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Showing posts from December, 2011

COLOMBIANA (Olivier Megaton, 2011)

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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.  ...

MY HOUSEHUSBAND...IKAW NA! (Jose Javier Reyes, 2011)

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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...

MANILA KINGPIN: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ASIONG SALONGA (Not directed by Tikoy Aguiluz, 2011)

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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...

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: GHOST PROTOCOL (Brad Bird, 2011)

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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...

TUHOG (Jeffrey Jeturian)

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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...

3 (Tom Tykwer)

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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 ...

KINATAY (Brillante Mendoza, 2009)

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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...

ROMEO AT JULIET (Adolf Alix, Jr.)

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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...

COWBOYS AND ALIENS (Jon Favreau)

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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, ...

FINISTERRAE (Sergio Caballero)

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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...

SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION FROM LILIA CUNTAPAY (Antoinette Jadaone, 2011)

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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...

BIG BOY (Shireen Seno, 2011)

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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 ...