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. 

Netflix: Review of LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT: Steeped in Serendipity

September 17, 2023

Hadley Sullivan (Haley Lu Richardson) just missed her flight to London by four minutes. She was on her way there to attend and be the bridesmaid at the second wedding of her father Andrew (Rob Delaney) to his fiancee Charlotte (Katrina Nare). She was close to her dad before, but was still bitter about him divorcing her mom. She had to buy a ticket on the next flight, even if the only available seat was in business class. 

Oliver Jones was a British young man who was taking up statistics in an American university. His parents Val (Dexter Fletcher) and Tessa (Sally Phillips) were theater folk obsessed with Shakespeare, and his brother Luther (Tom Taylor) was an eccentric EDM DJ. Oliver was a math nerd and would quote statistics to justify his decisions. When he got to his assigned seat on the plane, the seatbelt was broken. He was upgraded to business class.

"Love at First Sight" was such a generic name for a rom-com, I almost ignored it, thinking the lazy title was an omen for a boring story. Thanks to positive word of mouth, I still checked it out, and good thing I did. The original source material was a 2011 novel by Jennifer E. Smith entitled  "The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight," which made sense in the context of the story, but was admittedly a rather unwieldy title of a movie. 

The director was British filmmaker Vanessa Caswill. Her works prior to this movie had been TV miniseries on BBC, like "Thirteen" (2016), "Gold Digger" (2019) and most notably "Little Women" (2017), where she showed her skills in telling stories about women. In this her feature film debut, she told the quirky love story of Hadley and Oliver quite well, especially when complemented with dry British wit. 

I've seen Haley Lu Richardson before in the dying teen love story "Five Feet Apart" (2019) and she was a very good and natural actress. Ben Hardy, whom we've first seen as Archangel in "X-Men: Apocalypse" (2016), is actually already 32 in real life, but he can still pull off a college boy vibe here, barely. Jameela Jamil played guardian angel of sorts to push the love story forwards, narrating the backstory and numerical facts for each scene. 

However, for me, the most extraordinary character was Oliver's mother Tessa, played by veteran British comedienne Sally Phillips. That scene at Peckham House had elaborate costumes and colorful production design, but the emotional impact was so rich and eloquent.  I went into this film only expecting to be mildly entertained with a sweet but predictable love story, but there I was in tears, as would anyone who was in Ollie's situation. 7/10. 

Vivamax: Review of PATIKIM-TIKIM: Entangled Emotions

September 16, 2023

Emilio "Miyo" Mala (Aerol Carmelo) has been involved with various girlfriends since he was thirteen years old. Now working in the front desk of a hotel and up for a promotion, he thinks it is time for him to get serious and settle down. His last girlfriend April (Chloe Jenna) was a clingy insatiable nymphomaniac. Miyo was tired of their physically-exhausting relationship and decided to break up with her, but she is not giving up on him. 

One day, he met his childhood hometown friend (and ex-girlfriend whom he ghosted) Ivy Bian (Yen Durano) at his hotel, and this rekindled his old crush on her. He now believes that Ivy is the one for him. However, he discovered that Ivy has been having a lesbian relationship for the past three years with his boss Ma'am Bianca Delfino (Apple Dy), the very person who will decide if his promotion to supervisor will be approved or not. 

Yen Durano and Apple Dy were just recently launched in their respective lead starrers where they displayed their promising acting talents aside from their feminine curves -- "Litsoneras" for Durano and "Punit Na Langit" for Dy. Here in "Patikim-tikim," they both shined with their very natural free-flowing performances and good working chemistry with each other and their co-stars, proving that their auspicious debut projects were not flukes. 

Up-and-coming Vivamax stud Aerol Carmelo also showed an entirely new aspect of his acting range from his last two films "Bisyo!" and "Punit na Langit." This young actor actually has a knack for physical comedy, especially in those scenes when Miyo's stamina was already all zapped by his fifth round with the tireless April. He had a convincing romantic chemistry with Durano, and his Miyo looked genuinely lovestruck during their scenes together.

Veteran director Joey Javier Reyes has crafted quite an entertaining romantic comedy in his latest film. However, being a Vivamax project, graphic sex scenes are of course a prominent ingredient, so it is for mature audiences only. This was too bad, because with its complex but well-written story could have been developed to be screened with a PG-13 rating, without any bed scenes. Reyes also added a nice touch breaking through the fourth wall at the end.  6/10. 

Review of THE EQUALIZER 3: Italian Intimidation

September 15, 2023

Retired US Marine - black ops agent Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) has been seriously injured after a bloody mission in Sicily. He was found unconscious in his car by a local police officer Gio Bonucci (Eugenio Mastrandrea). He was brought to Altamonte to be treated by Dr. Enzo Arisio (Remo Girone).  As he was recovering, McCall enjoyed the laidback lifestyle and friendly people in that small coastal village in Southern Italy.

However, Altamonte was being terrorized by gangsters led by the Quaranta brothers (Andrea Dodero and Andrea Scarduzio), who were forcing the residents to leave their homes so their organization can use the town for their criminal operations. Bonucci dared to interfere with the gang's activities, so he and his family were assaulted in their own home. Seeing the suffering of his friends and neighbors, McCall, true to his nature, decided to intervene.

This is the third installment of the only film franchise that Denzel Washington accepted to do. Robert McCall had much empathy for regular people who were being hurt and exploited by powerful bad guys. He would fight for their freedom against their oppressors, which was the premise since the original late 1980s TV series starring Edward Woodward as McCall. Like the first two films, the kills here were still shockingly violent and excruciatingly painful.

The story of this new one is relatively simple, with McCall only fighting against local mobsters disturbing the peace of order in his neighborhood. However, what will set this one apart for the two previous films was the picturesque location in southern coast of Italy. Another distinctive feature of this sequel was that a major part of the dialogue was actually in Italian, which audiences (especially those averse to subtitles) may not like. 

Another remarkable aspect of this film was the guest appearance of child superstar of the aughts, Dakota Fanning. This is a reunion project for Washington and Fanning, who was his co-star in "Man on Fire" (2004), when Fanning, now 29 year old, was only 10 years old. She played CIA agent Emma Collins to whom McCall specifically gave a major tip. She will figure in an 11th hour revelation which will be meaningful to fans of the first two films. 6/10. 

Review of STRAYS: Dirty Digs on a Dog's Devotion

September 14, 2023

Doug (Will Forte) was a lowlife bum and drug addict who mistreated his dog, a Border Terrier. His girlfriend Ashley (Jade Hernandez) named the dog Reggie when she adopted him. When they separated, Doug held on to Reggie to annoy Ashley, and proceeded to abuse the poor dog anyway. Despite all this neglect from his master, Reggie thought Doug really loved him and kept on wanting to play with him, even if Doug didn't really like to.

One day, fed up Doug drove 3 hours out of town to abandon Reggie. Lost and confused, Reggie met a stray Boston Terrier named Bug (Jamie Foxx), who later introduced him to his friends, an Australian Shepherd named Maggie (Isla Fisher) and a therapy Great Dane wearing a cone, named Hunter (Randall Park). As the dogs shared stories, Reggie realized he's been abused all this time and resolved to go home so he can bite Doug's d**k off.

This was basically about the adventures and misadventures of four dogs going on a road trip to look for three landmarks that Reggie remembered cryptically as "a giant hamster wheel without a hamster," "a giant cone" and "the devil in the sky" en route to Doug's house in Oakwood. This actually could have a fun and funny film for dog-lovers of all ages, but that is NOT what writer Dan Perrault and director Josh Greenbaum had in mind.

From the first moment Doug was introduced, we readily see his vulgar habits and hear his foul mouth spew profanities.  When Reggie met Dug, his new street-smart BFF also had a curse word and sexual reference in practically every sentence. This off-color, gross-out and raunchy comedy of the green and brown kind was right up the lane of "The Hangover" and "Bridesmaids" and its ilk, definitely not for kids.

The gags regarding the dogs humping everything including Dolores the Couch (Sofia Vergara), peeing on each other, and the mutiny of the poop at the pound were pretty much par for the course for doggie-style comedy. The involvement of a hawk added a dash of over-the-top excitement. However, the filmmakers went too far beyond the limits of poor taste in that bizarre hallucinogen mushroom-induced episode with the ripped-up stuffed toys. 

Writer Perrault did very well thinking and speaking from a dog's point of view. The talented A-list voice actors all gave their dogs delightful personalities, particularly Ferrell and Foxx. The comedy can be raucous, but there were also some pretty heartwarming moments. In those scenes showing Reggie's pure loyalty and unconditional love for his master, dog-owners will definitely reflect on their own dogs and love them even more. 6/10.