August 4, 2014
TV writer Real Florido makes the big jump to film directing via "1st Ko Si 3rd", one of the entries under the New Breed category of this year's Cinemalaya film festival. It is one of the most highly anticipated film because of the excitement over the screen reunion of Nova Villa and Freddie Webb, who for many years played the married couple Ines and Jimmy Capistrano on TV's popular local sit com in the 1980s, "Chicks to Chicks".
Cory (Nova Villa) has just retired from her job in a government office. She felt so bored just staying at home with her homebody husband Andong (Dante Rivero), who would do nothing but tinker with their old car to try to make it run.
One day at church, Cory caught a glimpse of her first love, the tall, fair and fit Third (Freddie Webb). She did not go talk to him, but this sighting brought the spark of life back into Cory, recalling those halcyon days in high school when they were still a young couple very much in love (Ken Chan and Colleen Borgonia). When Third actually called to invite her to meet over coffee, just two of them, Cory was flustered but agreed. How will their reunion date fare?
Despite what you may be expecting, this film is far from being a laugh-out-loud comedy. In fact, it is a rather slow and sad look at retirement and the life and love of senior citizens. A lot of times the film felt like it was stagnating, just going around in circles over the same boring issues. This of course is to emphasize the extremely depressing boredom of Cory after her mandatory retirement.
It is then a stroke of genius to cast Ms. Nova Villa as the central character of Cory. I would say it was Ms. Nova and her natural comic appeal who single-handedly lifted this movie from of wallowing in its own melancholy. That scene with Cory was chatting online with Third via Facebook for the first time was just so sweet and gleefully exciting. That scene where Cory went to the parlor for a major makeover was funny like only Villa can pull off. She had those subtle little facial expressions that can make a rather mundane scene like reading old love letters or talking on the phone come to vibrant life.
Dante Rivero played Cory's husband Andong so naturally and very generously. He plays it so laidback and easy to further emphasize Cory's boredom in their humdrum existence as an old childless married couple.
Newcomers Ken Chan and Colleen Borgonia were delightful as the young Third and Cory. They are attractive and charming together. They do not exactly resemble Freddie and Nova, but we can let that go because of their winsome smiles and effective chemistry. Hope to see more of these two promising actors in future films.
As far as Freddie Webb is concerned, let's just say that the anticipation to seeing them together was much better than when they were actually together. I do not know if Mr. Webb was too nervous or it was the director's instructions, but he was acting so stiffly. For all the build-up to that climactic scene, Mr. Webb's stilted performance was rather disappointing for me. You can't deny though, that the chemistry is still palpably there.
Overall, "1st Ko Si 3rd" is a simple film about regular people, of senior citizens and their dreams. Honestly, it tells a story you might have already seen before on a TV drama anthology. What makes this film really special is its star, Ms. Nova Villa. She definitely gives this film in general that vital spark that elevated its common story into one of uncommon poignancy and charm. 6/10.
August 3, 2014
"Hari ng Tondo" is the comeback feature by director Carlos Siguion-Reyna after a self-imposed 14-year break from film making. This is very much a family affair for CSR as it also had his wife Bibeth Orteza on the screenplay, his son Rafa Siguion Reyna and niece Cris Villonco are in the cast. He would say that this story about Tondo is close to his heart as he himself was born there. This film is one of five entries in the Directors' Showcase category.
Ricardo Villena (Robert Arevalo) is on the brink of bankruptcy because of poor investments gone wrong. Despondent, he declares he is willing to sell all his other properties in his portfolio to pay off his debts, except for the old apartment building called Alapaap in Tondo, where he grew up from. He wants to return to Alapaap and live there again. He made arrangements with his trusted caretaker Boyong (Rez Cortez) to prepare a place for him.
Mr. Villena's grandchildren also had their own personal problems. Anna (Cris Villonco) did not want to marry the philandering guy Mark (Hans Eckstein) whom her mother Olivia (Ali Sotto) wanted for her. Ricky (Rafa Siguion Reyna) would rather create music than finish Economics, the course his father Julio (Audie Gemora) forced him to take. He noted that his two grandchildren could not speak up for what they really wanted. He decided the best way for these youngsters to gain their self-respect or "balls" (so to speak) is for them to stay with him at Alapaap, for at least a while.
Staying in Alapaap immerses the kids into a world they have never experienced before, with the cramped living conditions, unsanitary bathrooms, and "pagpag" (leftovers from hotels, restaurants and households) as food. They had to learn to live with neighbors who may or may not necessarily like them to be there, like Ricardo's old flame Felisa (Liza Lorena), the butch musician Raula (Aiza Seguerra) and her gang, the salesgirl Sally (Ciara Sotto) and her gruff security guard partner Vic (Gian Magdangal), and the charming silent guy Emil (Lorenz Martinez). Even Ricardo himself had to adjust and accept that this current situation is already not the Tondo that he knew growing up.
Robert Arevalo delivers a passionate performance as Ricardo. The situations he got himself into may not have been too possible to happen in real life but Mr. Arevalo still manages to make them ring true and realistic. He is definitely a contender for Best Actor. The multi-talented Cris Villonco can really do everything, can't she? She has this talent with her tears, so great on stage in shows like "Ghost", that looked so good on the big screen. Rafa Siguion Reyna, maybe because he is new, still tended to look ill at ease and self-conscious in his scenes. Their fish-out-of-water scenes were predictable but fun to watch at the same time.
The other supporting cast though also do very well. Whenever Rez Cortez is there, you immediately suspect that he is probably up to no good. Aiza Seguerra really fit right into her role. Her voice and guitar playing share the stage with her sensitive acting. Gian Magdangal, also in his first film role, had a sinister screen presence as his role required. That scene when Lorenz Martinez opens his mouth to speak for the first time is comic gold. (Unfortunately, the joke went on a bit too long.)
One good aspect of this film is the music. Kudos to musical scorer Myke Salomon for his excellent mixing. Two songs stood out: "Eh Ano Kung Pobre?" by Myke Salomon and "Sige Lang ng Sige" by Mike Villegas. The lyrics of all the songs were by Bibeth Orteza. These songs certainly enhanced the scenes where they had been played, thanks to the soulful renditions by Aiza Seguerra. The harana (serenade) scene where Ricardo sings "Bituing Marikit" for Felisa was very nicely done. Too bad they never showed the songwriting contest that Raula and Ricky wanted to join.
The script dealt with but a slice of what could have been a very interesting cake. We never see nor were we told about how Ricardo grew up in Tondo and how he was able to get out of it. We never saw how Julio and Olivia grew up with their father. All we see is an unfortunate one-dimensional characterization of these children of Ricardo as antagonists, which was a wasted opportunity for getting talented performers like Audie Gemora and Ali Sotto and make them do something so limiting. We never actually get to see how their Tondo experience affected Anna and Ricky in solving their respective situations.
Instead, we get a number of scenes which do not directly involve Ricardo, such as the relationship of Sally and Vic. There was an unexpected awkward sex scene which I felt was not really necessary, and felt unfortunately out of character for those involved. There was the usual poverty porn in scenes showing the severe squalor of the slums, particularly in that very long scene following Ricardo as he was taking a long emotional walk all over Tondo.
Overall, this was a very entertaining film which at the same time tells us a lot about life in the urban slums. The message at the end is loud and clear dedicated to people who had been successful enough to have moved out of Tondo to give back to it. I guess on a larger scale, the film also exhorts the audience to give back to our country in general. 7/10.
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POSTSCRIPT: Last August 1, the tenth year of the Cinemalaya independent film festival formally opened with a free screening of "Documented" at the Main Theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. This bold documentary was made by Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas about his experience as an undocumented alien in the United States. This was an auspicious opening film as reviewers have given it a perfect score. Too bad I was not able to watch this so I hope it will be screened again some time soon.
August 2, 2014
Coming from the Marvel Studios, the home of angsty and angry superheroes, "Guardians of the Galaxy" is a rare bird. This movie is a relentlessly happy, funny and entertaining sci-fi action-comedy-- a perfect summer blockbuster. Going in, I had no idea who these "Guardians" were, but coming out, I was a fan.
In 1988, Peter Quill was abducted as a young boy by a band of space bandits called the Ravagers led by Yondu (Michael Rooker). Twenty six years later, Peter (Chris Pratt) is himself a space outlaw, self-dubbed "Starlord". After he steals a precious silver orb, he was arrested and put in prison with others who also want the orb for their own selfish reasons. This orb, which contains a powerful Infinity Stone, draws the attention of vicious psycho villain Ronan (Lee Pace), who desires the Stone's powers for his own evil plans.
Together with his fellow "loser" inmates, a gung-ho mechanically-engineered raccoon named Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), a strong but kind humanoid tree creature named Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), a musclebound simpleton named Drax (Dave Bautista) and a sexy green-skinned assassin named Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Peter gallantly fights to save the orb from Ronan, in order to present it to the Nova Corp led by Nova Prime (Glenn Close) for safekeeping and proper disposal.
I did not know Chris Pratt before this film, but he captures that overgrown child Peter Quill so well with that rascal face of his. He owned the lead, managing to be very funny but also remaining credible in his big action scenes. Interesting to note that he is also the voice behind Emmet, the lead character in another cheerful action film earlier this year, "The Lego Movie". Two blockbusters this year both with franchises to follow, I think this guy has finally broken into the movie A-list after several years on TV.
Zoe Saldana plays another alien this time in green, after being Navi blue in "Avatar". This actress has a very distinct emotive face and mad action skills. Dave Bautista was frighteningly large and brutish as Drax, with those intricate raised red patterns all over his huge frame. His character was driven by revenge, but he was also given funny lines to deliver and he nails them.
The two animated characters really set this franchise apart from the others. Vin Diesel only has three words which he repeatedly says in various inflections throughout the film, so funny. And ironically, far from just being a drab tree creature, Groot actually provides the cute moments in the film. Bradley Cooper gives a lot of personality to bounty-hunter Rocket Raccoon with his vibrant voice acting. When I first saw the trailer, I was wondering how these two will figure into the action, and the filmmakers have done these special character effects so seamlessly well.
That summery soundtrack of 1970s pop hits adds so much to the cheery appeal of this film. I admit to singing along with all those catchy brassy songs on Peter's awesome mix tape, from "Come and Get Your Love" by Redbone to "Escape (The Pina Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes to "Ooh Child" by The Five Stairsteps. There would also be Marvin Gaye and Tami Terrell and the Jackson 5 before the film ends. Of course, the highlight would be the infectious "Hooked on a Feeling" by Blue Swede which had us hooked since the trailer.
"Guardians of the Galaxy" is really an excellent space-age action adventure film that the whole family will enjoy. The humor has several levels for every member of the audience, as jokes went from shallow to sassy to cute to subtle to naughty. Writer James Gunn has certainly stepped up from writing "Scooby-Doo" films to this more complex project and furthermore exceeding expectations in this, his first major directorial job. 9/10.
July 31, 2014
Adam Bell is a lonely history professor in a Toronto university with a boring repetitive routine in life. Each day after school, he goes home and gets visits from his girlfriend. One day, he was watching a movie and was surprised to see an actor there named Daniel Saint Claire who looked exactly like him. This leads Adam on a obsessive quest to seek out his doppelganger, drawing him into a swirling vortex of his own psychological delusions.
"Enemy," as envisioned and directed by Denis Villenueve, is not an easy movie to watch. It is very very quiet and unfolds very very slowly. Its running time is only an hour and a half, but it feels interminable due to its glacial pace. There is a lot of strange imagery, particularly a recurring reference to spiders and women, which will make many a viewer scratch his head in bewilderment.
However, I have to say it is riveting. You will want to know how Adam confronts his double and if he can figure out his confusion. You will want to know how the teacher's girlfriend Mary (Melanie Laurent) and the actor's pregnant wife Helen (Sarah Gadon) figure into this complex web. The ever-enigmatic Isabella Rosselini even makes a crucial appearance as Adam's mother. The build-up during the last fifteen minutes was intense and puzzling at the same time. It all builds up to a final scene that will make you exclaim "WTH was that?!"
Jake Gyllenhaal is an A-list actor with big commercial films like "Prince of Persia" and "Love and Other Drugs". However, he also has some serious and more cerebral film projects, such as "Brokeback Mountain" (where he was nominated for an Oscar) and just last year "Prisoners" (also directed by Villeneuve). Here in "Enemy", Gyllenhaal again impresses us with a sublime double performance as the mousy teacher Adam and the cocky actor Daniel, upon which the entire drama of the film revolves.
This is again one of those films which most audiences will find weird and baffling. If you are patient enough to reach the end, you will either hate yourself for wasting 90 minutes of your life, or you will be intrigued enough to contemplate on the film's deeper messages and symbolisms. The quote at the beginning of the film is a challenge to the viewer, "Chaos is order yet undeciphered." Will you be able to figure out what this conundrum of a film is about? 6/10.
July 29, 2014
Kenji de los Reyes is one of the passengers of a plane that crashed en route to Bicol. His son Kenneth, a rebellious teenager who just wished his dad dead the night before, wants to go there to look for him. Kelay is a kooky girl who also wants to look for Mr. delos Reyes because she wants to reunite him with his first love, her aunt Athena, who is on her death bed with dilated cardiomyopathy.
As typical local rom-coms go, Kenneth and Kelay start out hating each others guts. As circumstances forced to them to take a long road trip to Bicol together, Kenneth gets to know his "gangster" dad more and the pivotal role Athena played in his father's life.
This film is by now a certified blockbuster about to run on its third week, and for good reason, it is very good as far as local mainstream films go. A big part of its success is the superb casting of today's most popular teen love team, Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo, both as Kenneth and Kelay of the present day, and Kenji and Athena of a generation ago.
It was also an inspired casting coup to get the biggest love team twenty years ago, Richard Gomez and Dawn Zulueta to play the senior Kenji and Athena. As much as I wanted to hide the fact that Ms. Zulueta is in this film, the film's opening credits did keep her special participation a secret, so I wrote it here too. I think they should have hidden this little casting gem secret as long as they could for better effect.
Both sets of actors have so much positive chemistry with each other that it radiates through the screen into the movie theater. They do not even have to speak to titillate their rapt audiences. The best scenes of the film did not have words: Daniel riding to school on his skateboard, Kathryn smiling with her new haircut, Richard carrying Dawn from the wheelchair to the bench, Dawn radiantly coming into view from the bedroom.
Director Cathy Garcia-Molina knows how to use the best assets of her actors to convey the most emotion, even without words. Ms. Molina is best known for her Sarah Geronimo-John Lloyd Cruz trilogy (which I confess that I have not watched), so her skill with what clicks in a Pinoy rom-com is unquestionable.
The script is written by Carmi Raymundo, who had collaborated with Ms. Molina several times before. She had adapted the story from the best-selling novel of the same title originally published on Wattpad written by Bianca B. Bernardino. Of course, as with other such hit rom-coms there are plenty of sweet quotable quotes. The most memorable of them would probably be, "When I say I can't breathe, it means I love you."
The noisy parts of the film are the parts I did not like too much, such as the maid with the siren-like voice or that cringe-worthy "sexy love" basketball cheering routine. I understand though that these are there for comic relief and would play better for the younger female members of the audience. There were also that thing about the pager mix-up at the very outset of the story that I cannot understand.
However, those little negatives aside, it was really those moments when sincere heartfelt emotions shine through, and there were many, which can transcend age and gender barriers and resonate for audiences of all generations to appreciate, be moved to tears and applaud. 7/10.
July 29, 2014
"Black Butler" is a popular Japanese manga series that my daughter and friends liked very much. So when a movie version came out exclusive in SM Cinemas this week, they were all excited to go see it. I have not read Yana Toboso's manga "Kuroshitsuji" yet, so I felt I needed to see the film first myself before she does to see if it is okay for her age group. The local film classification board had rated it R-13, but they had not been entirely consistent the way they classify films per appropriate age.
The beginning narration sets "Black Butler" in a near future time, when the world was divided into East and West. The West was headed by a Queen who has "watchdogs" to keep her enemies at check. In such a world, a "Demon's Curse" killer is going around assassinating diplomats by some sort of gruesome instant mummification process. Alarmed, the Queen chooses an orphaned 17-year old toy company magnate, Earl Genpo Kiyoharu, as her "watchdog" to get to the bottom of this matter.
The young Earl is actually a girl Shiori pretending to be a boy in order to secretly exact revenge on her parents' killers. She has under his service a butler of many skills, Sebastian, who does whatever his young master wills him to. It turns out that Sebastian's talents are because of his demonic nature, for which the Earl will have to pay for with her soul.
I learned that this film had made major changes from its source because the Kiyoharu in the manga is a 13-year old boy. Making Kiyoharu a teenage girl also made it possible for a love angle to develop between master and servant, which of course was not present at all in the manga. The original setting should have been Victorian England, but all we see here are the Victorian-looking Genpo Manor and its beautifully-manicured and colorful gardens.
The opening sequence alone where Sebastian takes on an entire warehouse full of gangsters only with his butter knife sets the fantastical and whimsical tone for the whole film. There would be a number of fight scenes, murder scenes, death scenes, as well as scenes of drug abuse, and the disturbing demonic subplot, which would automatically make this film rated R-16 in my book. In between these violent scenes though, the film's momentum dips a lot with long talky explanatory scenes.
The lead actors playing Sebastian and Kiyoharu are both with that androgynous-look which seems to be the current rage among the younger generation. Hiro Mizushima looks like he is enjoying his black coattails and cool tricks and stunts as Sebastian. Ayame Goriki does not really look convincing as the boy Kiyoharu, but she looks cute with her eyepatch and one blue eye. She gives her character the necessary angst. There was even more campy acting from the actors playing the unnaturally clumsy maid Rin (Mizuki Yamamoto) and Kiyoharu's unnaturally sweet guardian, his Aunt Hanae (Yuka). All the one-dimensional villains they faced also come from the same school of exaggerated histrionic acting.
Overall, this is a confused film with a rather convoluted plot which did not have a clear direction that it wanted to take. If we were to only judge it with this film, it does make me wonder what those fans of the original manga loved in it. This film alone is occasionally entertaining anyway but it most probably could have been done or adapted much better than what came out now. 4/10.
July 28, 2014
In this latest film with the Greek hero in the title, Hercules (Dwayne Johnson) is shown to be a mercenary for hire, who uses his mythic demigod origins and legendary "labors" to advertise himself. He has with him his band of cohorts, the loyal Autolycus (Rufus Sewell), the mad fighter Tydeus (Aksel Hennie), the Amazon archer Atalanta (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal), the young storyteller Iolaus (Reece Ritchie) and the seer Amphiaraus (Ian McShane).
Using his beautiful daughter Ergenia (Rebecca Ferguson) as emissary, the king of Thrace, Cotys (John Hurt), hires Hercules to beef up his army against the attacks of vicious centaurs led by Rhesus (Tobias Santellman). However, ulterior motives and political ambitions are soon revealed such that Hercules had to dig deep into himself in order to break free of the nightmares that haunt him and draw out the real hero in him.
When I saw the trailer with the hydra, boar and lion, I thought this Hercules film would be tackling the legendary labors of this Greek hero. So despite the fact that I found Dwayne Johnson's Hercules hairstyle very awkward-looking, we still went to watch it, in 3D no less. I was disappointed that this "labors" sequence would be over and done with in the first few minutes of the film. The rest of the film was just like a "sword- and-sandal" version of the "A-Team" as Hercules and his merry men fight their way to earn their weight in gold. I had not read the graphic novel by Steve Moore on which this film was based, "Hercules: The Thracian Wars," so I had no prior inkling as to what this film would be about.
Despite the story, the action sequences were quite good though. There was that very long battle sequence with graphic close-up violence which looked more realistic than the stylized battles in the "300" films. Director Brett Ratner is known for his action films (like "Rush Hour" and "X-Men: The Last Stand") and his skills show in these big exciting scenes. The 3D effects were also very good and worth its extra price, with all the arrows, spears and debris hurtling out at us as we watched. The cinematography, film- and sound-editing and visual effects were also well-done.
Dwayne Johnson could not seem to get himself into the period. Even if he is wearing those ancient warrior costumes, he speaks and acts as if he was in the present day. You can't deny his good-guy charisma though. Of his partners, Ian McShane stands out as the prophet Amphiaraus. He figures in the single LOL-moment in the film, which was really came at the most welcome moment to break the grim monotony. It was good to see Joseph Fiennes back on the big screen after a long absence, albeit for a short role. He plays King Eurystheus of Greece, with whom Hercules had a major falling out.
In the technical aspects, this is still better than the Kellan Lutz film "Legend of Hercules" we saw earlier this year. Overall, mindless popcorn that it is, "Hercules" was still an entertaining action film aimed to get our adrenaline going. And that it does. 6/10.
July 24, 2014
From the beginning shot of this film depicting lights and eclipses, we will already see that this will not be just another run-of-the-mill motion picture. When we see a nude Scarlett Johansson for the first time in that pristine white room, we definitely know we are in for a different sort of ride.
A woman drives around Scotland in her van. She strikes up conversations with various men she picks up along the way. She will seduce them into coming with her and they follow her into her black void of a house. However, as this woman encounters more men, she will also realize and discover new things about herself.
Despite the presence of a big name star Scarlett Johansson, this is not a mainstream film. The techniques are unmistakably art-house, with long stretches of silence, of Johansson just driving around, of random people just going about their daily routines. It is said that to be realistic, the film makers shot Johansson picking up real men off the street (not actors) and interviewed them without a script as they were driving around. Their thick Scottish accents may be unintelligible.
Many audiences may just dismiss this as a aimless waste of 100 minutes, since on paper, the plot seems to be simple enough for a single "X-Files" episode. However, serious cinephiles will be enraptured by the film's bizarre cinematographic beauty, deeper symbolic meaning and recall films by hallowed directors like Stanley Kubrick or David Lynch.
There are carefully orchestrated shots of seduction, very effective (of course with Johansson in various stages of undress) and mysterious (with that pitch black shiny room and that eerie piercing music by Mica Levi). There was a scene with a couple, their baby and their dog on an isolated windswept beach which will disturb you. There was a scene involving a man with a disfigured face which will haunt you.
"Under the Skin" is a unique artistic movie experience which will polarize audiences. Director Jonathan Glazer (whose last feature film "Birth" was released ten years ago) has created a bleak masterpiece which will visually mesmerize and thematically baffle his viewers. So, are you seduced to take up this challenge? 7/10.
July 22, 2014
A man wakes up in what looks like an open grave site, atop a huge pile of corpses. He does not remember his name or how he got there. He joins a group of other survivors, all of whom were in various stages of memory loss and violent paranoia. Who is he, the hero or the villain? Who is that Chinese lady who rescued him from the pit? Why are there dead people all around them? Why are there zombies going after them?
This film was released in the US as "Open Grave," but for some reason, local distributors chose to cut that title to a single word "Graves." Newspaper ads made it look like it was going to be just a another B-horror film. That was unfortunate because as it turned out, it wasn't. Yes, there were zombies in there and there was gore, but "Graves" was more than that. It will make you think and try to figure out along with all the characters who they really were and what the heck was going on around them.
There was only one recognizable actor and that is Sharlto Copley, whom I first knew of in the excellent alien invasion film "District 9" and most recently as the errant king in "Maleficent." He gives the ideal face for the lead character John/Jonah -- a face you cannot trust. However, he still manages to make us empathize with him in his journey of discovery as to who he really was and his exact role in the calamity that has transpired. The other actors are mostly unknown, but they do lend credible support, particularly Erin Richards, who played the lead female character Sharon.
Fans of the zombie sub-genre will like "Graves" because it gives yet another new twist and viewpoint to the familiar story line. The special effects and the make-up were very believable. You will see some elements common with other successful zombie films such as "28 Days Later" or "World War Z", but "Graves" has its own surprises up its sleeve. 5/10.
July 18, 2014
"Jersey Boys" brings us all back to the early 1960s, young Francis Castelluccio, a hairdresser's apprentice with a unique high falsetto singing voice, takes on the name Frankie Valli. Together with a couple of petty criminals named Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi, they would sing in small gigs around town, going nowhere, except in jail when caught. When they meet a talented singer-songwriter named Bob Gaudio, they called themselves the Four Seasons and started a hot streak of Number One hits on the radio. However, their connections to the mob and loan sharks lead to strains within the group and their families.
I have not seen the successful stage musical version yet. It was hard to imagine that this film gets its origins from a successful original Broadway musical. Director Clint Eastwood takes things a little too seriously. The storytelling actually lacked substantial excitement and humor, until the parts when they actually sing those unforgettable Number One hit songs such as "Sherry" (Aug. 1962), "Big Girls Don't Cry" (Oct. 1962) and "Walk Like a Man" (Jan. 1963). It is evident that it was the timeless music of the Four Seasons that keep this rather heavy-handed biopic afloat.
There was a significant bit of anachronism when they played "My Eyes Adored You" (a solo #1 hit for Valli in 1975) before we see Valli perform his first solo hit, "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" (#2 in 1967). It was also odd to hear that the producers at that time in the psychadelic late 1960s considered the very pop and catchy "Can't" (complete with a big band horn section) to be an "experimental" song that was unlikely to be a hit.
The only actor I recognized was Christopher Walken, who seemed to have enjoyed his role as a mob boss with a heart of gold. The four lead actors were unknown to me. They were supposed to have sung these songs themselves, which was very impressive.
The actor who played Frankie Valli is John Lloyd Young, who actually won a Tony for this same role in Broadway. His singing voice is unmistakably similar in quality to Valli's, and his singing scenes were glorious. However, he did look a bit old to play a 16-year old at the start, and looked too self-conscious onscreen during the dramatic scenes.
Doing better were the other three guys in the group. I liked the way Eastwood made them relate the story to the audience while they were still in the scene, breaking the fourth wall. Vincent Piazza did not originate from the stage version, but he really radiated a sense of danger as the rouge Tommy. Michael Lomenda had his musical and serio-comic moments as the deep-voiced Nick. However, the most potent screen charisma was from Erich Bergen as the wholesome Bob.
I was surprised that the local Film Classification Board rated this film as PG when there are a lot of profanity, suggestions of drug abuse and scenes of sexual nature. I brought my kids in to watch, and there were naughty scenes that were really awkward, notably that of Bob's "Christmas gift". I belatedly found out that the US had rated this film with an R.
However, it is the music that will remain to be the most memorable aspect of "Jersey Boys". Their final performance of "Who Loves You" (#3 in 1975) at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in 1990 was electric (despite the iffy aging make-up). I wanted to stand up and cheer. I positively loved the scene at the end credits set to the tune of "December 1963 (Oh What a Night)" (#1 in 1976), which looked like an actual stage curtain call. These vibrant moments certainly buoyed up the whole film and left a good lasting impression and last song syndrome, not only for me and my wife, but even for my kids. 7/10
July 14, 2014
I went to watch this film with very high expectations. There was so much acclaim in all these initial reviews that have come out. Everyone extols it as THE best film of this summer. My sons and I went to watch it even if the only screening we can watch at that time was in more expensive 3D. This 3D turned out to be unnecessary, but this film is deserving of all its advanced praise.
The story of "Dawn" picks up ten years after the events of the first film "Rise of the Planet of the Apes." Simian flu we saw developed and spread in the first film has now all but decimated most of the human population. In the forests, the mutant apes have established their own system, led by the alpha male ape Caesar.
When a group of survivors enter the forest in order to reactivate an old dam for their energy needs, they meet the apes' wrath. There arose a battle of loyalty, trust and betrayal in both the human and the ape organizations, escalating into a deadly battle royale in the post-apocalyptic streets of San Francisco.
For a summer blockbuster rich in computer-generated visual effects, "Dawn" is actually a very serious film. The first two acts had more words (many of them written in subtitles) than action, and may make some of the younger viewers impatient. The final act is an action spectacle that will undoubtedly be long remembered for its graphic yet epic images of ape vs. human warfare.
This sequel is really more about the apes than the humans. The humans were delimited to playing one-dimensional characters with hardly any back story. The lead human character Malcolm, who was assigned to lead the dam repairs, was played by Jason Clarke. He went on his mission with his doctor second wife Ellie (Keri Russell) and his son Alexander (Kodi Smit-McPhee). The leader of the human settlement is Dreyfus, played by Gary Oldman. You will hate him for what he is saying, but upon reflection, that is really typical human behavior that he represents.
But the apes were a different matter. They were all so well-delineated. Each face was different and all so expressive. The actors behind each ape deserve special mention for managing to evoke emotion from beneath make-up and motion capture technology. Tony Kebbel was effectively tragic as the tortured Koba. That scene where he points to his scars and saying "human work!" is heartbreaking. Karin Konoval (a female!) is a calming presence as the intellectual orangutan Maurice. Nick Thurston captured the inner turmoil of Caesar's eldest son Blue Eyes. Above all, there was the amazing Andy Serkis as Caesar, the quintessential leader of the apes. This is indeed an award-deserving performance.
That is not to say that this film was absolutely perfect. There were some aspects which puzzled me. There seems to be so much more being written in the subtitles than what the apes were signing or gesturing on screen. The seriously dilapidated dam seemed to have been repaired so quickly, and the antibiotic given Caesar's dying wife seemed to have worked miraculously overnight. I know that that scene where Caesar was back in the house of his old friend and trainer Will (James Franco) was nice and sentimental. But it strains logic that a long-abandoned video camera would still have two bars in its battery life. In the bigger scheme of things though, these are minor quibbles.
You should go into this film NOT as you would go into a typical summer blockbuster film. You should have a proper frame of mind before you watch this. This film is not fun, entertaining, nor uplifting. Instead this is dark, thought-provoking and disturbing. There is no denying though that this film is a technological triumph in the area of visual effects, sound effects, film editing, musical scoring, cinematography and its effective direction under Matt Reeves. 9/10.
