visual image of Julio being forced to grow taller, is a way of saying that Julio is also forced to grow up, emotionally.  His parents has six children, and two of his siblings are given to his aunts because of poverty. His father ...

Call it whatever you like, be it an overlong music video, or an idiot's guide to pregnancy, BREAKING DAWN PART 1 is both a hit and a miss. At first, it becomes sentimentally sweet, as director Bill Condon (DREAMGIRLS) lavishes us with the wedding scene set to the tune of "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" first heard during the prom scene in the first Twilight movie. Next, a mini-travelogue of Brazil that should have shown more landscape.  Then, the most poignant and tiring part: the pregnancy. Much ado about nothing. To be fair, I felt a little amount of understanding for the main characters' motivations: Bella wants to keep the baby and enforce her right to choose; Edward feels responsible, and guilty; Jacob feels doubly responsible, and his jealousy turns into sincerity, which is admirable. What more can we demand? The film wants to be cheesy and does exactly that. Of the four Twilight films already released, I liked the first one (because of its playfulness) a...

ENGKWENTRO comes as a huge surprise. It is a violent, bleak, and unforgiving film and yet it flourishes in beauty; the handheld shots are visceral and they add depth and intensity to what’s happening onscreen. The story, which is THE most important element, succeeds in delivering a representative documentation of an actual phenomenon in the Philippines, which is the prevalence of state-sponsored vigilante killings. Pepe Diokno’s script, co-written with four others including lead actor Felix Roco and scribe Jerry Gracio (LIGO NA U, LAPIT NA ME) manages to compel because of the human element at the center of the story, which is the strained relationship between siblings Richard (Roco) and Raymond (Daniel Medrana). Set against a backdrop of urban decay, a suppressive legal system that is blind to reason, and real characters that are caught in between, ENGKWENTRO delivers a solid, suspenseful action story within its 60-minutes running time. Within that short span of time, Pepe Diokno, in...

Few films can make me cry. If your film could, indeed make me cry, it's my barometer for hailing not necessarily a great film, but rather a film worth the time. KIMCHI BATTLE, as the title suggests has food as its background, and like a lot of films centered on food, there are intense moments of cooking, and this is probably the best time to point out that when doing  a film with food elements, you better make damn sure your cinematography is captivating; in other words, me as a viewer should better be salivating at the way the foods are visually presented.  KIMCHI BATTLE doesn't disappoint on the visual aspect, but what makes it an important film is the quality of its writing- you have the classic sibling rivalry which not only fleshed out the issues in their fragmented family, but also mirrored the Korean national identity through the use of food as a literary device. The film's ultimate idea, is love for one's mother, or motherland in a greater sense. The Kimchi b...

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES works well as a Sci-Fi thriller, a nice reboot for the franchise given the convoluted Tim Burton-helmed remake PLANET OF THE APES (2001), and as an effective moral metaphor for the evolution of species. I don't know about James Franco, but Andy Serkis (Gollum in LOTR) steals the show as Caesar, a chimp raised like a human being, who later developed cognitive skills like that of a human, and mounted a revolution of species in a battle for freedom and equal treatment. Nope, Serkis is not up there donning an ape costume, but rather providing all the movements and facial expressions. The CGI handles the rest. John Lithgow is also praiseworthy playing dad to Franco's character; suffering from Alzheimer's disease, the character is given enough justice and emotional subtlety by Lithgow who proves his caliber in acting even in a supporting role. Freida Pinto gets overlooked in this one. If you'll look at her starmaking performance in SLUMDOG M...

A marital breakdown is interesting subject for cinematic discussion as it is, but Derek Cianfrance pushes the boundaries further, making the journey of discovery for us a bit more poignant and bittersweet by juxtaposing the back story of how his two main characters met, fell in love, and started a new life.  Cindy (Michelle Williams) and Dean (Ryan Gosling) seem an okay couple living an ordinary life with their young daughter, but we see that Cindy is discontent and frustrated, and Dean starting to implode. Cindy wants Dean to achieve more from his life, yet Dean says that he's already content with his job (as a house painter) that allows him to be with his family everyday. Meanwhile, Cindy works her ass off as an on call nurse, all the while resisting sexual hints from her boss and a former flame whom she has a chance encounter. This puts a heavier load on her already strained perspective at her marriage to Dean. Through flashbacks, there is a reference to marital relationships...

Corruption is a term Filipinos are very much familiar with. Hailed as one of the most corrupt countries in Asia, and even the world, the Philippines has a very rich historical documentation of tyranny, theft and yes, red tape. So when a filmmaker like Dennis Marasigan, who's already proven he can make a compelling and realistic political film via "Vox Populi," decides to adapt Malou Jacob's play to the screen, he's more than welcome.  ANATOMIYA NG KORUPSYON is set during the Marcos era, when corruption in the country is as its peak (or I could be mistaken or inaccurate, depending on who you ask, say Imelda Marcos); at first I didn't notice the period in which the story takes place. My friends readily saw the Marcos picture hanging by the office (the setting is in a Family Court). For me, the black vintage telephone and the trendy dresses worn by Che Ramos and Bea Garcia (who play office clerks) gave the milieu away.  At the center of the story...

You may not remember TOWER HEIST after seeing it, and in fact the first 30 minutes drags like there's no tomorrow (yes, I quite understand they do need to establish the scenario that led to the titular 'heist') but one thing you'll definitely love, aside from Matthew Broderick and Eddie Murphy's much-awaited big screen comeback, is the intense third act heist scene involving a red Ferrari, windows, and rope.  Aside from being just a comedy caper, TOWER HEIST also acts as an effective social analysis. adding to  the seemingly perpetual cinematic portrayal of financial fraud in the U.S. Wall Street big guy runs away with millions from hapless working class people, the very same people who serve him everyday in his penthouse suit on Manhattan. Obviously, you'd expect payback. Who doesn't? The ordinary tale of predator and prey becomes complex because the former, played by thespian Alan Alda plays it cool and relaxed, with hints of sarcasm, deceit and brewing...

Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock has a knack for presenting important issues with insight and humor unlike any other. In cinematic style, he is closest to Michael Moore, yet Spurlock's distinguish characteristic is his attack on the issues as an average joe, apart from Moore which has been solidified as an instigator, or a provocateur if you will. In SUPER SIZE ME, Spurlock set out to probe Mcdonald's (and other fast food chains as well, but mostly Mdconald's) effect on American consumerism, obesity, and culture in general; in WHERE IN THE WORLD IS OSAMA BIN LADEN, he attempted to locate the known terrorist by actually mounting a physical search, to answer his own speculations and show that the search for answers doesn't end by asking; in his third major film, he deconstructs movie advertising via the context of content synergy by actually allowing advertisers to be a part of his movie. I think Spurlock achieved a lot with this film; the structure itself is inge...

Refn is a filmmaker who has style, but he bored me to death with VALHALLA RISING. I was willing to give him a second chance. So I watched DRIVE. It's one film you can readily consider a midnight movie, (not particularly referencing to the 'midnight movie' phenomena) because it is perfect for a midnight watch, like if you have a lineup of films to see, DRIVE would be the main event. Ryan Gosling is breathtaking to watch in a very tense and controlled performance of a stunt driver moonlighting as a getaway vehicle driver. He gets in the crosshairs of the mob and a beautiful young mother (Carey Mulligan), where the angelic, humble simpleton transforms into a crusader of righteousness. DRIVE has as its central character the quintessential innocent man pitted against the grand scheme of things, and affairs that are not really his; his biggest mistake is that he cared for another human being/s. Any Coen Brothers film would have this element, yet filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn...