February 7, 2020
The first team-up of Bela Padilla and JC Santos was in Jason Paul Laxamana's "100 Tula Para Kay Stella" (2017) (MY REVİEW) . That was the box office hit of the first Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino (PPP). For the PPP the year after, Laxamana brought his two actors back together again in "The Day After Valentine's" (2018) (MY REVİEW). This year, the duo is reunited under the pen and direction of Irene Emma Villamor in yet another dramatic romance. It would be interesting how their characters fare this time around.
Jane (Bela Padilla) was a successful actress as a child and through her teens. However, after being involved in a scandal with another actor, her career had been on the wane. Since then, she would always take refuge under the influence of a bottle of alcohol, which caused her to make destructive decisions in love and career. One day, while having another drinking binge in a bar, she was noticed and befriended by Brisom band frontman Francis (JC Santos) who then helped her get through that night, and several other nights to follow.
Jane was drunk practically the whole movie, maybe 95% from Scene 1. She was catty, unprofessional, reckless, annoying -- very unlikable. The scene of Jane with a bat in the parking lot was suffused with imminent danger. The scene of Jane with a broken shard of wine glass exquisitely dripped with hopeless desperation (cinematographer Pao Orendain at his best). That painfully explicit song "F**king Circumstance" by Pappel was the perfect song to accompany Jane's downward spiral. Amidst all that emotional muck, Bela Padilla still managed to shine through with her raw, dedicated performance, bringing out Jane's vulnerability and humanity to fore.
In the very supportive role of Francis, JC Santos provided a sweet reliable shoulder and sounding board. Francis had long admired Jane since her breakout film "Friday Nights," but he was now just meeting his crush at the lowest point of her life. He became Jane's breath of fresh air, but in her denial, she did not seem to realize his value. Aside from his consistency in dramatic acting, Santos was also able to show off his singing chops in a couple of articulate songs with the Brisom band, "Waking Lives" and "Pilot," standouts in the film's emo music soundtrack.
Matteo Guidicelli was a sinister presence as Jane's fellow actor and boyfriend Ronnie. Jas Rodriguez played Kelly, a promising film ingenue who was dangerously treading the same road that Jane was now stuck in. Rio Locsin makes a special appearance as Jane's estranged mother who was herself still recovering from being a wife of an alcoholic. Kean Cipriano played Sam, an ex-boyfriend and Jane's major life-altering indiscretion. Cipriano wore another hat in this film as musical scorer, and he made some excellent choices of tunes to accompany key scenes.
In all three films they had together, Padilla and Santos played characters involved in a complicated angst-filled relationship. However, the angst in this new one was much more intense than the previous two. The depth of alcoholism portrayed by Bela Padilla in this film was approaching the level of "Leaving Las Vegas" (Mike Figgis, 1996) already. This was full-on heavy drama from beginning to end, not for those looking for a feel-good rom-com. Once again, writer-director Irene Emma Villamor proved that she was the master of the anti-love story, from "Meet Me in St. Gallen" (MY REVIEW), "Sid and Aya" (MY REVIEW), "Ulan" (MY REVIEW) and now this one. 7/10.
February 3, 2020
Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) was a American guy who gained access into Oxford University by way of a scholarship. From there, he was able to cultivate a thriving underground marijuana business and establish his own criminal organization with his loyal henchman Ray (Charlie Hunnam). Now hoping to retire, Pearson planned to sell his business to American billionaire Matthew Berger (Jeremy Strong) for a cool $400 million.
However, the deal was made more complicated by Pearson's cockney wife Rosalind (Michelle Dockery), Chinese gangsters led young upstart Dry Eye (Henry Golding), Russian gangsters, delinquent boxers and their Coach (Colin Farrell), a tabloid editor Big Dave (Eddie Marsan) and his underhanded private investigator Fletcher (Hugh Grant) who had written up his interesting findings in the form of a screenplay for sale.
British writer-director Guy Ritchie in the late 1990s burst into the scene with a couple of crime comedies "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" (1998) and "Snatch" (2000) with accents so thick I wished there were subtitles. From there he became Madonna's husband (2000-2008) and had gone on to more mainstream films like "Sherlock Holmes" (2009 and sequel in 2011) and the live-action "Aladdin" (2019). He returns to his ensemble crime-comedy roots with "The Gentlemen" and he proved he is a master of this genre.
Matthew McConaughey was always cool as a cucumber as Mickey Pearson, only getting ruffled when his wife was in peril. Charlie Hunnam may have been a bland leading man in films like "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" (2017, also by Ritchie), but here as Ray, he was actually charismatic. Hugh Grant was so sleazy funny as Fletcher, while Colin Farrell was so nonchalantly funny as Coach -- they were the best parts of the film. Henry Golding, so debonair in "Crazy Rich Asians," needed some time to be convincing as the ruthless bad guy Dry Eye. Michelle Dockery, my first time time to see her outside "Downton Abbey," held her own as Rosalind, the only rose among the thorny lads.
The plot gets interesting from the get go when an attempt was immediately on Mickey Pearson's life. Then the whole story began to unfold when Fletcher was attempting to sell his findings (in movie script form) to Pearson's right-hand man Ray for 20M pounds sterling. From there, we meet all the characters come and go as the complicated story went back and forth in time, with certain rewind edits whenever Ray thought that Fletcher went too overboard with his storytelling and characterizations. Once you get into the groove and the thick accents, it won't let go. You may even want to watch it all over again to get all the connections straight. 8/10
February 2, 2020
Donnie Yen had been in Hong Kong movies since in the 1980s. However, I admit that I only "discovered" him in 2008 when I saw the first "Ip Man" film. There had been three sequels since then (in 2010, 2015 and 2019), and in each one, Yen was consistently that cool, smooth, principled martial arts warrior, always so elegantly fascinating to watch.
Since 2000, he crossed over to Hollywood as action choreographer of "Highlander: Engame," "Blade II" and "Shanghai Knights," playing minor roles in them. Lately, Yen was in the Star Wars Universe no less, as Chirrut Îmwe in "Rogue One" (2016). This year, his English film is the live action version of Disney's "Mulan."
Sgt. Fallon Zhu (Donnie Yen) was an obsessive Hong Kong policeman who placed his fitness and duty above everything else. Even if he would always defeat the bad guys with his superior martial arts skills, he would cause a monumental mess doing it earning him the derisive nickname "Jackass of the Century." This extreme dedication to duty would also get him in trouble with his melodramatic TV actress fiancee Chloe Song (Niki Chow).
Finally dumped by Chloe and demoted to an office job by his superior Shing (Louis Cheung), all Fallon did for the next six months was to eat unhealthy snacks to drown out his misery, until he ballooned to twice his usual body weight. One day, overweight Fallon was assigned by Shing to escort a Japanese prisoner to Tokyo police, he would later be in conflict with a gang of ruthless Japanese gangsters.
This is a reinvention of a 1978 Sammo Hung film with the same title. Since I had only known Donnie Yen from "Ip Man," I was surprised to see him in such a silly comic role, wearing a fat suit and doing slapstick routines. Of course, his awesome graceful martial arts fighting was in full display throughout the film, even when he was already "fat". The fights inside the closed van, the Tokyo restaurant alley, and the Tokyo Tower finale were highlights.
Aside from the frenetic martial arts scenes, there was also a generous serving of comic squabbling between the bumbling Zhu and the nagging Chloe. There was also a side plot regarding Zhu's partner in Tokyo Thor (Wong Jing) and his restaurant-owner girlfriend (Teresa Mo) and their testy relationship. More comedy was delivered by the toupeed Japanese inspector Endo (Naoto Takenaka) and his ditzy translator Maggie (Jessica Jann).
Fans of classic kung fu movies will enjoy the various references to Bruce Lee films, since Zhu voraciously watched them when he was sidelined by injuries. One such scene presaged a fantastic scene of Donnie Yen fighting with nunchucks which was particularly exciting. Japanese police was portrayed very badly to be in cahoots with the Yakuza, quite uncomfortably un-PC. Anyhow overall, this was a lighthearted and silly action romp which was as entertaining as it was exhilarating to watch. 6/10.
February 2, 2020
Howie Ratner perilously juggled his gems dealing business with his addiction to high-stakes gambling, for which he has incurred a huge debts for various creditors. It reached a point when he would take out a loan to place a bet usually on the outcome of NBA basketball games, and used his winnings to pay off another debt in a vicious circle.
One day, he was able to get his hand on a piece of rock from Ethiopia which contained a huge lode of opal, which he had committed for a gems auction. When basketball superstar Kevin Garnett desperately wanted to own the opal for its perceived energy, Ratner thought this was his way out of his most major debts from ruthless loan sharks.
I first heard about this movie was when its lead actor Adam Sandler won the Best Actor award from the National Board of Review early last month. That was really big surprising news for me. Not only because Sandler is not exactly noted for his dramatic acting chops, but even his comedy acting had taken quite a bad rap in recent years. Now here, he actually won Best Actor in a year dominated by Joaquin Phoenix's "Joker" and that is truly incredible. (I felt bad that Sandler was snubbed for an Oscar nomination for this performance as this would probably be his closest brush with it.)
Sandler's Howie was not a likable guy. He was loud and sleazy in speech and fashion. He split his time with his legal wife Dinah (Idina Menzel) and his employee girlfriend Julia (Julia Fox). He was street-smart to a fault, always trying to sweet talk his way out of the tight fixes he found himself caught in because of his risky activities. As the film went along, things do get out of hand, and that reflected on Sandler's increasingly panicked vocal inflections and erratic behavior. Sandler still had some of his known joker in Howie, but the stress here was definitely real and palpable.
Aside from the inherent suspense of Howie's dangerously chaotic obsessions, director / co-writer brothers Josh and Benny Safdie also gave this project a lot of esoteric touches. The opening shot was that of an extreme closeup of the patterns within a gemstone which segued to an endoscopic view of a colon, which went around vice versa at the end. Another innovative feature was its most unusual musical soundtrack, which used psychedelic tunes seemingly totally unconnected to the action onscreen. It was distractingly bizarre at first, but later that music becomes a mesmerizing aspect.
Noisy, shouty and profane, this is not for everybody. However, I was betting this could have been an Oscar nominee for best picture, but too bad it did not make the final list. 8/10.
January 31, 2020
Dr. John Dolittle (Robert Downey Jr.) was a doctor noted for his remarkably ability to talk to animals. Since his beloved wife Lily passed away, he closed himself off from any human contact and became a miserable recluse in his manor. His only companions were his menagerie of animals he had helped over the years, like Chee-Chee the nervous gorilla (Rami Malek), Yoshi the friendly polar bear (John Cena), Dab-dab the noisy duck (Octavia Spencer), Plimpton the finicky ostrich (Kumail Nanjiani), Jip the smart diagnosing dog (Tom Holland) and Polynesia the wise macaw (Emma Thompson).
One day, Tommy Stubbins (Harry Collett), a boy who loved animals, sought Dr. Dolittle's help for Kevin a squirrel he accidentally shot. That same day, Lady Rose (Carmel Laniado), a young princess from the palace, was also calling on Dr. Dolittle to deliver a message from Queen Victoria (Jessie Buckley) herself, who wanted the good doctor to go and treat a mysterious malady she was experiencing. This would begin a seaborne adventure to search for the island where the legendary Eden tree that bore a fruit that could heal anything.
Honestly, we almost gave this film a pass because of all the bad reviews it had been receiving since it was released in the US a couple of weeks ago. We tend to be wary if a film gets a January release, with the reputation that these are unpromising films which could not be summer blockbusters. However, we are talking about Robert Downey Jr. here in his first film since hanging up his Tony Stark / Ironman costume. You also cannot ignore the A-list actors they gathered together to voice all the animals. I needed to see this for myself.
Being introduced as a devastated man who cannot move on from the death of his wife, Dr. Dolittle was at first a bitter recluse, hence his disheveled look and reluctant behavior at first. This meant that most of the film's energy and comedy were delivered by the animals around him. Downey generously shared his screen time with the cute CGI animals, and amazingly he had realistic rapport with all of them. Michael Sheehan played the one-dimensionally villainous rival doctor Mudfly. Antonio Banderas played pirate king Rassouli who was also fathering a big loss, as Dolittle also did.
My verdict? It was actually not as bad as I was expecting at all. The premise was simple but the execution was very elaborate. The CGI animals were done quite well to be fair, and the voices were indeed funny in their delivery of zingers. There were scenes on a sailing ship at sea pulled by whales for more speed, a pirate palace (which looked a lot like that of Agrabah in "Aladdin") that had a dungeon with a neurotic tiger, and an uninhabited island with a healing tree guarded by a fire-breathing dragon.
From the start, you knew right away that this was made for children. That climax that featured a massive release of flatulence confirmed it in a major way. Yes, the lines were mostly of the cheesy corny variety, but I think kids will enjoy the light and juvenile tone of this adventure film a lot. No matter what those critics say, I know my inner child quite enjoyed it. 6/10.
January 30, 2020
One day, a woman named Angie showed up at the hospital of San Lazaro University for an alleged dog bite on her ankle. However, she had a seizure and died on the ER bed. Before she was brought to the morgue, the corpse suddenly sat up and attacked an intern, biting him on the neck. Then the guy in turn attacked another ER nurse, and so on. Soon, the whole hospital, and later the whole campus would be overrun by these murderous bloodthirsty creatures.
The main zombie fighting action focused on a gang of fourth year medical students in block Z: the sulky PJ (Julia Barretto), the jock Lucas (Joshua Garcia), the brainy Erika (Maris Racal), and the nerd Myles (McCoy de Leon). In another part of the school, PJ's father Mario (Ian Veneracion) fought off zombies with security guard Bebeth (Dimple Romana) while taking care of a little girl Ruby (Miel Espinoza). Meanwhile, student council president Gelo (Yves Flores) called for a helicopter rescue, but it could only come 12 hours later.
The first time I had seen zombies in a local movie was in the film "Supergirl" (Howard Petersen, 1973) starring Pinky (who later used the surname Montilla) in the title role. The final crisis Supergirl faced was a horde of dead people (memorably including Walter Navarro and Ike Lozada) who were raised back to life by a witch (Odette Khan but of course) to terrorize and kill the barrio folk. I was still a child back then, but I remember those their ashen faces, dark circles around their eyes and their slow trudging gait up to now. In contrast, these "Block Z" zombies kept up with modern trends, with more sophisticated prosthetic makeup and moved a lot faster.
The route from the faculty room where the four friends got together to the hospital was being discussed using a map. It would have been better to have been shown by an overhead drone to show the distances between the buildings better. The way they were running from the assembly area to the parking area, to the church, to the dorm, to the pool, to the hospital, did not really feel like they were all within a single compound. To put this in perspective, it actually took them 12 hours to go from the administration building to the hospital. Even if they were dodging or fighting zombies along the way, it was if they were traversing an entire city, instead of just a single school campus.
The main cast of young stars (Barretto, Garcia, Racal and de Leon) all did well playing their particular campus stereotype. All were given their own moments to show off their dramatic chops amidst the carnage. It was fun to hear them mouth medical jargon to explain the zombie attacks as a rabies-like viral infection. Veneracion was quite effective in his father role, and he was even given a moment to show off his guitar and singing skills. It was not easy to believe Romana as a gun-toting security guard but she managed to pull it off. I did not know Flores before this movie, he may not have been so convincing as the arrogant rich brat, but we hate his character anyway.
Director Mikhail Red, fresh off his 2019 successes, namely box office horror hit "Eerie" and Filipino Netflix pioneer "Dead Kids," comes up with yet another film with action basically confined within a school. He came up with the idea of trapping all the students within campus in a single overnight with an anticipated rescue at 5 am the next day. How these conditions came about were perplexing though. Why did the Chancellor lock the school down without calling for outside help? Why were there trigger-happy armed soldiers on campus? Did the military only have one helicopter to spare? Anyhow, these were the parameters set, so we just have to accept them.
Was it scary? Well, there were a few startling jump scares. The best scenes were those with many crazy zombies on frenzied attacks. But there were also moments when the pace slowed down too long, or the momentum of action not sustained. Like other horror films, the audience in the movie theater with you would really influence your viewing experience. When I watched, there was no nervous shouting or screaming heard at all, so it was not as fun as it could have been (like maybe on premiere night). At least, that exciting final sequence in the hospital did elicit some reactions.
I was hoping Red would have given his zombies some background history (where and how did Angie get her bite) or behavior rules (like other zombie films). As of now, they were only randomly rabid monsters hungry for human blood. The ending hints that a sequel may be coming to let us know these local zombies better. 6/10.
January 27, 2020
The original "Bad Boys" was shown way back in 1995, an explosive buddy-cop comedy action film starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence directed by Michael Bay. The trio reunited to make "Bad Boys II" eight years after the first in 2003. Both met disapproval from the critics, but were hits at the box office. It would take another 17 years before the third episode of the franchise came along this year, but with Belgian directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah taking over from Bay.
Detective Michael Eugene "Mike" Lowrey and Detective Marcus Miles Burnett are now very much middle-aged men. Marcus had just become a grandfather when his daughter gave birth to a baby boy, and was seriously thinking of retiring. However, someone with a big grudge on Mike ordered a hit on him. He nearly killed died from injuries sustained when a lone gunman on a motorcycle shot him in full public view. When he recovered months later, Mike convinced Marc to help him find his assassin, and be "Bad Boys" one last time.
Will Smith was just being his typical wise-cracking uber-confident Will Smith here. This is Will Smith's third film in a row that I had seen in the past few months, after "Gemini Man" and "Spies in Disguise." His Mike Lowrey here in "Bad Boys for Life" was practically a composite of his characters from these two other films. In fact, there were elements of both films which were also in this new film, like being the subject of a hit, the killer's secret origin, going rogue outside the system, drones with massive firepower, etc.
Martin Lawrence had not been seen in any major film since his last (and much-panned) "Big Momma" movie in 2011. Since Lawrence's type of self-deprecating comedy had not been seen for some time, his funny bumbling scenes (about domesticated after retirement) were actually a welcome break from the intense action and violence of this film. Despite being more out of shape since the last "Bad Boys," he was still able to keep up (somewhat) with the action sequences (which were clearly more of Will Smith's forte).
This "Bad Boys" had several scenes of bloody deaths courtesy of ruthless Mexican villains Isabel Aretas (Kate del Castillo) and her son Armando (Jacob Scipio). These may be a bit too much for those who came expecting a light-hearted comedy. To amp up the youth factor, a big part of the action now involved an allied group called AMMO (short for Advanced Miami Metro Operations) led by Lowrey's ex Rita (Paola Nunez) and her attractive staff: the computer techie Dorn (Alexander Ludwig), the drone guy Rafe (Charles Melton) and the weapons pro Kelly (Vanessa Hudgens). Veteran character actor Joe Pantoliano was back as Capt. Conrad Howard, his role since the first film.
The main fulcrum of this franchise is the chemistry between Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, and this was still fully intact despite the 17-year gap between sequels. The sincerity these two actors projected sincerity on screen made convinced us of their dedication to duty and deep friendship. 7/10.
January 26, 2020
In 1986, African-American lumberjack Walter "Johnny D." McMillian was convicted of the brutal murder of a white teenager Ronda Morrison. In 1989, a fresh Harvard law school graduate Bryan Stevenson set up his office for Equal Justice Initiative in Alabama, aiming to provide legal help to the underprivileged, especially those on Death Row.
He took up Johnny D's case when he discovered serious lapses in police investigation and legal procedure that led to his conviction and date with the electric chair. Being African-American himself, Stevenson would personally experience the extreme prejudice his client experienced from the authorities in small town Alabama.
This film was directed by Destin Daniel Cretton from a screenplay he adapted from the memoirs of Bryan Stevenson himself. The pace may have been calm, measured and steady, but those instances of blatant racism and human rights violations can still really shoot your blood pressure up. Everything felt so neat and one-dimensional. The good guys (even those on Death Row) were so good, and the bad guys (police and lawyers alike) were so bad. That led to an ultimately predictable conclusion, although Cretton did try to throw some wrenches in between for some excitement.
I found no fault with the actors who all gave earnest performances. Everyone was just so dignified in posture and profound in sentiment, save for the occasional expression of frustrated emotion. Michael B. Jordan, coming off powerful performances in "Creed" (2015) and "Black Panther" (2018), was so pristine in his portrayal of such a noble character as Bryan Stevenson. In that scene where he was strip-searched prior to entering the prison, his indignant face was raising hell in silence.
Jamie Foxx quietly played Johnny D. like a veritable saintly martyr in that immaculate white long-sleeved prison shirt he wore. Brie Larson may have seemed to be the token balancing white female in the mix, but there was an Eva Ansley in real life assisting Stevenson in his advocacy. Rafe Spall played the local prosecutor Tommy Chapman, who never gave Stevenson's evidence a second look. Tim Blake Nelson played controversial witness Ralph Myers who was offered a lighter sentence for false testimony.
For a film telling about a case that happened as recently as 1986, it is infuriating to realize that such bigotry can exist totally uncaring for the innocent lives lost in this system. And then you realize that this class struggle does not only happen in the US, but even in backyards all over the world. Human rights continue to be trampled with impunity, such that sensible reminders like this movie are important to keep the flames of vigilance burning. 7/10.
January 25, 2020
Blue Sky Studios had always been behind Disney/Pixar or Dreamworks in terms of their output of computer-generated animation films. They broke into the scene with an Oscar for Best Animated Short for "Bunny" in 1998. Their first feature film "Ice Age" was a big hit in 2002, and the box-office performance of the sequels that followed proved that this franchise is their flagship. After the last "Ice Age" film in 2016 though, there had only been "Ferdinand" in 2017, and now this new one "Spies in Disguise" their 13th project overall.
Lance Sterling was a superstar in the spy world. Always dashing and debonair in his tuxedo, Sterling can fight and beat an entire horde of bad guys all on his unique set of weaponry and skills. After a major case of intercepting a drone-based super weapon, Sterling was framed for its hijacking. Pushed to the wall, he sought the help of bumbling and weird young scientist Walter Beckett to help him mount a disappearance. However, Beckett's secret vanishing formula unexpectedly turned Sterling into a pigeon -- the ultimate disguise.
Based on their real-life personalities, the casting of Will Smith and Tom Holland as Sterling and Beckett respectively was spot on. The artistic rendering of these two main characters were clearly based on the actors who voiced them. The two had perfect comic chemistry with each other as they fluidly bantered and argued back and forth with one zinger after another. I think they'd do well in a live-action version of this partnership, although Smith turning into a pigeon would be too ridiculous if it were not animated.
Rashida Jones as Marcy, an internal affairs agent who was after the rogue Sterling, while Karen Gillan and DJ Khaled voice Marcy's operatives Eyes and Ears, named based on their special equipment. Reba McEntire lent her country lilt to voice Joy Jenkins, Sterling's superior officer. Ben Mendelsohn gave the main antagonist Killian, the vindictive villain with a robot hand, a chilling voice. Masi Oka (whom we first knew as Hiro on "Heroes") was the morbidly obese Katsu Kimura. He figured in one memorable sequence when his body was literally turned into jelly by one of Beckett's weird inventions.
I enjoyed how the biological peculiarities of pigeons were used to the hilt for full comic effect. Beckett enumerated a number of interesting facts about pigeons, especially about the fascinating properties of their eyes and their cloaca. While Sterling as pigeon can talk, the other pigeons who welcome him into their group don't. There was one cute female one and two strange males -- a stupid stocky one, and a scrawny one who can eat anything. Of course, the climactic standoff with Killian was set amidst the horde of pigeons of St. Mark's Square in Venice.
The whole premise of the film was the contrast of the vastly different personalities and philosophies of Lance Sterling and Walter Beckett. While Sterling would depend on this grenades to fight fire with fire, Beckett developed a bomb exploding with a cute kitten video with glitter. With this premise, you can sort of already figure out the lesson the film was trying to impart to the kids in the audience. Even with the G rating and silly gags, there were also some dark moments which may scare young kids. I found this movie funny and entertaining overall, and very sequel-ready. 7/10.
January 23, 2020
This past decade, Ai Ai de las Alas was being noticed more for her indie dramas "Ronda" (2014), "Area" (2016) and "School Service" (2018). In 2017, she had two comedies, "Bes and the Beshies" and "Our Mighty Yaya," both of which were maligned by critics. She returned in 2019 with three consecutive bombs: "S.O.N.S (Sons of Nanay Sabel)," "Feelenial: Feeling Millennial" and "And Ai, Thank You." Unperturbed, Ai Ai is back again this year with yet another comedy-drama called "D'Ninang."
Ditas was the leader of a gang of pickpockets operating in Cubao. Among the members of her gang were the drunkard Lolo Medi (Lou Veloso), the street-smart Sol (Angel Guardian), the flirty Lorena (Kiray Celis), while Gracia (Joey Marquez) was a policeman she had under her payroll. Like a "Robin Hood," Ditas would generously provide financial and material help to everyone in her neighborhood who would request for her help, earning her the nickname of "Ninang" or "Godmother."
One day, Ditas visited the wake of a former boyfriend, she got reunited with her teenage daughter Mikhai (Kisses Delavin) whom she abandoned all those years ago. When Ditas brought Mikhai to live with her in Cubao however, things went topsy-turvy trying to hide her illegal operations from her crime-hating daughter. So Ditas decided to finally change her ways and say goodbye to her life of crime. However, it was not going to be that simple for Ditas to turn over a new leaf.
As Ditas, Ai Ai de las Alas is in another mother role, a role that had been a good luck charm for her. She became a box-office star in the first decade of the new millennium and earned the title of Comedy Queen with the "Tanging Ina" films (2003, 2008, 2010, 2011). Even in her last film, Coco Martin's MMFF 2019 entry "3pol Trobol: Huli Ka Balbon!," she played Coco's mother. So her role here as Ditas was not exactly too much of a stretch for her acting skills as this was right in her comfort zone of comedy and drama. She had not lost her touch for wry self-deprecating humor, despite the limitations of the material.
The young actors in the cast provided some diversion from Ditas' story. Kisses Delavin played Mikhai, a bitter daughter who found it hard to forgive a mother who was never there for her. Her rude behavior towards Ditas was not easy to watch. The winsome McCoy de Leon made a great impression as Kali (short for Kalayaan), the schoolmate smitten by Mikhai's charms. A new young actress named Angel Guardian played the role of Sol, an orphan who grew up with Ditas as her partner in crime. She had good screen presence beside these more known actors, but maybe she has to change her screen name to be taken more seriously as an actress. Noted ENT surgeon Dr. Kirt Delovino registered well on the big screen as a compassionate heart surgeon.
From the poster alone, you knew that this was going to be a "jologs" comedy. There would be some dramatic elements, following the success formula of the "Tanging Ina" films. Director GB Sampedro told his story in an easygoing manner, even if the main plot is largely predictable. The gags were mostly old and not all worked, while true LOL moments came few and far between. Even then, I'd say this film was not a total waste of time for those enjoy this type of popcorn, lowbrow comedy, largely thanks to the efforts of its actors.
The thing that bothered me most was the MTRCB rating of G. From the very first scene up to its Mexican standoff climax, there were scenes showing blatant crimes being committed. At first, these petty thievery were even shown to be perpetrated by children. There was a character praying for forgiveness in church, but would steal from the pockets and bags around her at the same time. There was a sequence where a pawn shop robbery was described and shown step by step. These crimes may have been done in a comic way, but just the same, this should have been rated PG at the very least, not G. 5/10.
January 23, 2020
Yam Laranas is a Filipino director and cinematographer whose specialty lay in horror films. He will be remembered for "Sigaw" ((2004), which was actually picked up by Hollywood for an American remake, "The Echo" (2008), which was also directed by Laranas. His other memorable films include The Road (2013) and Aurora (2018). For his latest work, Laranas once again revisits his favorite genre.
Jessie (Yam Concepcion) was a young Med Tech graduate who decided to work as a morgue assistant for pathologist Dr. Alex (Michael de Mesa) first before going on to medical school. On this particularly busy night duty, there was a supertyphoon raging outside, and her replacement could not come on time. Overworked and sleepy amidst all the cadavers, Jessie began to hear eerie sounds, witness terrifying visions and have ghastly nightmares, even as Dr. Alex entertained her with sick scare pranks, facts about dead bodies and discussions about the afterlife.
Yam Concepcion spent the whole time looking tired and confused as Jessie. She definitely made you feel her stress and exhaustion. She had been on morgue duty for more than 24 hours so I don't blame her cabin fever. Even then, Jessie was very devoted to her duty, despite how cruelly it seemed to be playing with her mind. I am not really sure why she kept on obsessively mopping and scrubbing the floor even though there were no spills shown the scene before. However, when unexpected revelations were made at the end, there would be a lot more questions which would arise about Jessie rather than those answered. They should have been more careful about her interactions and other details.
The presence of Michael de Mesa as Dr. Alex was a reassuring one. However, the good doctor was quite unpredictable in terms of behavior. I guess spending day in and day out dissecting corpses could take it toll on one's psychological makeup and sense of humor. They could have finished the arc of his character better. Character actors were cast as side characters who complicated Jessie's night even more, like Epy Quizon and Soliman Cruz (as the thieving aides), Ruby Ruiz (as the head nurse), Irma Adlawan (as the hysterical mother) and Mercedes Cabral (as the very late co-worker).
A morgue was also the claustrophobic setting of a recent Hollywood film entitled "The Possession of Hannah Grace" (Diederik Van Rooijen, 2018). Therefore I cannot help but to see several similarities with the horror gimmicks employed in both films. I guess there are only so many scares you can cook up in the confines of a morgue. Most of them should be quite predictable already, like flickering lights, dark shadows, unsettling noises, breathing corpses, moving corpses, missing corpses, being trapped in a freezer, and the like. In contrast with Hannah Grace's modern morgue, Jessie's morgue was much older, creakier and had more character to its credit. 6/10.
