Ober da bakod (review in Filipino)

Rebyu ni Vives Anunciacion
Inquirer Libre May 21, 2006

Over the Hedge
Direksiyon nina Tim Johnson, Karey Kirkpatrick
Panulat nina Len Blum, Lorne Cameron
Base sa cartoon strip nina Michael Fry at T Lewis
Tampok sina Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve Carell
GP/ 83 minuto
DreamWorks Animation

Nakaramdam na ba kayo ng sugar rush? Yung mapa-palpitate ang puso niyo at makakaramdam ng pangangailangan para kumilos ng mabilis. Parang ganun ang Over the Hedge – malasa, mabilis at mapapangiti kayo sa saya.

Si RJ (boses ni Bruce Willis) ay isang maabilidad na raccoon na nasanay na sa junk food at kagamitan ng tao. Sa tindi ng gutom isang gabi ay madidisgrasya niya ang inipong pagkain ng isang nagha-hibernate na oso (si Vincent, binosesan ni Nick Nolte). Bibigyan ni Vincent si RJ ng isang lingo para mag-ipon ng kapalit na pagkain, kundi’y si RJ ang kakainin ng oso.

Samantala, magugulat na lang sina Verne (ang seryoso at mabusising pagong na binosesan ni Garry Shandling), Hammy (ang neurotic at hyper-active na squirrel, boses ni Steve Carell) at iba pang taga-gubat na mga hayop na may misteryosong bakod ng halaman ang bigla na lang lumitaw sa isang dulo ng kanilang kagubatan. Yun pala’y isang malaking subdivision ang sumakop na sa kabuuan ng dating malawak nilang tirahan.

Mapapadpad si RJ kina Verne samantalang pinagtatalunan ng mga taga-gubat kung ano ang nasa kabila ng bakod. Gamit ang kaniyang kaalaman sa buhay ng mga tao, gagantsuhin ni RJ sina Verne na tulung-tulong silang mag-ipon ng pagkain mula sa subdivision ng mga tao, pero hindi niya ipagtatapat na ang iipunin nilang pagkain ay para kay Vincent. Natural, kataku-takot na gulo ang mangyayari dahil dito bago maayos ang lahat.

Mahusay ang animation at mabilis ang mga pangyayari, kaya nakaaaliw panoorin ang Over the Hedge, na mula sa comic strip nina Michael Fry at T Lewis na unang lumabas sa Amerika noong 1995. Ayon sa mga gumawa ng pelikula, maituturing na parang prequel ang pelikula sa mga kaganapan sa comics dahil sa pelikula pa lang nagkakilanlan ang mga karakter. Maganda ang pagkakaboses ng mga aktor, kabilang na si Avril Lavigne bilang Heather na teen-ager na possum. Paborito ko ang super-bilis na si Hammy, na ang pangalan sa comics ay Sammy.

May kanipisan ang kwento ng Over the Hedge (kailangan lang nilang mag-ipon ng pagkain, gaya ng kwento ng Antz at A Bug’s Life noon) kaya siguro masigla ang paglalahad ng naratibo. Sa isang banda’y mariin nitong inilalarawan kung paano unti-unting inuubos nga tao ang natural habitats ng mga hayop. Pero hindi nito pinalawig ang sermon kung paano masama sa katawan ang pagkain ng puros junk food lang. Mahalaga sana itong health topic para sa mga batang manonood. Sa isang banda’y may mahalaga itong environmental message (pero lumang tugtugin na), sa kabila nama’y may isa pa itong mahalagang mensahe na hindi naman nito pinangatawanan.

Simula nang ipalabas ang Toy Story noong 1995, binakuran na ng Disney at Pixar Animations ang trono ng Animation hanggang sa huli nilang palabas na The Incredibles noong 2004 (liban nung 1998 at 2001 noong hindi sila nanalo ng Oscar para sa Best Animation). Depende kung gaano kaganda ang susunod na animation ng Disney at Pixar na Cars na ipalalabas ngayon ding taon, pwedeng agawin ng Over the Hedge ang tronong ito na huling nagawa ng DreamWorks Animation sa Shrek noong 2001.

Pero bago iyon mangyari, mag-exercise muna tuwing umaga para iwas-atake sa puso kakakain ng matatabang pagkain.

T.E.O.T.W.A.W.K.I.

(This review came out in May 24, 2004. It's one of my personal favorites and I'm reposting it in conjunction with Time Magazine's recent special issue on global warming. In retrospect, I wish I hadn't written the last paragraphs of the review so ominously. As stated on the cover of the said Time issue, "Be Worried. Be VERY worried.")

T.E.O.T.E.W.A.W.K.I.
Review by Vives Anunciacion

The Day After Tomorrow
Written and Directed by Roland Emmerich
Starring Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ian Holm, Sela Ward
PG13 / 124 minutes
20th Century Fox

“Urgent: HQ Direction," began a message e-mailed on April 1 to dozens of scientists and officials at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "No one from NASA is to do interviews or otherwise comment on anything having to do with (the film)," said the message, sent by Goddard's top press officer. "Any news media wanting to discuss science fiction vs. science fact about climate change will need to seek comment from individuals or organizations not associated with NASA." (New York Times, April 25 2004)

The film in contest is Roland Emmerich's US$125-million The Day After Tomorrow. In recent weeks, NASA has decided to help discuss the issues of climate change, stemming from the public interest raised by the film. The New York Times reports last May 12 that environmental advocates in the US are using the film's release as an opening to slam the Bush administration's policies on global warming. While in Washington a coalition of industry groups, including the National Association of Manufacturers, is working to make sure that the movie does not contribute to the passage of a bill limiting carbon-dioxide emissions.

The Day After Tomorrow is a sensationalized, science fiction account of sudden climate change and the instantaneous shift to the ice age brought about by global warming and greenhouse gases. In the movie, a gigantic superstorm threatens to wipe out the entire northern hemisphere and send the earth to the next ice age. Paleoclimatologist Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) teams up with a number of scientists worldwide to warn the White House of the imminent danger, which like in all disaster flicks, gets ignored. Meanwhile, his son (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) is trapped in New York where the eye of the superstorm is headed.

After Independence Day, director Roland Emmerich comes up with another spectacular reason why we should be scared of our future. In The Day After Tomorrow, it's The End Of The World As We Know It. TEOTWAWKI. Tornadoes wipe out Los Angeles, hailstones batter Tokyo and snow falls heavily in India.

The movie is swarming with plotholes and is a conglomeration of previous disaster movies like The Perfect Storm, Towering Inferno and even Titanic. Characters are so ordinary they're practically forgettable, until you realize that in situations like these, no one gets to be a superstar. In that sense, everyone acts out what was needed sufficiently. Even Ian Holm's brief screentime ends poignantly - you get to miss his character at the end of the film. This is Emmerich's most emotional spectacle, if it means anything.

There are a number of spectacular effects sequences. But most enjoyable are the numerous potshots thrown against US foreign policy, conspicuous consumption and greed for energy. This movie surprisingly turns out to be a rallypoint for Third World Agenda and environmental sensitivity. In a curious paradigm shift, this Hollywood summer movie shows a tornado wiping out the famous Hollywood sign in California.

However, it must be stressed that a lot of things in this movie aren't supported by scientific fact. Climate change simply cannot happen that fast. But one illustration of sudden climate change is shown in this movie which was also discussed by National Geographic - that of the remains of a Mammoth instantly frozen while grazing. Incidentally, the Larsen B ice shelf in Antarctica featured in the opening scene, really did break off and fall into the sea in March 2002, a few weeks after Emmerich wrote the scene in the movie.

Implausible may be many of the events in this movie, it is hard to ignore the signs that the world's weather is going awry. The Day After Tomorrow is fictional grand entertainment not in any way near the truth, thankfully. Pray to God it stays that way for a long, long time.

And start being mindful of greenhouse gases, just in case.

Wild, wild wave

Review by Vives Anunciacion
Inquirer Libre
May 12, 2006

Poseidon
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen
Written by Mark Protosevich
Based on the novel by Paul Gallico
Starring Josh Lucas, Kurt Russel
PG 13/ 99 minutes
Warner Brothers/ Virtual Studios

In its first 20 minutes, I had my hand over my mouth completely awestruck. Okay, maybe not completely, but surprised to be impressed. Poseidon, god of the seas, has edge-of-your-seat excitement to the last second. Hold your precious breath; this has water, water everywhere.

It’s actually a remake of the 1972 cult classic The Poseidon Adventure that started the disaster flick craze. When the trailer for Poseidon first came out earlier this year, I overheard people quickly dismiss it as another Titanic rip-off. Poseidon Adventure: 1972. Titanic: 1997. Kung ginawa bang pelikula ang MV Doña Paz tragedy, tatawagin pa rin bang Titanic iyon? In Poseidon, Wolfgang Petersen improves on and combines the tragedies of two of his previous waterborne films, Das Boot and The Perfect Storm.

The giant luxury cruise ship Poseidon is sailing the oceans on New Year’s Eve when a rogue 100-foot wave rams it on the starboard side and turns it upside down. Within moments, passengers and wreckage are tossed around and turned like a huge washing machine. Those who survive this nightmare consequently must ease their way out from burning debris or falling objects while the sinking ship gradually fills up with water.

The ship’s captain instructs many of the survivors to stay in the ship’s large ballroom, where they were previously gathered to celebrate the night. Some people simply can’t wait for things to just happen, and decide to take matters into their own hands. Eventually, eight strangers band together to save their own lives while the ship remains afloat – professional gambler Dylan (Josh Lucas), Robert (Kurt Russell), a former mayor vacationing with his daughter Jennifer (Emmy Rossum) and her fiancé Christian (Mike Vogel), retiring businessman Richard (Richard Dreyfuss), beautiful divorcee Maggie (Jacinda Barrett) and her son Conor (Jimmy Bennet), and stowaway Elena (Mia Maestro).

Their plan, according to the group’s reluctant leader Dylan, is to find their way up (or down, the ship is overturned) towards the ship’s propellers where they can jump overboard and escape the sinking ship. But each path they take would present a different obstacle they must hurdle, and as all disaster movies go, not all of them will make it alive in the end.

The main attraction of Poseidon is its dramatic staging of (incredibly believable) devastation. We’re talking about a bigger than Titanic, Queen Mary type ocean liner here, and I can only mouth, “holy ****” as soon as the giant wall of water appears onscreen, slams Poseidon big time and rolls the ship upside down. That sequence alone is a showstopper. After a short introduction to the mainly obligatory set of characters, Poseidon surges relentlessly with scene after scene of tension as Dylan and his group race towards the ship’s keel as the water swells behind them.

As for each of the survivors, there is no point in belaboring characterization here. Poseidon simply cuts away what would naturally drag the narrative slower. And so, a credible cast plus simplified characterizations are enough to push the story forward. In real life, we hear survivors narrate how a stranger saved them, or how an anonymous arm pulled them out of the water. It’s only afterwards when the survivors are interviewed that the tragedy gets a human face and a name.

Great effects and believable set-ups make for an engrossing adventure, it’s not surprising if an Oscar nomination for art direction came along. Fans of the original should be warned that this Poseidon is remarkably different.

Then again this review could all be wrong. I may have had an unnatural enthusiasm assessing Poseidon as a result of seeing the full trailer of Superman Returns. Ahh, Summer.

Muy delicioso

Review by Vives Anunciacion
May 10, 2006
Inquirer Libre

Mission: Impossible III
Directed by J.J. Abrams
Written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, J.J. Abrams
Starring Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman
PG13/ 126 minutes
Paramount Pictures/ UIP

Ten years after his first Mission Impossible movie, Tom Cruise is jumping over taller buildings and dodging more lethal bazookas as Special Agent Ethan Hunt in the most explosive version of the M:I series. Popcorns please! M:i:III delivers slam-bang block-buster action bursting to the seams.

Credit must be given to M:i:III’s director, J.J. Abrams, who created the phenomenal TV series Alias and Lost. M:i:III flows kinetically the same way the actions and the storyline progress in the said TV shows, maybe trademarks of the successful director. But this aesthetic style is both its strength (compared to previous Mission movies) and weakness (compared to other movies in general).

M:i:III begins at its climax - Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is strapped on a chair being tortured by ruthless arms dealer Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), who is in search of a biological weapon known only as the “Rabbit’s Foot”. When Ethan refuses to submit the information, Davian threatens to kill Julia (Michelle Monaghan), Ethan’s fiancée, whom Davian has also captured. Ethan pleads with teary eyes, Davian points a gun at Julia – and then the story backtracks where it should start.

Ethan is enjoying his peaceful semi-retirement with his new wife Julia, who thinks he works for some sort of traffic engineering. One night, as the couple celebrates their marriage with friends, Ethan receives a message from his superiors for another Impossible Mission. Fellow agent and former protégé Lindsey (Keri Russel) has been kidnapped by Davian for information on the Rabbit’s Foot.

Ethan and a team of experts are immediately sent to rescue Lindsey in Berlin. In the movie’s first of many explosive action scenes, the team’s daring rescue is somewhat a success – they manage to retrieve Lindsey from Davian’s minions. But it ends with her tragic death.

Ethan’s team is then sent to the Vatican where Davian is captured in one of the most effective scenes in the movie, involving multiple disguises and acrobatics that will remind audiences that teamwork is one of the hallmarks of this series (though it’s impossible not to say it remains a Tom Cruise movie.) But as in the first operation, this one ends unsuccessfully as well. On route to the IMF headquarters in the US, Davian escapes his high security blanket in one of the noisiest action scenes on a bridge, and in a short time arranges the kidnap of Julia.

The chase leads Ethan to a building in Shanghai, where he must, if he must, throw himself and freefall hundreds of feet into the air to get his hands on the Rabbit’s Foot, which he must trade with Davian for Julia’s freedom. And then it’s back to where the movie started.

M:i:III has all the ingredients of an exciting, popcorn summer blockbuster – great action sequences, great visual spectacles, zero story coherence. The movie belabors the fact that Ethan must conquer insurmountable emotional odds and show Tom Cruise in several teary-eyed shots, because, in the previous M:I movies, we have already seen him surmount all forms of physical odds. A great part of the movie hinges on Ethan’s relationship with wife Julia, so the story about a crazy arms dealer and the friggin’ Rabbit’s Foot is actually just a lengthy sidetrack to what appears to be an intro to M:i:IV – Mr. & Mrs. Hunt.

Michael Giacchino’s music drowns in the avalanche of sound effects. On the other hand, this may mean an Oscar nomination for sound editing. Philip Seymour Hoffman’s acting is dead-on, if only his Davian had more backstory, he played enough for too little. Telephoto close-ups may be okay for TV, but too much of these detach the audience from every scene’s emotion. It’s not cinematic for cinema’s sake – the action set-ups may be big, but not composed for the big screen.

Overall, this Mission is worth the admission; just don’t expect mind-bending story twists and surprises. Get two buckets of popcorn and a giant drink, and then say, “On with the show!”

Desperately seeking suspense

Reviewed by Vives Anunciacion
(unpublished)

The Sentinel
Directed by Clark Johnson
Written by George Nolfi
Based on the novel by Gerald Petievich
Starring Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria
PG 13/ 108 minutes
20th Century Fox/ Regency

At 61, Michael Douglas should probably retire from making any more action movies, his long filmography has apparently taken the better of him. Or, to put it in another way, we already liked him when he played President Andrew Shepard in the romantic comedy, The American President way back in 1995.

In The Sentinel, Douglas plays Secret Service Agent Pete Garrison, who is directly assigned to protect US First Lady Sarah Ballentine (Kim Basinger), although this is no Guarding Tess, the comedy about a retired First Lady and her bumbling Secret Service bodyguard starring Shirley MacLaine.

Anyway, back to The Sentinel. A secret service agent is mysteriously killed and the agency’s top agent, David Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland), investigates the murder. He is joined by a fresh academy graduate Jill Marin, played by Eva Longoria, who was likely cast here in her first movie for no other reason than to grab the attention of the millions of Desperate Housewife fans.

Breckenridge’s investigation leads him to former best friend Garrison, who, despite having a respected career behind him, now appears to be behind a serious plot to assassinate the US President. Garrison suspects he is being framed-up, and goes into hiding while trying to prove his innocence and trying to save the President’s life at the same time. Breckenridge has reasons to distrust Garrison – he suspects Garrison to have had an affair with his now ex-wife. What he doesn’t know is that Garrison is having an affair with the First Lady. Things untangle in the end, and the agents cooperate in the nick of time to save the President.

The Sentinel is such a mishmash of old thrillers The Fugitive, In the Line of Fire and a little CSI and Basic Instinct - at some points the movie becomes exciting and irrelevant at the same time. The Fugitive worked the first time in that it was an innovation at the time, which partly explained why its sequel, US Marshals, wasn’t as successful five years after. Same theory holds with Basic Instinct. In contrast, In the Line of Fire, starring Clint Eastwood, is still relevant in a post-9/11 age. Come to think of it, all of the stars in those movies are past the usual prime.

The problem with The Sentinel is that it belabors to show the intense security that a US president receives on a daily basis, only to show how lax it becomes, what little mistakes can cause outside the White House. That simply doesn’t bode well if the movie serves as a Hollywoodized recruitment video for possible agents of the Secret Service. Sleek production value doesn’t compensate for an outdated concept and an aging lead actor who simply can’t walk the walk when the scene asks him to make a run. Sutherland, combining Tommy Lee Jones and his own Jack Bauer in 24, makes a commendable attempt to bring flavor to his scenes, but it still isn’t his movie.

We’ve seen this before, though it’s not as bad as it seems. It’s just that The Sentinel has no point in the history of things.