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Pantawid Rebyu ni Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre September 3, 2008 Review in Filipino Written, Directed and Produced by Cris Pablo Sept 3-9 sa Robinson’s Galleria IndieSine Rated R, gay film May karapatan bang lumigaya ang breadwinner na bakla? Ito ang gustong sagutin ng pelikulang Quicktrip ni producer-director Cris Pablo, isa sa mga pinakaunang filmmaker na nagrelease commercially ng digital film sa isang sinehan nang itanghal ang Duda/Doubt sa SM Megamall noong 2003. Masasabing isang unresolved study ang Quicktrip tungkol sa sitwasyon ng mahirap na bakla na hindi nakapaglaladlad dahil sa pangangailangan ng mga taong umaasa sa kaniya. Isang hamak na waiter si Cris (Topher Barreto) na pinagkakasya ang karampot na kinikita para sa gamot ng sakiting ina, upa sa maliit na bahay, pagkain, pamasahe at pambaon ng dalawang nakababatang kapatid. Hindi nila alam na bakla si Cris. Kung may tira sa sahod, ipinanlilibre niya ito sa call center agent boyfriend na Dexter (Ian Atocador). Magse-ce...

Forcing the series Review by Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre August 26, 2008 (English version) Directed by Dave Filoni Lucasfilm Animation/ Warner Brothers There’s a different Anakin Skywalker here. He’s not as uptight like before. Maybe because it’s computer animation. At least there’s no Jar Jar Binks. Star Wars: The Clone Wars is the first animated movie of the series and the first movie from Lucasfilm Animation – the studio that George Lucas established a few years ago which has a unit in Singapore. This is also the first time Yoda isn’t voiced by Frank Oz, and the first Star Wars not to use original music from John Williams. One can almost say this is outside the Star Wars universe if George Lucas hadn’t produced this movie. The good news is it’s a movie meant for kids. The bad news is that it may have one too many action pieces to make it appropriate for them. In this version of The Clone Wars, the Galactic Republic under Chancellor Palpatine is engaged in an all-out-war with t...

Road killer Rebyu ni Vives Anunciacion Review in Filipino Inquirer Libre August 26, 2008 Written and Directed by Paul WS Anderson Based on the movie Death Race 2000 by Roger Corman Kung banggaan nga sa EDSA mapapalingon ka, sa isa pa kayang pelikulang walang preno sa salpukan at pagpapasabog ng mga sasakyan? Turbocharged ang action sa Death Race na parang walang krisis sa gasolina. It is the year 2012 at bumagsak na ang ekonomiya ng lahat ng bansa pati na ang sa U.S. Malalaking korporasyon na ang nagpapatakbo ng mga utilities pati na mga kulungan. Isang ex-racecar driver si Jensen Ames (Jason Statham) na na-frame up at nakulong sa Terminal Island maximum security prison na mahigpit na pinatatakbo ni warden Claire Henessy (Joan Allen). Kapalit ng kalayaan, kailangang makipagkarera ni Ames against other prisoners sa isang karera kung saan unahan sa finish line na buhay. Dahil sa Death Race, may nakakabit na machine gun, missile launcher, armor plate at kung anu-ano pang armas ang mga sas...

Want no more Review by Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre August 19, 2008 Directed by Chris Carter Starring David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson In technical terms, it’s properly treated and smartly made (I didn’t say it has an intelligent script). David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are back in the roles that made them famous in The X Files: I Want to Believe . The good news is, just like the hit TV series this movie is based on, these two are the best parts of the show. This is supposedly a stand-alone story that non-fans of the series can reasonably understand, but I guess a good knowledge of the TV show helps in better appreciating this movie. Pwera rito, I Want to Believe is just an okay drama-thriller tungkol sa dalawang tao who have supposedly matured in their relationship, but start questioning their beliefs in each other when extraordinary challenges face them again. Six years after their last X Files adventure (the series ended in 2002) and ten years after the last movie ( Fight th...

Pixar's perfect Review by Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre August 13, 2008 Written and Directed by Andrew Stanton Pixar Animation / Walt Disney (Original review in mixed Filipino and English) Whatever the praise, I'm not sure if people will easily like WALL-E, especially if another hyperactive comedic adventure is expected like recent animated features from Hollywood. The last half of WALL-E is standard Disney family entertainment, which by itself is reason to see the movie – but it’s not the reason why it’s great. The first half of the movie is an absolute masterpiece. Like a Charlie Chaplin pantomime or a classic romance from the days of Cary Grant, WALL-E is an emotional, almost melancholic homage to many things cinema. And like its Japanese-studio counterparts who take anime seriously, Pixar takes storytelling back to its original, basic roots – visual storytelling. Make sure to watch this movie in cinemas; I don’t think small screens will do this justice. Half of the sh...

Wow, heavy Review by Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre July 25, 2008 Review in Filipino and English Directed by Christopher Nolan Based on characters created by Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart It’s a thoroughly well-crafted, well-written, thought-provoking Hollywood blockbuster. Pero andaming issues. It’s still a superhero movie. In fact it presents quite a number of themes, mostly moral ambiguities and duality of characters, na siniksik nang maigi at ipinagkasya in two and a half hours. Sabi nga ni Joker, why so serious? Spoilers beware. In Christopher Nolan’s sequel to the critically-acclaimed 2005 mega hit Batman Begins , Batman (Christian Bale) unofficially joins forces with the police, led by by Lt. Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) in cracking down Gotham’s criminals, to the point when hundreds of them are indicted in court en masse. The crackdown seems to be working, until a strange creature com...

Kung ‘kay tabatchoy Review by Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre June 13, 2008 review in Filipino Directed by Mark Osborne, John Stevenson Featuring the voices of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan Galit ako sa mga tamad. Sa mga panahon ngayon, bawal ang katamaran. Pero sa mga panahon ding ganito nakakatulog ang kaunting aliw. Si Po (boses ni Nacho Libre Jack Black) ay isang matabang panda na parang Juan Tamad - maghapong nangangarap maging pinakamahusay na Kung Fu fighter sa buong China, mas mahusay pa kaysa sa Furious Five na kaniyang iniidolo. Kahit na sa gitna ng pagwe-waiter niya sa maliit na noodle restaurant nila ng kaniyang ama, nangangarap pa rin siya. Kaya nang marinig niya ang announcement na pipiliin na ni Shaolin Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) ang Dragon Warrior na magiging tagapagtanggol ng Valley of Peace, agad binitawan ni Po ang mga hawak na bowl at kumaripas patungong templo. Doon nag-e-exhibition ng martial arts ang mga estudyante ni Mas...

Prince charming Review by Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre June 5, 2008 Review in Filipino and English Directed by Andrew Adamson Based on the book by C.S. Lewis Starring Ben Barnes, Wiliam Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes Kamukha ni Prince Caspian si Albert Martinez. Yung bagets version. Yun yung una kong napansin sa The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Yung next ko na napansin, nagmamature na yung mga kids ng Narnia, may halo nang teen love story eh. Pangalawa ang Prince Caspian sa The Chronicles of Narnia series of books and films, matapos ang The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, last seen in 2005. Sa chapter two ng Narnia series, an assassination plot will force Prince Caspian (played by Brit actor Ben Barnes) to hide from his scheming uncle Miraz (played by Sergio Castellitto) who has declared himself king of Telmarine and taken the throne para sa sarili niya. Mapapadpad si Caspian sa kagubatan ng Narnia kung saan nagtatago ang mga magical creatures, ...

Happiness is a warm gun Review by Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre March 5, 2008 Directed by Julie Taymor Featuring music by the Beatles Starring Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess Usually, songs for movie musicals are written around the same time the movie is made, but in Across the Universe the songs have existed before the story was written. It’s not a musical about the Beatles, there’s just a lot of Beatles songs along with the simple story. So it’s not surprising if you find yourself singing along with the songs inside the theater. The entire movie is a series of music videos strung together by a thin narrative called a love story between Brit dock worker Jude (Jim Sturgess, who was probably cast in the role because he sounded like Paul McCartney) who goes to the States in search of his dad, but ends up falling for high school senior sweetheart Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood, who actually sounds good.) Pretty soon the movie is populated by persons with names taken from Beatles songs. Narrativ...

Fire and brimstone Review by Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre February 21, 2008 Written and Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson Based on Upton Sinclair’s novel “Oil!” Starring Daniel Day-Lewis Nominated for 8 Oscars As the title promises, there will be blood. There is a pervasive sense that something scary or terrible is about to happen in the movie, even if nothing ghostly ever does. It’s not a horror movie, but it can get so creepy it’s close to being one. There is something scary in P. T. Anderson’s latest work, and it’s the creature called Daniel Plainview who is a monster of a human if there is one, a soulless brute of anger spewed from the depths of evil. In Daniel Plainview’s own terms he is an oil man, a self-made prototype American businessman who literally broke back and bones picking for silver in rocks before drilling for crude oil in the deserts of California in the early 1900s. For the first 11 minutes of the movie, not a word is spoken, only the sound of Daniel’s pick and a...

Brothers in Arts Review by Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre December 14 2007 Directed by Ben Affleck Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane Starring Casey Affleck In Ben Affleck’s world, people matter. Families matter. That’s why in his directorial debut Gone Baby Gone, establishing locations and beauty shots of lower Boston don’t matter (they’re in the movie, but they’re not emphasized). It’s quite noticeable that people are always talking in Gone Baby Gone, many times in close-ups, because that’s what matters – people communicating, interacting and dealing with each other. And because family is important, Ben hired his brother, Casey, to star in his show. The movie deals with the kidnapping of four year old Amanda McCready and the search and investigation that followed her disappearance. Ben’s younger brother Casey Affleck plays Patrick Kenzie, the private investigator hired by Amanda’s aunt Bea (Amy Madigan) to investigate the case, despite the best efforts of the police, led by Capt. ...

Reviews by Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre Nov 30, 2007 (The first paragraph was edited out from the print version due to lack of space) I’m not sure if these films are still out in local cinemas, masyadong maraming pwedeng panoorin – mag-monkey, monkey na lang kung ano ang uunahin. I have yet to see the John Lloyd-Bea starrer One More Chance, but I figure it will stay in theaters for two or more weeks. Palabas na rin ang Pasukob nina Rufa Mae at AiAi at ang The Kingdom. Para dun sa mga napanood ko, first there’s Superbad which should be in its third week or so of successful run, if it’s still out. Now I’m wondering why it took me too long to see it. Superbad, Directed by Greg Mottola Similar to American Pie pero mas mahusay ang pagkakasulat at kung minsa’y nakakabaliw sa kalokohan, mas marumi ang bibig nito patungkol sa kalibugan pero hindi kabastusan ang punto ng dialogue. Tatlong magbe-bestfriend na nerdy-nerdy students have arranged their way into attending one of the last parties...

Mr. Bombastic Review by Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre November 20, 2007 Directed by Robert Zemeckis Based on the Old English epic poem Written by Neil Gaiman, Roger Avary Starring Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie Warner Brothers/ Shangri-La Entertainment 3D in IMAX Beowulf will do to 3D what Lord of the Rings did to fantasy – champion the genre as its innovator and make it as popular as the rest of the blockbuster pack, though in a smaller scale. Pag-ipunan na ang P400 tiket ng IMAX, ito na marahil ang magiging pinakasulit na P400 na tiket sa balat ng pinilakang tabing dahil hindi ito pang-small screen. Warning lang, masyado itong nakakatakot for very little kids. I remember Beowulf as a 2nd year high school English class topic (do kids these days get their English classics in grade school? I wonder.) Story of a guy who kills a monster. Hindi siya ganon ka-interesting noon, but it was a required topic (we tried reading it but it was in Anglo-Saxon.) Anyway, its significance was in the...

Notice of Blackout Review by Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre November 6, 2007 Directed by David Slade Based on the graphic novel by Steve Niles, illustrated by Ben Templesmith Starring Josh Hartnett, Melissa George Columbia Pictures See vampires. See vampires run. Replace with bantay and that was the reading exercise back when I was a kid. Anyway, 30 Days of Night is a vampire movie pumped-up with concept but anemic in story. The story is set in the small town of Barrow, Alaska ang pinaka-northern settlement sa US mainland. Sa sobrang layo nito sa hilaga, every year during winter the sun sets below the horizon and doesn’t reappear until after 30 days (ayon sa Wikipedia, yung tutoong Barrow experiences darkness for 67 days). It is on this one occasion that a group of vampires invades the sleepy quiet town and butchers it, killing almost everyone within hours of the first night of darkness. Sheriff Eben Olemaun (Josh Hartnett) and his ex-wife Stella (Melissa George) lead the few who sur...

Old Refrain Review by Vives Anunciacion (print title: Once upon a star) Inquirer Libre, October 27, 2007 Directed by Matthew Vaughn Based on the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman illustrated by Charles Vess Starring Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer United International Pictures “Sometimes I wonder why I spendThe lonely night dreaming of a song.” Stardust, words by Mitchell Parish A philosopher once asked, "Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?" That’s how Stardust begins, as narrated by the voice of Ian “Gandalf” McKellen. Now this isn’t a philosophical movie, rather it’s a fairy tale romance. Once upon a time, movies told stories. Stardust is like one of them. A hundred and fifty years ago in the English town called Wall, there lived a simple store clerk, Tristan (newcomer Charlie Cox), who promises to retrieve a fallen star to impress the pretty girl he loves, Victoria (Sienna Miller). But across the stone wall of Wall...

The Googler Review by Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre October 19, 2007 Directed by David L. Cunningham Based on the book by Susan Cooper 20th Century Fox There’s virtually unlimited information available on the Net, which is where I got my 4-1-1 on the (here) little-known The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper. Published in the 1960s, the children’s books are about the battle between good (light) and evil (dark) based on the Arthurian legends set in the British Isles. The Seeker: The Dark is Rising is the first movie based on Cooper’s series, which follows the emergence of the Seeker, a guardian and warrior of the Light tasked to find the circle of six Signs to be used in the battle against the Dark. The Seeker in the movie is Will Stanton (a very Aryan-type Alexander Ludwig) – the seventh and youngest son of a seventh son – whose American family just recently relocated to rural England. A few days before Christmas, Will is about to celebrate his normal teenage 14th birthday when ...

Global warming, take 2 Review by Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre October 11, 2007 “You've heard it hundreds of timesYou say you're aware, believe and you care, but...Do you care enoughTo talk with conviction of the heart?” - Kenny Loggins, Conviction of the Heart Directed by Nadia Conners, Leila Conners Petersen Documentary presented by Leonardo Di Caprio Kung kinulang ka pa ng impormasiyon tungkol sa global warming at climate change, baka makatulong kung si Leonardo Di Caprio na ang magpaliwanag ng sitwasiyon sa The 11th Hour. Global warming and climate change are already big issues in many countries, lalu na sa China, the US and India which are the biggest air polluters in the world. Since last year’s Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth, ipinaliwanang na that human activity in the last 100 years has caused severe damage to the earth’s atmosphere, putting life on the planet, specifically human life, at risk. Wasting no time to preach the doom of environmental degradation, Di...

Child's play Review by Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre September 24, 2007 Directed by George Ratliff Exclusive at Ayala Cinemas Remember the original The Omen? Not the remake last year. That movie (which wasn’t really scary back in 1976 but then so was the remake) was first to show how a creepy mop-top kid can make a movie creepy. Or was it the 1956 classic The Bad Seed? That had a girl in pigtails. Anyway, Joshua has strong references to horror movies of old (hence, the mop-top). Joshua isn’t a horror movie though. It’s possibly psychological, but damn if it’s thriller; although it does offer a thing or two for post-movie discussions. It’s a little suspenseful. That’s it. Joshua (Jacob Kogan) couldn’t care less the day his new baby sister Lily arrives at their upscale Upper Manhattan condo. Each day that passes something bizarre happens (in case you miss the days, there’s a day counter onscreen). One day baby Lily starts crying and doesn’t stop. On another the dog mysteriously di...

Pride chickens Review by Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre, September 19, 2007 Directed by Dennis Dugan Here’s a “gay” movie for straight people minus the homophobic guilt. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is the everyday man’s attempt to understand what gay people in the West have been fighting for for many years. Best friends Larry (Kevin James) and Chuck (Adam Sandler) are typical Brooklyn firefighters who do very manly stuff everyday. Chuck is the playboy ladies man while recently widowed Larry raises his two kids by himself. An insurance loophole prevents Larry from transferring his dead wife’s benefits to his children, so he asks Chuck to pretend to be his gay domestic partner so he can still apply for the benefits. Enter a very nosy anti-fraud investigator Fitzer (Steve Buscemi) who’s dying to prosecute the two as soon as he proves the partnership is a fake. Larry and Chuck then hire lawyer Alex (Jessica Biel) to help them prove their gayness to the City, except Chuck has the...

The subversive Review by Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre September 12, 2007 Directed by Neil Jordan Starring Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard R13/ 119 minutes Warner Brothers/ Silver Pictures She was 12 years old when she portrayed a prostitute in Martin Scorsese’s classic Taxi Driver. She won her first Oscar as a rape victim in The Accused. Jodie Foster is known to take on strong roles, even as she traded barbs in Inside Man , between Clive Owen and Denzel Washington. A French director once compared her to God’s perfect acting machine. So what is she doing in The Brave One ? She becomes an action star. Foster plays radio commentator Erica Bain who spends her off-time recording everyday sounds of New York City and then makes romantic observations of the city’s decay in her show called Street Walk. While walking her dog in Central Park one night, Erica and her fiancé David (Naveen Andrews) are violently mugged. She wakes up after three weeks in a coma only to find out David dead. Erica...