Vivamax: Review of ROOM SERVICE: Peep and Pry

January 18, 2024

At home, Carol Santos (Shiena Yu) was very frustrated with her husband Arvin (Nathan Cajucom) because he could not satisfy her demand for long-lasting intercourse. She was hired as a housekeeper of a small hotel. She had a snooty supervisor (Mark Ranel Grabador) who caught her watching porn, so he was on her case ever since. She also had a co-employee Benjo (Anthony Dabao) who won't stop harassing her. 

At work, her attention was drawn to a mystery guest (Angelo Ilagan), whom she noticed had been bringing different nameless girls (Athena Moran, Xera Bailey, Bo Ivan Lo) into his room. They would spend the night tumbling in the sheets, with taking pills and taking videos involved in the action.  Soon, the man began to notice Carol's apparent attraction to him, so one day, he invited her to render him some room service.

This short Vivamax film (only 46 minutes long) was directed by Bobby Bonifacio, Jr. There were two people credited for writing -- Rijel Reyes as Episode Writer and John Carlo Pacala as Head Writer. I am not sure if this was a separate feature film, or was this just an episode of an anthology series that did not fully materialize. Unlike other new Vivamax films which was released on Fridays, this was released on a Tuesday. 

Shiena Yu had been in a number of Vivamax films since 2022, but this was the first time she was the headliner. She still did not appear to act confident enough, but maybe it was done on purpose to confuse the viewer about the character of Carol. She was not very subtle when she spied on the activities of Michael, with her constant hanging around his room, casting longing looks at him, and even blatantly attempting to shoot videos of him.

Angelo Ilagan had been in show business for almost 20 years now since his first film "Sarong Banggi" (Emmanuel de la Cruz, 2005) where he played a teenager initiated into sex by no less than Jaclyn Jose. Now he's back via Vivamax. Here, his character (named Michael in the closing credits) was a man of few words, so basically, all Ilagan had to do was to smolder on camera, look seductive and irresistible to women, and act like a master stud in bed.  2/10.