Movie: El Presidente

“The story of Emilio Aguinaldo, the first Philippine Republic’s President from his initiation in to the Katipunan by Bonifacio himself,victorious battles and eventually his rise to presidency. The film deals also his about his controversial relationship with Andres Bonifacio and his eventual execution.“

This film was a complete waste of time and money. Seriously.

I’m not saying I’m all knowing when it comes to Philippine history. I’m not. Being a reader, I might have read more than the regular Filipino, but I am in no way claiming that I’m an expert. But even I know when something is bull. Like El Presidente.

If actor/producer Jeorge Estragan wanted to play the hero people can look up to in a historical film, he should’ve chosen a different hero to make a biopic of. Emilio Aguinaldo is not the cleanest hero, nor is he an innocent leader; pretending otherwise is not just a punch to the gut of our history and public records, but an insult to the numerous teachers who have been teaching Philippine history.

Watching El Presidente, I imagine there was a permanent look of horror affixed on my face throughout the screening. Everything felt wrong. There were instances where my mom (a big Nora Aunor fan who wanted to watch the film for Nora) kept shushing me just so I wouldn’t argue with the film out loud.

I don’t even think they thought this film through. The film felt like a collection of clips put together with the hopes that the viewers are familiar enough (but not too much) with the history of the Philippines that they’d piece things together. There was no narrative flow as things were allowed to happen chronologically, and characters popped in and out with the barest of introductions or explanations.

I humored my mom’s request to watch this film because so many people praised Asiong Salonga from last year’s film festival. I hoped that El Presidente would be half as good (or at least, as entertaining) as Estregan’s entry from last year. This being a Mark Meilly film, I admit that my hopes rose a little.

But El Presidente is pure crap. The only good thing I can say about it is that the cinematography is amazing. The rest? Acting, costumes, props–this movie might have cost a lot to make, but it sure doesn’t look like it.

Movie: Shake Rattle & Roll 14

Shake Rattle & Roll is a long-running film franchise that’s seen a lot of ups and downs.

I remember, as a kid, how scared I was of the films. And then, as I grew older, it’s become less creepy and more cheesy. It didn’t help that when Regal Films decided to bring it back in 2005, they chose a comedienne to headline the comeback. Combine that with less-than-stellar effects, and you get a film that many will watch–but no one will really like.

But that’s not to say that the franchise had completely lost its hold on horror. Since its resurrection, Shake Rattle & Roll has produced a few gems: There’s the Yaya and LRT episode of the 8th film, featuring serious (and grounded) acting that made the fantastic seem plausible; there’s Class Picture and Nieves from the tenth installment, which had a great mix of horror and comedy; Punerarya from the 2010 edition, which had a great mix of acting, scripting, directing, lighting and music; and then there’s Parola from last year, a barebones story that was told really well.

I subscribe to the belief that Shake Rattle & Roll will produce at least one good story every year. And this year, that one story is the first of the three in the fourteenth installment: Pamana.

Pamana tells the story of a family who inherits a fortune from a little known relative. One of the heirs is excited to discover that he is related to a once popular horror comics writer/artist, not so the rest of the relatives. Told to care for the deceased’s four masterpieces, two of the heirs decide to dump the drawings as soon as they are out of the solicitor’s sight. The other two decide to keep their new wards.

If you think these masterpieces will play into the story, you’re right. But not in the way you think. The drawings are quickly forgotten when the horror characters their dead relatives come to life–without explanation of where they came from. (And no, in case you’re asking, they didn’t come from the drawings.) The rest of the story plays out classic Pinoy horror style, with the family getting trapped inside a house and killed by the monsters one by one, with only a few survivors not realizing taht they’re taking the monster out of its prison and out into the world.

Why do I say it’s good? Because it’s entertaining. When a horror story has become confused with its own plot and history, that’s the only thing you can look out for: entertainment value. In this story, it’s Janice de Belen’s larger than life character that steals every scene. Even after realizing you hate her character, you can’t help but wish she survives just because she’s the only character with actual personality.

And then there’s Fabio Ide. Whoever thought to cast him as a lovestruck vampire was a genius. He draws the most laughs with his line delivery. Just imagine it: a Brazilian trying to speak Tagalog with fangs. It’s hilarious.

What came next though was disappointing;

The Lost Command is about a group of soldiers with no clear mission traipsing in the woods. They are cut off from their base because their radio couldn’t pick up any signals, and then they have an encounter with weird people in the woods. People who have a gray pallor and are super fast.

They’re supposed to be zombies, but you’d be confused. They don’t look dead–instead, they look like people who fell into vats of ashes. And the fact that they’re super fast goes against the idea of the undead. They’re rotting corpses, moving fast would only hasten their decomposition.

If you take it as a zombie story, The Lost Command would make more sense. Then, it would just be about a group of soldiers fighting to stay alive. But if you take out the zombie aspect, which is what this story did, it’s just a jumbled mess of soldiers fighting against super soldiers who want to eat them.

It’s not scary, it’s disgusting. And it’s not even entertaining as the whole thing just drags.

And then Unwanted begins.

The last story features a couple who had just found out that they’re expecting. The girl has decided that she wants an abortion, because she has plans of migrating and stuff. The guy, while disagreeing, knows he cannot sway her decision. They go to the mall to pick up a gift for the guy’s parents, and then something crashes into the mall.

That’s where the story ends. The rest of the production plays out like a video game in which characters are just moving through wreckage to find the exit and survive. Our main character moves from location to location (and can I just say that the whole set does not look like a decimated mall? It looks like a set), meets new characters who are quickly killed off, and then survives–to find out that the world as he knew it no longer exists.

It would have been okay, I think, had we gotten decent actors. But no. Aside from Vhong Navarro, Lovi Poe, and Carlo Aquino, the rest of the cast seemed to have embraced the fact that they are red shirts. Cannon fodders. No one really acted and most spewed dialogues that didn’t make sense because something else happened.

I mean, does telling someone that they’d go back for a fallen comrade after seeing said comrade devoured by a monster sound smart to you? I don’t care if it was in the script, but this film was dubbed after the edits. (And the character who delivered the dialogue was also the one to say that their comrade was devoured, later on.) How difficult was it to take out the dialogue? Or to dub it differently?

Leaving the cinema, everyone was abuzz–about how disappointing this year’s Shake Rattle & Roll was.

Movie: Si Agimat, Si Enteng Kabisote, at si Ako

And once again, the people behind the Enteng Kabisote franchise managed to ruin my childhood.

Si Agimat, si Enteng Kabisote, at si Ako is the sequel to the 2010 hit Si Agimat at si Enteng Kabisote. This time, box-office kings Vic Sotto and Bong Revilla, Jr. are joined by box-office queen Judy Ann Santos. The story, what little there is of it, takes place after the events of Enteng ng Ina Mo, Vic Sotto’s collaborative movie from last year’s Metro Manila Film Festival.

And just like in last year’s entry, this one ruins the character of Enteng Kabisote–and brings down the characters of Faye/Chlorateam, Samara, and Agimat with it.

This film was completely disappointing, considering how heartfelt the first collaboration was. In my opinion then, Si Agimat at si Enteng Kabisote worked because it gave focus to what the franchise was supposed to be about: family. This year’s film focused on trust issues–the same issues that were brought up and resolved in last year’s Enteng ng Ina Mo. And to bring out these trust issues that needed to be addressed, the characters of Enteng Kabisote, Faye/Chlorateam, Samara and Agimat were tweaked to devolve into their base emotions–and not the good ones.

Which brings me to the biggest problem, I think, the film has: Judy Ann Santos’s character.

Angelina (or Ako, as she wants to be called) is an extreme environmentalist who gives no thought to the repercussions of her actions. She does things without thinking of the consequences, and thus puts into motion a painful jealousy subplot for the male main characters and their respective loved ones.

She openly flirts with both Agimat and Enteng Kabisote, and yet is only called out on it by the wives and one other character–that of John Lapus’, who is made to look antagonistic even though he is the only one making any sense.

That is, until the end when he refuses to help defeat the monster boss. And when he automatically forgives Agimat and Enteng Kabisote for being absolute douches because Ako tells him to. Then again, that’s pretty much all he does in the whole movie: do what Ako tells him to do and be the emotional punching bag for the main characters.

But at least he gets actual characterization. The rest of the cast don’t even get that: the powerful Ina Magenta is demoted to just being a punchline and a pusher of plots; Enteng’s family and friends only appear to serve as sounding boards and comic relief; Agimat’s world only provides the grunts and minions–cannon fodder, basically; and GMA-7′s once-popular tweens are completely underused.

And that brings me to my biggest pet peeve when it comes to film franchises: continuity. Yassi Pressman, who has played a fairy before, is shown now as part of Ako’s team. Good for the actress, she gets more screen time–but it was something the casting director (or the writer) could’ve fixed. They could’ve cast another actress for a whole new character, or they could’ve written her ousting from Engkantasya into the story, to make more sense of how there is a whole new fairy world that no one knew about!

My next gripe has to do with Barbie Forteza who already appeared in a significantly bigger role in the first collaboration of Agimat and Enteng Kabisote. She played the bratty god-daughter of Enteng in the film from two years ago–and in fact, she is the one who introduces Bogart (Wally Bayola) into the Kabisote household. Again, this is something that the casting director, or the writer, could’ve fixed. But I’m leaning towards blaming the writer with this one–especially because her cameo could’ve actually propelled the story forward without resorting to a sequence of exposition.

Barbie has a connection to Enteng Kabisote. She gets attacked by evil aliens. She can be the one to call Enteng for help, instead of having a totally unnecessary interview scene on television that Enteng will then watch–and not believe! What the hell, right?

I could go on and on about how bad this film is, but you know what? I won’t even bother anymore.

Whatever charm and wit there was in Si Agimat at si Enteng Kabisote is completely absent in this money-grab masquerading as a film.

Movie: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

And so ends my Metro Manila Film Fest series of blog posts.

I’ve been meaning to write about Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow since the film festival started. Seeing as it was the only traditional drama entry, I was curious to see how it was going to go against the more mass-friendly entries like Enteng ng Ina Mo, Ang Panday 2, and the always present Shake, Rattle and Roll. Unfortunately, no one wanted to watch the movie with me. So on the last day of the festival, I found myself going alone–and liking the quiet drama of the movie.

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow centers around a powerful family whose lives change after a massive earthquake. Secrets get unearthed, pardon the pun, and lives are ruined.

If there is anything not to like about the movie, is that it wasn’t longer. Well, that and Jericho Rosales’s grief-acting. When people are laughing while you’re showing despair, there must be something wrong, right? But going back to the fact that the movie is only two hours long, while servicing a host of well-rounded characters–it was… limiting.

Most of the time, my complaint against movies is the loss of characterization. In most mainstream movies, character development is sacrificed for comedy, or to service the movement of the plot. In this film, we have great characterizations for all the major players–and the problem is the lack of time. And lack of acting push, in the case of Jericho Rosales. Or maybe I was just getting distracted by his slang.

What is up with celebrities trying to sound like Americans anyway? *Insert eye roll here.*

Going back to the film; I have to give kudos to how each story thread crosses with one another. None of the stories are new–in fact, all of them are soap opera staples. But the way they were weaved together was exceptionally done that you wouldn’t mind the fact that you already knew how most of the stories would unravel. And while one of the three main storylines does end traditionally with a happily-ever-after, the other two do try to give new endings to age-old tropes.

After watching the film, I left with an impression that the movie would’ve fared better outside of the Metro Manila Film Festival. It really didn’t fit with the produced-for-the-masses feel that the other film entries had. Initially, I thought it might fare better in the Cinemanila festival, or as a director’s showcase entry in Cinemalaya. But a couple of days has given me new perspective. Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow didn’t really fit the Metro Manila Film Festival because it didn’t fit the film mold. The story structure and character development on their own was clue enough that the film would’ve been better as a soap series.

That said though, I think this is the best of the six films I’ve seen in the 2011 Metro Manila Film Festival. With Shake, Rattle and Roll 13‘s Parola coming in second, and Enteng ng Ina Mo coming in third.

Movie: House Husband

My House Husband is the latest dramedy movie from the Judy Ann Santos-Ryan Agoncillo tandem that had previously spawned two movies: Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo and Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo. But the domestic drama that made their previous two movies hits seemed to have taken the high road this time. A very high road.

The film revolves around the character of Rod (Ryan Agoncillo) who decided to resign from his bank job because of a buy-out that promotes him into a demotion. What does that mean? Well, he is being promoted into an area manager–in a far-flung province. Without a pay increase. What does that have to do with the story? Well, it’s the reason why he decides to quit–and how he becomes the house husband. Now, the drama of the film has to do with Rod’s pride, his dilemma at becoming a house husband, his wife’s juggling act in balancing her suddenly full-time job and spending time with her family, and the overly-dramatic life of their neighbor Aida who Rod becomes friends with.

A bit much to follow? It’s really not. Watching the movie, it’s very hard to get lost in the narrative. The timeline is simple, and the causes and effect are done in such a way that anyone would understand what’s going on. The film’s problem is the fact that it revolves around resignation and becoming a house husband–things that are very visual, but are not entertaining to watch. I wouldn’t even be surprised if people comment that Rod brought the problem to himself; in this times of economical hardship, resignation is not an option–at least until you’ve already secured a second job.

Now, Rod’s reasoning as to why he resigned, and why he’s being picky with his new job, are both sound. But it’s a very intellectual exercise. At the end of the day, his pride should’ve convinced him to stick with his old job because he wouldn’t want his wife to become the sold breadwinner. For four months. Save for this one instance though, Rod’s pride is pretty much a staple to his every scene.

My House Husband is a Ryan Agoncillo movie. Both Judy Ann Santos and Eugene Domingo’s characters were made to support his character. The thing is, it’s Judy Ann and Eugene who you would want to see more of in the movie. Judy Ann’s understated acting as the frustrated, yet loving, wife is a new facet we haven’t seen from the actress; and Eugene Domingo is Eugene Domingo. Out of her three Metro Manila Film Festival movies, it’s here that she shines the most–but it could also be because her comic timing eclipses Ryan’s rather bland acting.

And that’s where things boil down to, doesn’t it? Ryan is an amazing host on television. But he’s not exactly an actor. So making a film and centering the story around him was a very bad idea. For one thing, the story was limited to intellectual settings, as no one would believe Ryan as a blue-collar employee. And being tethered to that limitation, the movie already alienated most of the movie-going masses. Now, had the film been made to center on Judy Ann and Eugene’s strained relationship, while maintaining the premise of Ryan being a house husband? That could’ve been comic gold.