Review of THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER: Paired Possessions

October 8, 2023

After his wife Sorenne (Tracey Graves) died during a violent earthquake in Haiti, photographer Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) raised their daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) on his own. One day, Angela and her best friend Katherine (Olivia Marcum) failed to go home from school, only to reappear three days later. Soon after being medically cleared by the doctors, the two girls began to exhibit extremely bizarre behavioral changes. 

From there begins the harrowing nightmare which will keep Victor, as well as Katherine's parents, Tony and Miranda West (Norbert Leo Butz and Jennifer Nettles), on edge for the next days. Their "symptoms" become worse and worse with time, like Angela's violent episode with her mother's scarf and Katherine's shocking outburst during a church service. Victor had lost faith in religion since his wife's death, while the Wests were staunch Christians. 

The main conceit of this new film (first of a planned trilogy) was that it bore the title of the most revered classic film about demonic possession -- "The Exorcist" (William Friedkin, 1973), based on the popular 1971 novel by William Peter Blatty. This groundbreaking film has since spawned two sequels (1977 and 1990) and two prequels (2004 and 2005). none of which could match the iconic stature and 10 Academy Award nominations of the original. 

This reboot innovates from the original story by having two girls simultaneously possessed by the demon instead of just one. During the climactic exorcism rite, director-co-writer David Gordon Green went all-inclusive, with nurse and ex-nun Ann (Ann Dowd), a traditional voodoo healer (Okwui Okpokwasili), two Protestant pastors (Raphael Sbarge, Danny McCarthy) and a Catholic priest Maddox (EJ Bonilla) all having their turn to pray over the girls.  

This film had its own moment of nostalgia by casting Ms. Ellen Burstyn, who reprised her Oscar-nominated role of Chris MacNeill, the mother of demonically-possessed girl Regan (Linda Blair) in the first movie. Chris then wrote a best-selling book about her harrowing experiences that Victor would come across.  Still with an imposing screen presence, Burstyn's first scenes were very strong. It was just too bad that Chris was not made to contribute more significantly to the plot. 5/10. 

Review of COBWEB (Geomijip): Overseeing an Overblown Opus

October 5, 2023

Kim Yeol (Song Kang-ho) was a film director whose last projects have failed to live up to the excellence of his first film. He had just wrapped up on his latest film entitled "Cobweb," but he was having disturbing nightmares on how it could be done better. Wanting to reshoot the whole ending over in two days, Kim convinced production executive Mido (Jeon Yeo-been), who took over from her aunt Chairman Baek (Jang Young-nam) who was on leave. 

All the main actors returned to the set -- playboy lead actor Kang Ho-se (Oh Jung-se) as the wealthy heir, and actresses Lee Min-mi (Im Soo-jung) as his wife, Han Yu-rim (Krystal Jung) as his mistress and Mrs. Oh (Park Jung-soo) as his imperious mother. However, while the shoot was going on, the censors bosses also visited the set that day to check if this film was indeed still shooting despite their disapproval of its controversial topic.  

As a movie buff, it was very interesting to watch the behind-the-screen processes by which a film was shot. Since this movie was set in the 1970s, there were no computerized digital effects yet, so every scene and every stunt had to be shot the traditional way. Since Kim shot his incendiary ending as a long continuous shot, we witness this perfectly blocked and executed scene that involved actual fire also shot as a long continuous shot itself. 

It was fun to watch the relationship of writer-director Kim with his producers, his staff, and his temperamental actors, especially Ho-se and Yu-rim who were keeping secrets from him. Fresh from his Best Actor award at Cannes last year for "Broker," Song Kang-ho played Kim and his eccentricities so naturally and credibly, even if he had not actually directed a film himself. The supporting actors all played their roles in a lurid, over-the-top style, which was very funny.

Director Kim Jee-woon is well-known for directing the bloody classic "A Tale of Two Sisters" (2003), the gruesome action thriller "I Saw the Devil" (2010) and the dignified historical drama "The Age of Shadows" (2016). In "Cobweb," Kim was not averse to going hyperbolic with the dark comedy which made this film-within-a-film very entertaining to watch, with all its purposefully absurd exaggerations that the cast all pulled off with gusto.  8/10

Netflix: Review of KEYS TO THE HEART: Maternal and Musical Melodrama

October 5, 2023

Joma Hermano (Zanjoe Marudo) was a 39-year old down-and-out ex-boxer who had lost his license. One day, he lost his job as a sparrer in a boxing gym, and was bumped by a car on his way out. His long-estranged mother Sylvia (Dolly de Leon) took him in despite his contempt for her for abandoning him in the past. She now had a younger 21-year old son Joselito "Jayjay," who had high-functioning autism, and a virtuosic talent for playing the piano.

After a rough start, Joma and Jayjay eventually got along. Sylvia requested Joma to take care of Jayjay while she needed to be away in Batangas for her work. She also asked Joma to help Jayjay enter a prestigious piano playing competition sponsored by the elite Batiquin Conservatory. When Joma found out that Jayjay was a fan of retired pianist Annette Labayen (Michelle Marquez Dee), they sought her out to get a recommendation.

If the plot sounds familiar, it was probable that you may have seen its original 2018 Korean film of the same title. That film starred superstar Lee Byung-hun in the elder brother role, and Academy Award winner (for "Minari") Youn Yuh-jung in the mother role. In that original film, as with this Filipino adaptation, it was the emotionally-moving acting performances of the three lead actors that elevated the familiarity and predictability of the plot. 

For me, the movie came alive when Jayjay played on the old abandoned piano in the Labayen mansion. From then on, every time Jayjay played the piano, be it Chopin or Rimsky-Korsakov or Tchaikovsky, Elijah Canlas's realistic performance in those scenes made me teary-eyed. Dolly de Leon played a mother directly opposite to the one she played in her current theatrical hit "A Very Good Girl."  Her sad kindly eyes and face convey much more than she says.

Statuesque current Ms. Philippines Universe Michelle Dee struck an elegant silhouette as Annette Labayen, although her acting still needs further honing. Tirso Cruz III as her father Don Roldan Labayen, only had one scene with dialogue, when he confronted the snooty snob Cesar, the director of the Batiquin conservatory, played by Bart Guingona. Althea Pinzon was a delightful presence as Jayjay's friend Apple, while Katya Santos played her coquettish mother Eva.

From the very first act of this film, all the typical tropes of family melodrama were already very evident. A loser in life estranged from his mother, who is now saddled with a special child, who just so happened to be a musical prodigy. We've seen so many permutations of these stories already in past dramas, such that we can somehow predict what was going to happen. When the mother began exhibiting a worsening cough, the clearer the plot became. 7/10. 

Review of THE CREATOR: AI Annihilation

October 3, 2023

In the future, AI was already part and parcel of human society. In 2055, a tragic deadly accidental explosion of a nuclear warhead in Los Angeles was blamed on AI, so since then the West had been taking steps to eradicate AI altogether by gathering them up and destroying them all. However, a country called New Asia did not support this extreme Western initiative, and still lived with their AI simulants in defiant resistance to Western powers. 

In 2065, the US Army inaugurated their NOMAD system, which could destroy AI beings it detected with missiles launched from a space station. US Army Sgt. Joshua Taylor (John David Washington) was there at that time of the first surprise attack which claimed the life of pregnant wife, AI engineer Maya (Gemma Chan). Later, Taylor was assigned by his superior Col. Howell (Allison Janney) to track down a new weapon Maya supposedly invented.

British director Gareth Edwards only had three films before this new one, which he also co-wrote and produced. As with his last two films, which were both epic sci-fi franchise films, namely "Godzilla" (2014) and "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" (2016), Edwards had a flair for telling complex stories, effectively imbuing them with a beating heart. The AI simulants in this story were very human-like, with emotional issues that we can all connect with. 

We knew John David Washington playing very cool guys in "BlacKkKlansman" (2018), "Tenet" (2020) and "Amsterdam" (2022). Here as Joshua, we see a new Washington playing probably his most emotional character ever. He may not have had romantic chemistry with Gemma Chan's Maya, but he certainly had chemistry with 9-year old first-time child actress Madeleine Yuna Voyles, who displayed such a precious talent playing the prodigious AI Alphie. 

The main story would become very familiar once the resistance of the AI were violently attacked by the US Army, tempting you to make real-life parallels in world history and even current events. It was not a flattering portrait of the US Army, who was painted as the main antagonist with its heartless homeland defense policies which did not care about collateral human casualties sustained by their military actions against foreign countries.  8/10. 

Vivamax: Review of BJJ: WOMAN ON TOP: Recovering from Rape

September 29, 2023

One night while attending a wild debauched party, Elise (Angela Morena) was drugged with a spiked drink. was carried by a masked man into a bedroom where she was sexually assaulted. When she stumbled out of the room back to the party, the other guests did not believe her. Riza (Alexa Ocampo), the new girlfriend of Elise's ex-boyfriend Marco (Jiad Arroyo), even mocked Elise and led in pouring liquor on her head.

This traumatizing incident would haunt Elise's nightmares for the next five months. One day, she visited a place where she used to spend time with her late father, whose guidance she so desperately missed during this time. Her pensive "moment" was interrupted by the arrival of Ace (Yuki Sakamoto), a young man who asked Elise to help him with the balloons and cake he brought to celebrate the birthday of his late fiancee Diane (Jela Cuenca).  

The acronym "BJJ" in the title surely sent Vivamax fans speculating as to what sexual kink it stood for. The opening sequence focused on the faces of a man and woman on top of each other, grappling while moaning heavily. They looked like they were in the throes of lovemaking, but it was revealed that they were doing wrestling moves in a gym. It turns out that BJJ stood for Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, a martial art for which Ace was a master coach. 

The gist of the story involved Ace helping Elise move on from her PTSD by getting her into BJJ. However, it turned out that Ace himself could not move on from the death of his dearly beloved Diane. The rest of the film would just be padded with multiple sex scenes involving all of the main characters with each other. You'd predict that there would eventually be one wrestling scene that would segue into a sex scene, and yes, that really happened. 

The role of Elise was challenging with her internalized psychological drama and physically-demanding jiu-jitsu scenes. Angela Morena gave it her best efforts, not really her career best performance, but she's still the best among this cast. Neophyte Yuki Sakamoto is not yet ready for the depth of his role as Ace. Cast Jiad Arroyo and you knew what he was going to be up to. As Elise's maid Blessy, Keanna Reeves looked very different from her prime. 

Director Linnet Zurbano's positive message of woman empowerment was there, but there was a problematic delivery, like several other rape-revenge films in the past. Here, Elise seemed to have overcome her trauma when she excelled in BJJ. Yet, after all she had been through, she was still allowed to be fooled by a man again, and even seduced to have consensual sex with him, before she discovered the truth, fought back and won.  3/10

Review of A VERY GOOD GIRL: Vindictive Venom

September 26, 2023

Multimillionaire CEO of Mother Mall, Molly Suzara (Dolly De Leon) wanted very badly to own an ancient wooden figurine, willing to spend top money for it. However, a young woman named Philomena "Philo" Angeles (Kathryn Bernardo) had already beat her to the punch to buy the expensive item. As an annoyed Ms. Suzara hastened to leave the venue, Philo caught her at the door and gave the precious artifact to her as a gift. 

Such was the puzzling yet irresistible opening sequence of Petersen Vargas's latest project "A Very Good Girl." Told from the point of view of Philo, her backstory would go back five years ago, about how a mousy and miserable plain Jane with a sickly mother (Angel Aquino) named Mercedes "Mercy" Novela would evolve into the stylish and sophisticated Philomena Angeles, an angry young woman who had just set her elaborate scheme into action. 

Fresh from her high-profile success abroad with "Triangle of Sadness" (Ruben Östlund, 2022), veteran indie character actress Dolly de Leon is finally playing her very first lead role in a mainstream Filipino movie. De Leon delighted in chewing up the scenery with her flamboyantly bitchy, gleefully hypocritical, and sinisterly power-tripping big boss.  Everything about Mother Molly was exaggerated and larger-than-life, and de Leon lived it up.

Kathryn Bernardo more than matched de Leon's acting passion in her complex character with two distinct personas. While playing Mercy was more within her comfort zone, Bernardo threw all caution to the wind to play seething, scheming Philo, a role against her usual type. When the title was first revealed in the opening credits, the audience actually erupted into applause when heard something they've never heard Bernardo say before. 

For each of Philo's encounters, Vargas switched up his storytelling style to make his stew even richer. With the mall's image model Zab (Chie Filomeno), there was dark comedy. With Molly's right-hand man Charles (Jake Ejercito), there was sexual intrigue. With Molly's personal assistant Gene (Ana Abad Santos), there was family melodrama. With Molly herself, every scene was a showdown of sass, every word dripping with vindictive venom.

Vargas also peppered the film with interesting minor chracters to spice things up further. They elicited strong audience reactions, actually stealing their scenes. They include the comical matron Thea (Kakki Teodoro), the mysterious cripple Rigel (Kaori Oinuma) and the adorable jetset bulldog Noriah. This was quite a roller-coaster ride of a film with an over-the-top camp value, with haute couture dresses and high society production design all the way.  8/10.

Vivamax: Review of LIGAW NA BULAKLAK: Hunk Held Hostage

September 24, 2023

Kevin Pascual (Arron Villaflor) was a popular leading man in the Vivamax-like streaming site called Mabuhay. One night after a shoot in a remote location, Kevin was driving home but lost his way. As it had been raining lately, the dirt road was very water-logged, so the wheels of Kevin's car got stuck in the mud. When he went out of the car to check, Kevin slipped and fell, hitting his head on a rock, and he blacked out. 

A man named Dune (Jeric Raval) saw the unconscious Kevin on the road, and decided to carry him to his house. His daughter Dian (Chloe Jenna) tended to Kevin, giving him herbal teas. His right leg was also injured badly, rendering him unable to walk properly. Dian never left their forest abode, content to be entertained by watching movies from DVDs her father brought home for her from the village.

This film is directed by Jeffrey Hidalgo, the former Smokey Mountain singer turned filmmaker, now on his third Vivamax project, after "Eva" (2021) and "Lampas Langit" (2022). The story is obviously inspired by Stephen King's novel turned film "Misery" (1990). Of course, this was given the usual Vivamax treatment, and the premise about a sexy film actor sure allowed multiple such scenes to be squeezed in without coming off too forced. 

Hidalgo went meta at the start, taking us behind-the-scenes on a sexy film shoot. Here, Kevin had a frequent screen partner name Cassie (Sheila Snow), who was very much into Kevin, who was not into her. We meet Kevin's director (Rember Galera) and his agent (Angeli Bayani in a video call cameo). Too bad these scenes were there only to establish Kevin's job and snobbish personality. It would be interesting to expand this further in a future project. 

There was also a subtle dig on people posting clips of "good bits" of Mabuhay sexy films online prior to the release of the film, ruefully acknowledging that piracy of streamed content is something film company's could not control at the moment. Dian's only source of ecstatic pleasure in her mountain existence was watching DVDs of pirated Mabuhay films. It wasn't clear though how electricity could reach their remote abode.

Sharp viewers will surely notice that Kevin sustained an injury to his head, but in the house, all we see is a leg injury (which would only be cleared up later in the film), but his head wound was never really mentioned again. There was nice info about medicinal plants tsaang gubat, sambong and lagundi for wound healing, but for this therapeutic effect, these leaves are used as local washes and poultice application, not as a tea to be drunk. 

Chloe Jenna, who had been playing second fiddle to all the other Vivamax stars since she debuted in "Eva" (2021), finally gets to play the central female role. Her acting efforts here were largely inconsistent, Kathy Bates she is definitely not at this point. Arron Villaflor was pretty much just coasting along here, acting lazily for the quick paycheck. Sheila Snow is now on her 6th Vivamax film in small roles, but her enthusiasm may get her that lead role soon. 

There were a few moments of deadpan humor in the film care of supporting characters. There were the two policemen (played by Dennis Marasigan and director Hidalgo himself) handling the case who have surnames of famous directors Bernal and Abaya. There was the attention-hound (Raul Morit) who called in about the abandoned car. The funniest bits involved Kevin's uber drama queen mother (Marissa Sanchez) who really poured on the hysterics. 3/10.

Review of SOUND OF FREEDOM: Tracking Traffickers

September 22, 2023

In Tegucigalpa, Honduras, a  financially-strapped man named Roberto (Jose Zuniga) was asked by an attractive woman named Giselle (Yessica Barroto) if he would allow his two children Rocio (Cristal Aparicio) and Miguel (Lucas Avila) to become models. He agreed to drop his two kids off with Giselle in an office in the city for the auditions. However, when Roberto came back to pick them up that evening, all he reached was an empty room.

Tim Ballard (Jim Caviezel) was an agent of Homeland Security assigned to cases of pedophiles and child pornography. Frustrated that they were not actually able to rescue any of the kids being sold in illegal websites, he pretended to be a pedophile himself to get more concrete results. An arrested pedophile named Ernst Oshinsky (Kris Avidisian) fell for his ploy and was able to arrange for Tim to meet up with a trafficked child.

This film tackled the very despicable crime of child trafficking. Not only do these criminals steal children from their parents, but they would then subject these children to unspeakable acts of depraved perversity. Every parent would sympathize with the plight of Roberto, who was of course wracked with guilt for putting his children directly in harm's way. The film was careful about the depiction of child abuse, but these were very disturbing nonetheless.

The main bulk of the film was telling the story of how Tim Ballard went over and beyond the call and scope of duty to rescue one particular victim -- the precious little Rocio. What we saw Ballard do to achieve his objective onscreen, defying all risks to the integrity of his family, his job and personal safety was indeed very impressive, too good to be all true. The cynical in the audience may question how much of this heroism was real-life or cinematic license.

To be completely objective, this was a typical based-on-true-events white-savior rescue drama at best. However, it has currently gained so much buzz owing to its unexpected box-office haul in the US, grossing almost 15x its original budget, certainly one of the most profitable indie films of all time. The reference to Christian faith in the narrative and Caviezel's earnest pay-it-forward appeal during the closing credits had worked in its favor. 7/10.

Review of VIDEO CITY: Rewinding to Recharge

September 21, 2023

Han Pena was a 25-year old film major, whose experiencing personal stress at home that made him listless and distracted in school He could not even come up with a storyline for his upcoming film thesis requirement, which was fast approaching. His mother, critically-acclaimed and fan-beloved film director Anita Laurel Pena, had recently fallen very ill and lost her ability to talk and move, now dependent on her dutiful husband (Soliman Cruz). 

One day, Han had to go to an old internet cafe called Taympers to work. When he curiously pressed the rewind button on a old car-shaped VHS tape rewinder there, Han suddenly found himself in a Video City VHS home video rental store. In his panic, he knocked down a display rack, which annoyed salesgirl Ningning Magtulis (Yassi Pressman). Seeing the date on a newspaper, Han saw that he was in the year 1995.

This rom-com used a time-travel trope in its story. The writer did not bother anymore to explain how or why the time travel happened by pressing the rewinder -- no backstory, it just happened, which may be just as well. Han also did not have a hard time convincing Ningning that he came from the future, as she would actually witness him disappear into thin air when the his visiting time was up, and reappear from out of the blue the next day. 

There was an interesting twist added to the time travel. Starting at 12 hours, Han would have an hour less every time he went back, so he can only do this for 12 days. The usual sci-fi warning that any changes done in the past can significantly change the future was mentioned, yet Han violated this rule at least twice, with seemingly no consequence. The ending was one puzzling game-changing innovation, but there was no more time or need to explain it.

Whether director Raynier Brizuela was able to pull off his time travel gambit well or not, the performances of Ruru Madrid and Yassi Pressman carried the love story through with sincerity and chemistry. Brizuela also shared his love for cinema: Han as a film major, Ningning as an aspiring actress, Han's mom as a film director, the nostalgia of VHS renting and iconic scenes from films like "Bituing Walang Ningning" and "Maging Sino Ka Man." 6/10. 

Review of CONCRETE UTOPIA: Scandalous Survival

September 21, 2023

A major destructive earthquake hit Seoul, and practically all the buildings in the city have collapsed. The only apartment building left standing was Huang Gung, so all the surviving residents of neighboring apartments want to seek shelter in it. With the problem of security and food looming ahead, the residents of Huang Gung met together to organize themselves in the face of this issue -- should they evict outsiders (whom they called "cockroaches") or not? 

When a fire broke out in one of the apartments, a quiet man named Kim Yeong-tak (Lee Byung-hun) took the lead to charge into the burning room to put out the fire. Because of this, the other residents all voted unanimously Yeong-tak to be their leader, giving him the honorific title of Mr. Delegate. Yeong-tak chose a young public servant named Min-sung (Park Seo-joon) as his right-hand, to the dismay of Min-sung's nurse wife Myeong-wah (Park Bo-young). 

The earthquake was of a magnitude deadly enough to level a modern city like Seoul, and the special visual and sound effects certainly delivered the goods in this aspect. The chaotic post-apocalyptic landscape made for an ominous backdrop for the human drama unfolding. There are widely-shot scenes of mass destruction that evoke agoraphobia or acrophobia, as there were several tightly-shot scenes of narrow crawlspaces that provoke claustrophobia. 

The ambiguous questions of ethics and problematic moral decisions of the survivors make this an intensely thought-provoking watch. We identify with Min-sung as he was caught between the fanaticism of Yeong-tak and the compassion of Myeong-wah. We've seen survival movies before, but as written and directed by Uhm Tae-hwa, this film was as much as a sociological study and a crime mystery, as it was a psychological drama and a disaster epic. 

This film was recently named as the entry of South Korea to the race for Best International Film at the next Oscar Awards, which should attract more viewers to go check it out. 7/10. 

Review of EXPEND4BLES: Stratham's Show

September 20, 2023

A terrorist organization headed by arms dealer Suarto Rahmat (Iko Uwais) was smuggling nuclear warheads for a mysterious client code-named Ocelot, who planned to use them to create an "international incident". The Expendables had been conscripted by CIA agent Marsh (Andy Garcia) to stop Rahmat's group from succeeding. 

The Expendables is a film franchise that paid tribute to 80s action film stars and proving that they still had what it takes to fire up excitement on the big screen. The first three films came out in quick succession, the first film in 2010, followed by sequels in 2012 and 2014. It took almost 10 years before this new sequel saw the light.

Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) still lead the crew and they command the screen with their skills in action and comedy. Aside from them, only heavy weapons expert Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren) and demoliton expert Toll Road (Randy Couture) remain from the original Expendables team. 

Along with them on this mission were new members: Easy Day (50 Cent), and Galan (Jacob Scipio), the son of Galgo (Antonio Banderas). As Marsh, Andy Garcia took over the role of the CIA operative that the Expendables worked with, who were Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) in the "Expendables 2" and Max Drummer (Harrison Ford) in Expendables 3. 

Along with the macho crew, there will be two female operatives were just as bad-ass when it came to the action scenes. CIA agent Gina (Megan Fox) is Christmas's girlfriend, with whom he had an precariously explosive relationship. Martial arts skills was the forte of Lash (Levy Tran), who got her name from the metal lash she wielded in her fights.

The best thing about this particular outing for me was the casting of two bonafide Southeast Asian action superstars in key roles: Indonesian Iko Uwais (star of "The Raid") as the main antagonist Rahmat, and Thai Tony Jaa (star of "Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior"). In particular, Jaa's performance in his knife fight scenes were hair-raising in their intensity. 

It may be disappointing for his fans that Stallone was onscreen for only about 10% of this film. Barney was involved in an incident (with poor quality CGI effects) that would make him a rallying point. When Christmas took over the lead role (as seen in the poster billing), a passing of the baton of team leadership is evident, if ever there is a next film. 5/10.