Review of A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE: Carnage in the City

June 28, 2024

Terminally-ill cancer patient Sam (Lupita Nyong'o) and her service cat Frodo lived in a hospice in the outskirts of New York City. One day, she reluctantly joined nurse Reuben (Alex Wolff) and the other residents of her hospice on a group outing to a theater in the city to watch a puppet show. With this trip to the city, Reuben promised Sam that she would be able to buy the special pizza she had long been pining for. 

However, their excursion was suddenly cut short when meteors started falling down from the sky. One of them hit their bus forcing a dazed Sam to walk out into the dusty streets along with other shell-shocked New Yorkers. Suddenly, there were alien creatures who began picking off random people from the street and killing them.  The survivors were told that the creatures were attacking those who were making noise, so they kept silent. 

We have already met these blind alien creatures sound two movies ago, so writer-director Michael Samosky (taking over from John Krasinski) did not see the need to describe them anymore. In the first film (2018), we met the Abbott family evading these monsters in their remote town in upstate New York. In the second film (2020), we followed the Abbott family's search a radio station to broadcast a sonic solution for their plight. 

Without the Abbott family in the story anymore, we have to reacquaint ourselves with a new lead character Sam, whom Lupita Nyong'o played with internalized anguish. Fortunately, we had cute cat Frodo to keep our spirits up. We do recognize a familiar face whom we met before in Part II as the "Man on the Island." Here we learn that his name was Henri (Djimon Hounsou), and we see the germination of his leadership potential.

As she was finding her way to the pizza she so wanted, Sam meets a British law student Eric (Joseph Quinn), who emerged from an inexplicably flooded subway station. Quinn's Eric certainly did not look like his Hellfire Club president Eddie Munson, which Quinn played in the fourth season of "Stranger Things" (2022). One remarkable detail about Eric was his neck tie which he never removed from beginning to end, which was simply weird. 7/10. 

 

Review of HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA, CHAPTER 1: Land of Loss and Lamentation

June 28, 2024

In 1859, land beside the river in the San Pedro Valley were being sold to people who wanted to make a community out west, calling the new settlement Horizon. Because this area was in the territory of the Apache tribe, tragic misfortune befell the first white men who surveyed the area. In 1863, a big group of folk who bought land in Horizon saw the crosses on one bank of the river, and decided to settle down on the other side. 

That night, the Apache led by Pionsenay (Owen Crow Shoe) came down to violently claim what was theirs. Many settlers were killed, as their houses were razed down to the ground. Answering a call for help, troops from the nearest army outpost led by Lt. Trent Gephard (Sam Worthington) arrived to clean up the massacre site. Among the survivors was Mrs. Frances Ketteridge (Sienna Miller) and her daughter Lizzie (Georgia McPhail). 

The main driving force behind this ambitious project is producer, director, co-writer and actor Kevin Costner. When he called "Horizon" a saga, he was not exaggerating. This 3 hour-long film I watched is only the Part 1 of 4 parts. Part 2 will be released August 16, 2024. The release dates of Chapters 3 and 4 have yet to be announced. Therefore, when you watch this, don't be surprised if the story feels incomplete, because there really is more to come.   

I have to confess that I was overwhelmed by the number of individual threads involving multiple characters, both white and Native American, being told in here. Costner's character Hayes Ellison does not even appear until after the first hour. Only upon his arrival do we meet other important characters like Marigold (Abbey Lee), Ellen Harvey (Jena Malone), and the bully Syke brothers, Junior (Jon Beavers) and Caleb (Jamie Campbell Bowers). 

From those artistic shots in the opening scene of men surveying the land, the majestic expansive beauty of the American West was beautifully captured in every scene by cinematographer J. Michael Muro, accompanied by the music by John Debney. It was clear that this is a passion project of Costner, telling a blood-stained story of socio-cultural conflict between white migrants and Native Americans in the wild West of the mid-1800s. 7/10. 

Review of CABRINI: Improving the Indignity of Italian Immigrants

June 23, 2024

Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini (Cristiana Dell'Anna) was a nun who wanted to establish her own order of female missionaries dedicated to the care of orphans worldwide. She repeatedly wrote Pope Leo XIII (Giancarlo Giannini) to request permission, but was rejected. She sought a personal audience with the Pope to tell him the details of her plan to build orphanages in China. However, the Pope sent her to start her mission in New York City first instead.   

Mother Cabrini and her sisters immediately experienced discrimination upon their arrival as the coachman did not want to take them to their assignment in Five Points. This was a slum where impoverished Italian immigrants led a hand-to-mouth existence as they were shunned by the white communities around them. The white Mayor (John Lithgow) would have nothing to do with them. Even the white Archbishop (David Morse) initially rejected to help them.

This was a straightforward biography of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, the founder of  the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1880. She is known as the first US citizen canonized as a saint of the Catholic Church. The film showed how she boldly stood up against the powerful men around her who belittled her being an Italian and a woman. She never let her serious lung disease get in the way of the accomplishment of her mission. 

However, the more eye-opening aspect of this story that struck me was the severity of the racial discrimination of Italian immigrants during that time in the history of New York. This was clearly seen in opening scene of little boy Paolo (Federico Ielapi) pushing his dying mother around the streets in a wheelbarrow, desperately looking for a hospital which would accept her. I never knew that Italian immigrants also suffered such inhumane indignities

Mexican director Alejandro Monteverde tackles another religious-themed story of human injustice, after "Sound of Freedom" (2023). Monteverde created several beautiful images here that evoked nostalgia, like Cabrini's paper boats with violets on the water, her profile on the porthole of the ship, and the Statue of Liberty across the bay when they landed. The screenplay by Rod Barr gave Cabrini several strong feminist lines to deliver, the most powerful being "Men can never do what we do." 8/10. 

Review of PLAYTIME: Triple Toxic Terror

June 19, 2024

They were just three women who were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Perfect girl Roni (Coleen Garcia) had been living a perfect life and was about to get married to her perfect boyfriend Jake (Kim Perez). Carefree girl Patricia (Faye Lorenzo) had just broken up with a bad boyfriend Paul (Bruce Roeland), who was still hounding her. Smart and serious girl Allyson (Sanya Lopez) was a popular vlogger who talked about feminist issues. 

On different occasions, these three ladies had all fallen for the charms of Lucas (Xian Lim), a man they just randomly met. He gained their trust in one way or the other, and convinced them to get into his car with him. He offered them a drink from a flask he had in the glove compartment. When they came to, they found themselves in his house built in the middle of a dense forest. Lucas had brought them there so they can play his games. 

Mark A. Reyes debuted as a director on television with "TGIS" (1995), and in feature films with "TGIS: The Movie" (1997). Since then, he had mostly done TV series, his most memorable recent work being on "Voltes V: Legacy" and its "Cinematic Experience" (2023).  For "Playtime," Reyes mostly played with typical horror tropes to create the mood -- like remote location, dimly-lit surroundings, and, very prominently here, loud startling musical cues. 

A surprising name among the writers is Dustin Celestino. He is known as a playwright for cerebral, thought-provoking one-act plays at the Virgin Labfest and for his directorial debut, "Ang Duyan ng Magiting," a bold, eloquently-written treatise on the country's political situation. Celestino makes a detour into shallower, less cerebral territory with "Playtime," co-writing with Noreen Capili ("Through Night and Day)" and Reyes about a power-tripping psychotic whose idea of fun and games is treating women like rag dolls and punching bags.

As in "UnTrue" (2019), Xian Lim looks at home in the horror and thriller genre, as his directorial efforts had all been in that direction. His movie-star looks can sweep ladies off their feet, yet those thick eyebrows can contort his face into a mask of evil.  As the damsels in distress, Garcia, Lorenzo and Lopez went through all sorts of pain and emotions, as their characters desperately match wits with their deranged captor. This film may be uneven, and occasionally silly, but entertaining nonetheless, thanks to the commitment of the actors. 5/10.

 

Vivamax: Mini-Reviews of LINYA, SISID MARINO, CITA

June 18, 2024

LINYA

Director: Carlo Alvarez

Writer: Carlo Alvarez

Gia (Cess Garcia) is a popular barista at the Brucekoffi coffee shop, especially among male customers. Her boss Danny (Vas Palacay) and fellow employees like her for her efficiency at work. Her playboy co-worker Cris (Anthony Davao) had also fallen for Gia's charms. However, Gia was also the kept woman of a notorious politician, Cong. Aries (Chester Grecia), who feasted on Gia's body even in plain sight of his driver Pepe (VJ Vera).

Carlo Alvarez wrote, directed, and called the shots for this movie very well. Garcia and Davao both displayed promising dramatic chops. That scene of Gia and Cris on their smoking break outdoors was even more erotic fully-clothed, than in their nude sex scenes. That scene of Gia confessing her sad past experiences to Cris in bed was heartbreaking. Now if only Alvarez did not have to have to fulfill the Vivamax quota of gratuitous sex scenes, this could have actually gone somewhere more substantial. 5/10

SISID MARINO

Director: Joel Lamangan

Writer: Eric Ramos

The first born son of Susan (Julia Victoria) and her former seaman husband Elmer (John Marcia) died within minutes of being born. While Susan was recovering from the trauma, Elmer discovered that he had been scammed by the cooperative with which he had invested all his earnings from abroad. Feeling that they only had each other against the world, they decided to just lock themselves away in their homes and engage in non-stop sex. 

This one actually started out promising as it showed positive family dynamics of supporting each other in times of tragedy. Neophytes Victoria and Marcia were actually able to handle their characters quite well, as long as they kept it restrained. As their situation eventually became hopeless in Act 3, so did the film. Their bizarre perversion of sex and violence was inexplicable, outrageous, and absurdly peaked with a physically impossible climax. 2/10. 

CITA

Director: MJ Balagtas

Writer: Byron Bryant

18-year old Cita (Erika Balagtas) is the young wife of 54 year-old farmer Arturo Fontilla (Francis Mata), owner of several orchards of various fruits like lanzones, mangoes and dragon fruit. One day, Turo was visited by buyer Vanessa Ariola (Zia Zamora), a businesswoman whose Japanese partner who was being investigated by policeman Floy (Arjay Bautista). Meanwhile, Turo's lusty son Aldoy (Renzo Ruiz) fed Cita some bad ideas. 

Like many other Vivamax films, the story was wasted, just a skeleton to hang sex scenes on. The dragon fruit farm looked very good, but viewers will just probably remember it as the location of daring all-out sex scenes involving the sturdily-built Vanessa and middle-aged Turo (whom I thought was a senior citizen because of his white beard, until his age was mentioned). Balagtas was still too raw to headline a film. She only had one flat facial expression all throughout. 2/10

Review of INSIDE OUT 2: Anxiety-Ascendant Adolescence

June 12, 2024

Riley (Kensington Tallman) had just turned thirteen and was doing very well in school. She and her best friends Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green) and Grace (Grace Lu) were doing very well in their ice hockey team as well. They were invited by high school ice hockey Coach Roberts (Yvette Nicole Brown) to join her summer camp. Riley was very excited because she knew she would get to play with her ice hockey idol Val Ortiz (Lilimar). 

Meanwhile, inside Riley's brain, her basic emotions -- Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Disgust (Liza Lapira), Anger (Lewis Black) and Fear (Tony Hale) -- were thrown into a panic when the puberty alarm sounded off. Their control panel was replaced with a new orange one to accommodate the new emotions coming in -- Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adele Exarchopolous) and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser).

The first "Inside Out" (2015) was about Riley's emotions as a child up to age 11. For this sequel, Riley hits adolescence, and as we all know, a whole new range of emotions come in to address the new life experiences we have in this awkward segment of our lives. We spend less time at home, and spend more time outside trying to fit into whole new groups of acquaintances, something that caused us to have sleepless nights of uncertainty. 

Writers Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein would have us believe that Anxiety was the main emotion during our adolescence. it pushes all other emotions aside as it fed our ego endless lines about not being good enough. In our desperate effort to make other people like us, our anxiety would just make us needlessly overthink about situations we get ourselves into. Joy's line of realization really hit very hard, "When you're growing up, you feel less joy."

While understandable, Anxiety's dominance in Riley's teenage personality (and in this movie) felt excessive and over-the-top. Anxiety's usurpation of Riley mind was disturbing, making the PG rating appropriate. This meant that the other new emotions did not have much to do except be Anxiety's "henchmen," which was a disappointment. Embarrassment's close connection with Sadness was cute, but was not really explained too well in psych terms.  

It is very difficult to create a sequel following a very innovative original and sustain its quality. Pixar had proven that they can do this with the "Toy Story" (2005) series (but then there was "Cars 2"). "Inside Out" boldly took on human psychology, so it is going to be trickier to balance kiddie and adult humor as Riley gets older. We did see a teaser of a future emotion named Nostalgia (voiced by 94-year old actress June Squibb), and I am all for that one. 7/10. 

   

Netflix: Review of HIT MAN: Star of the Sting

June 10, 2024

Gary Johnson (Glen Powell) lived alone with his cats and birds, and taught psychology and philosophy at the University of new Orleans. Because of his skills in electronics, he also worked undercover for the police department, hiding cameras and microphones for murder-for-hire cases. One day, Jasper (Austin Amelio), the officer who usually posed as the hitman in their sting operations, was suspended, Gary was suddenly pushed to take his place. 

From his very first mission, Gary got the hang of the job and was successful in nailing people who planned to murder other people. One day, he took on the identity of hitman "Ron" to talk to Madison (Adria Arjona), a wife who wanted to hire him to kill her abusive husband Ray Masters (Evan Holtzman). During the course of their conversation,  Gary found himself attracted and empathetic towards Madison, and advised her to cancel her planned hit.

This film is the latest project out by veteran director Richard Linklater, who was best known for the "Before" trilogy (1995, 2004, 2013), "School of Rock " (2003), and his Oscar-nominated real-time coming-of-age masterpiece "Boyhood" (2014). Incredibly, Linklater wrote up this story of Gary Johnson loosely-based on an actual person from the 1980s of the same name, occupation, side hustle, who was also asked by woman to kill her boyfriend.  

Glen Powell continues his rising career trajectory which got a sudden boost when he played Hangman in "Top Gun: Maverick" (2022), almost 20 years after his feature film debut as a teenager back in 2003. Earlier this year, he starred with Sydney Sweeney in rom-com "Anyone But You," which was a critical and commercial success. Aside from starring as lead actor, Powell also co-wrote this script with Linklater and was also one of the producers. 

Powell's Gary was a nerdy professor who smoothly transitioned into a convincing hitman able to make his "clients" say the correct incriminating words from his very first mission, which is hard to believe. Then there was one exciting scene when Arjona's Madison had a sudden unrehearsed conversation with Gary to throw suspicions off her. However, it was just too incredible that Gary and Madison could do spontaneous improv so perfectly. 7/10

***** SPOILER ALERT:

The ending was a little too slick, neat and ideal to be entirely satisfying. As the audience knew everything that really happened, it was disturbing to realize that Linklater and Powell wrote it such that there was no justice forthcoming for the two murders which took place. Whether their reasons for snuffing out those lives were justified or not did not really matter.  In the name of feel-good comedy, the killers here actually do get away with murders. 

Review of THE WATCHERS: Forest of Folklore

June 6, 2024

Mina (Dakota Fanning) was an artist who worked at a pet store. One day, she was asked by her boss to bring an exotic yellow parrot to a certain place in the Irish countryside. The GPS led her into a densely forested area until the internet signal just died. When she was driving through a dirt road in a thick forest, her car suddenly broke down.  When she came back after looking for help, her car had disappeared. 

As the darkness was engulfing the forest, Mina suddenly saw a woman holding a door open, calling her to come on in fast. Inside, she met Madeline (Olwen Fouéré), Ciara (Georgina Campbell) and Daniel (Oliver Finnegan). Madeline instructed Mina to look at a mirrored wall of this concrete bunker, which she called "The Coop." There were creatures called "Watchers" outside who wanted to see them.

This is the first feature film written and directed by 24-year old filmmaker Ishana Night Shyamalan. Her surname is immediately familiar -- she is the daughter of noted director of horror films, M. Night Shyamalan, who is one of the producers. She had worked in a couple of her father's recent films, as well as a horror TV series he created called "Servant." Her script is based on a 2021 novel of the same title written by Irish writer A.M. Shine. 

Ms. Night Shyamalan and her cinematographer Eli Arenson made the most of the creepy forest setting, with the dark shadows cast by the thick foliage of the tall trees. The air in the forest was known to cause fleeting visions, also adding to the eerie atmosphere. When we finally see the Watchers, we only see them from afar with their tall elongated forms stretching forth from the forest floor. It was wise that we never saw them close up in their faces.  

I liked the subtle foreshadowing clues being introduced from the beginning that were about mimicry and doubles. Mina had a twin sister, and she liked doing dress-up, pretending to be someone else on her nights out. The parrot Darwin can mimic words he heard, the most ominous soundbyte being "try not to die." The one-way mirror occupying one entire wall of the bunker made the indoor scenes look like there were two of everything. 

I liked the Irish folklore woven into the story. It was good to see Dakota Fanning back in the acting form we knew her for. I like the surprise uncredited actor who played the Professor who built the bunker. Just when you thought the Coop scenes had already peaked so well, there were 30 minutes more awkwardly appended after that. These scenes felt like a rather slow and anti-climactic epilogue. The twist reveal was good, but that part just took too long. 7/10. 

Review of 1521: Messy Mission to Mactan

July 5, 2024

6 weeks before the Battle of Mactan, Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan (Danny Trejo) and his men were welcomed in Cebu by the Datu Humabon (Floyd Tena) and his queen Humanai (Larissa Buendia). Among the visitors were the Datu of Mactan Lapu-Lapu (Michael Copon), who was vocal about his resistance to ally himself with the Spanish, seeing them not as traders, but as enemies who want to enslave the islanders. 

At the welcome party, Magellan's slave translator Enrique (Hector David Jr.) spotted the young babaylan (or shaman) of Mactan Diwata (Bea Alonzo) and was instantly attracted to her.  Magellan assigned Enrique to Mactan to gather information about them, as well as to convince them to accept Spain's offer to convert them into Catholicism. Enrique and Diwata fall in love with each other despite the animosity growing between their two camps. 

This film about the historically-significant Battle of Mactan is a Fil-American production. According to IMDb and Wikipedia, it was directed, shot and edited by an American Michael Barder. However, in the local poster, publicity materials and official website, direction was credited to Fil-Am actor Michael Copon, who played Lapu-Lapu. The story was by Francis B. Lara Ho, a Filipino-American born in Iloilo City, who also produced this film. However, the screenplay was written by American Mary Krell-Oishi. While the actors playing the Spaniards (Trejo, Mandylor, David) were not from Spain, Filipino characters were notably all portrayed by Filipinos.

Historically accurate or not, Michael Copon and his chiseled pecs and torso made for an imposing Lapu-Lapu. Being too girlish and careless, Bea Alonzo did not act like the wise respected babaylan Diwata was supposed to be. Vic Romano made full use of his big eyes to express Udong's displeasure over Enrique's closeness to his sister Diwata. Maricel Laxa was Udong loyal wife Ahmani, who was also supportive of Diwata's dangerous crush.

The Spanish officers were portrayed to be one-dimensional villains -- European colonialists who thought everyone else in the world were beasts they have to subjugate. . With a face like Danny Trejo, this version of Ferdinand Magellan certainly did not look trustworthy. As military leader Lorenzo, Costas Mandylor played the typical bully, who did not think twice about beating down those he considered inferior in stature and spitting on them.

The main exception was Enrique. He was born in Malacca and raised as a slave. He had interactions with traders from Cebu which made him familiar with the language. For this ability, he was brought along to be the translator. Personally, he advocated for peaceful cooperation between the Filipinos and Spain. However, as a slave, he was forced to toe the line and obey his master's wishes. His secret romance with Diwata was yet another problem. 

There was one very powerful scene that made the Spaniards look like opportunistic monsters -- the scene depicting the first Catholic baprism and Mass held in Cebu. This was supposed to be a religious occasion, however it ended up being a potent political manifesto of Spain's superiority. Everything started out calmly and solemnly, building up to the demand that the natives kneel before Catholic icons and renounce their own. Floyd Tena's Raja Humabon a.k.a. Carlos stood out here.

It was unfortunate that for the rest of the film, certain aspects of the cinematography and editing, production design, costumes and hair and makeup were haphazard and amateur-looking, making some scenes unintentionally funny. The Filipinos and the Spaniards were delivering lines English, yet they still needed a translator, making everything look and sound more contrived than it already was. Using Filipino and Spanish would have been much better.  

The historical scenes were bookended by present-day scenes of Alonzo and David at a beach party. We do not know who they were or how they were related, as we only hear a female voice-over talking about the idylls of being in love. As Alonzo's character fell asleep at the hotel, she suddenly (and inexplicably) had a dream about herself back in 1521 Mactan. She would then wake up from this dream at the end. Reincarnation, really?? Groan. 4/10. 

Review of BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE: Post-Slap Penance

June 5, 2024

Detective Lt. Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) just got married to a new wife, Christine (Melanie Liburd). Detective Lt. Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) had just survived a heart attack. AMMO leader Rita (Paola Nunez) was now romantically-involved with lawyer / mayoralty candidate Lockwood (Iain Gruffudd). Her team still included computer techie Dorn (Alexander Ludwig) and the weapons pro Kelly (Vanessa Hudgens). 

Captain Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano) had been murdered, and was now being framed to be involved with a foreign drug cartel.  Key witness, convicted murderer and Lowrey's son Armando (Jacob Scipio) had just survived an assassination attempt himself right inside prison, and had to be transferred by air. In their effort to clear their former boss Howard's name, Lowrey and Burnett (Martin Lawrence) joined the team to secure him.

The Oscar ceremony on March 27, 2022 was a turning point in Will Smith's career. Even if he won the Best Actor Oscar for "King Richard," that show will always be remembered for an unfortunate incident where an uncharacteristically angry Smith stormed out of his seat in the audience and slapped comedian Chris Rock on the stage. His red-hot career ground to a halt since then. His first movie released post-slap, "Emancipation" (2022), made no impact.  

As Lowery, Will Smith never lost his charisma as an lead actor, nor his swagger and skills as an action star. His chemistry with Martin Lawrence here was impeccably dynamic and their sarcastic banter was always fun to watch. A scene which drew significant audience reaction actually involved slaps to the face. Done as a light comic moment, I interpret this scene as Smith's act of penance to humbly atone for his unfortunate lapse of judgement.    

There were several moments of frenetic colorful action here, with physics-defying stunts (the ones on the cargo plane, Burnett's house and the gator amusement park were awesome), and cameos of guest stars (like DJ Khaled as a gangster, Tiffany Haddish as a madame, and a couple more surprises). Good and fun as this one was, the box-office of this fourth "Bad Boys" sequel remains uncertain. Is the public ready to forgive Will Smith, or not? 7/10.

Review of GODZILLA MINUS ONE: Harnessing History and Heroism

June 3, 2024

In the final days of World War II in 1945, kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) pretended that his jet plane was damaged and landed it on the airfield on Odo island for "repairs." That night, the camp was attacked by a violent dinosaur-like creature which natives called Godzilla. Engineer Tachibana (Munetaka Aoki) asked him to use his jet's 20mm gun to shoot the monster down, but Shikishima hesitated. Most of the men there there died.

When Shikishima returned to Tokyo, he met a young woman Noriko (Minami Hamabe), and the two of them lived together to raise an orphan Akiko (Sae Nagatani) together. Shikishima accepted a job to clear American magnetic mines deployed in the sea on a wooden boat called Shinsei Maru, and met new friends, weapons designer Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka), boat captain Akitsu (Kuranosuke Sasaki) and young crewman Mizushima (Yuki Yamada). 

The story of this new prequel film brings viewers back to a sensitive period in world history, showing how World War II had affected the common people in Japan. The threat of Godzilla came at a time when Japan was at its most vulnerable and desperate -- dealing with the socio-political aftermath of a war they lost, having their entire weapons arsenal decommissioned, and unable to get international assistance that they needed in this crisis. 

Then, there was also the personal story of our protagonist, as only the Japanese can tell them. Shikishima was a flawed man, haunted by the guilt of being a coward and a failure. He was unable to bring himself to marry Noriko, the woman he loved, because his internal war was not over yet. We see how traumatic circumstances finally brought to fore the hero in him, of course, with help from his friends. 

This film was released on Godzilla's 70th anniversary of existence as a film franchise which began in 1954. This is the 37th film about the monster, the 33rd by Toho Studios.  There is a big difference watching a Godzilla film made by the Japanese, with their particularly un-Hollywood-like visual effects that give a more organic feel. That major set piece showing Godzilla's destruction of Ginza was the centerpiece. Its unprecedented Oscar won for these visual effects was truly deserved.  10/10.

Vivamax: Mini-Reviews of SERBIDORA, HIMAS and MAHAL KO ANG MAHAL MO

June 4, 2024

SERBIDORAS

Director: Ray Gibraltar

Headwriter: Frederick Castro

Donna (Denise Esteban), Rina (Chloe Jena) and Liezel (Aila Cruz) were all working as waitresses in a restaurant owned by Randy (Nathan Cajucom). Randy had taken a fancy on Donna, while Rina was involved with Rigor (Vino Gonzales), and Liezel was with Randy (Chad Alviar). It would seem that the three girls all got the partner best for them. However, it later turned out that all their ideal men were too good to be true. 

This mid-length film was quite straightforward in its story, although quite male-centric in approach. These three women are fully aware that their boyfriends were all spoken for. However, as these two-timers were their keys to a better life, the girls were content to live in sin for as long as they can get away with it. Meanwhile the wives (Maan Pintado, Alyssa Alday, Abigail Calma) also fight to get their husbands back by whatever means.  4/10.

HIMAS

Director: Christian Paolo Lat

Writers: Maya Diaz, La Dhera

Fireman Ed (Felix Roco) lost his vision on the night that he rescued prostitute Dana (Sahara Bernales) from a fire. They got married and ran a massage spa on the beach. For six years, the couple lived a happy life despite Ed's visual handicap, coupled with his impotence. Dana topped her licensure exam as librarian, and quickly got a job in town. Ed hired 18 year-old illiterate boy Kokoy (MJ Abellera) to be his assistant.

Sahara Bernales and MJ Abellera get plenty of exposure (for dramatic scenes and for sex scenes), but sadly, their acting left a lot to be desired. Felix Roco was back to form here in his sympathetic portrayal of a blind man dealing with not only physical, but also mental issues. Acting-wise, Zsara Laxamana, who played Ed's ex-girlfriend Me-Ann, had the upper hand among the nymphets, as she kept her character ambiguous to the end. 4/10.

MAHAL KO ANG MAHAL MO

Director: Aya Topacio

Writer: Nigel Santos

Marketing executive Leslie (Angelica Hart) had been in a relationship with her boyfriend Khalil (Van Allen Ong) for three years now. One day, she was attacked by Carmina (Angeline Aril), who also claimed to be Khalil's girlfriend for one year now. When they found out that Khalil was going out with yet another girl, the two ladies became fast friends and decided to join forces in order to catch their philandering boyfriend red-handed. 

The two leading ladies Hart and Aril are both very pretty, and actually had good chemistry with each other. Ong still had that boy-next-door charm, but as a neophyte actor, he was not yet able to pull off the nuances and demands of this role convincingly.  The story was quite straightforward, with a wishy-washy feminist tone the way it was told. It made sense until the 11th hour when it had a very sudden rejection scene came from out of nowhere. 2/10. 

Review of HOW TO MAKE MILLIONS BEFORE GRANDMA DIES: Caregiver Considerations

June 1, 2024

Mengju (Usha Seamkhum) was an elderly woman who lived alone in her old house and sold congee every morning as a living. She had three grown-up children. Kiang (Sanya Kunakorn) was the wealthy son. Soei (Pongsatorn Jongwilas) was the jobless son. Her only daughter Sew (Sarinrat Thomas) was a single mom who worked in a supermarket. Her only son M (Putthipong Assaratanakul, a.k.a. Billkin) dropped out of school to be an online gamer. 

One day, the family found out that Mengju had stage 4 cancer of the intestines. Inspired by his cousin Mui (Tontawan Tantivejakul) who inherited the mansion of the old man she nursed before he died, M volunteered to stay with his grandmother or "Amah" at her home to take care of her. While his motives were entirely selfish at the start, M eventually got the drift of living with his Amah, while bearing witness to how members of her family treated her.

Billkin is a very popular young Thai TV actor and singer who is making his feature film debut here, as M. M was lazy and selfish at first, but Billkin certainly charmed his way through both in drama and comedy.  Also making her big screen debut is Tu Tontawan, who broke through as the lead actress of "F4 Thailand" (2021), as the pragmatic nurse with an OnlyFans page, Mui. In the physically and emotionally challenging role of Amah, Usha Seamkhum pinched our hearts and conscience with her realistic motherly portrayal.

I am sure most Gen Z's can see themselves in the way Billkin portrayed M, as their Gen X parents see themselves as Mengju's children. Surely, most tears shed by the audience are tinged with guilt, as the movie makes us reflect about our own elders, and how we are treating (or treated) them. With the ominous title, as well as the opening scene in the cemetery, we know how the film will end. However, the twists and turns getting there are worth our while. 

This film was co-written and directed by Pat Boonnitipat, in his feature film directorial debut. He led us through the dynamics of a Thai-Chinese family, sadly noting how daughters were disadvantaged over sons. We saw Thai-Chinese cemetery traditions during the Qingming festival, equivalent of our All Saints Day. We also got a glimpse inside a Thai charity hospital, specifically for cancer patients, including their unique way of queuing up. 

Filipino films are languishing in cinemas, so it is surprising that tickets to this Thai movie are sold-out, even when it was in a foreign language and had English subtitles. This story was not really uniquely Thai, and could easily have been written by a Filipino. Filipino writers should try come up with another original heart-warming family-themed tearjerker. Filipino audiences love their families and a good cathartic cry, and this combo leads to box office gold. 8/10.