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Review by Vives Anunciacion The Hills Have Eyes Directed by Alexandre Aja Written by Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levasseur Starring Aaron Stanford, Kathleen Quinlan, Emilie de Ravin R18/ 107minutes 20th Century Fox Here’s a dare for horror movie regulars who think they’ve seen them all: try to see The Hills Have Eyes all by yourself. Or simply try not to cover your eyes and actually watch this remake of horror master Wes Craven’s 1977 classic. It has the ingredients to scare people out of their skins. There’s a recent epidemic of extreme violence in movies, especially horror movies which have no choice but to explore the unspeakable lurking in the darkest corners of our collective imagination. Hostel had its victims’ fingers cut off by pliers. In Venom, the killer’s favorite weapon of human destruction was a crowbar. In The Hills Have Eyes, a family traveling through the dusty New Mexican desert is terrorized by sadistic, bloodthirsty creatures, who turn out to be the mutant victims of WW2 ...

Review by Vives Anunciacion Ice Age 2: The Meltdown Directed by Carlos Saldanha Written by Peter Gaulke, Gerry Swallow, Jim Hecht Voices by Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah GP/ 90 minutes 20th Century Fox Opens March 29 Manny the Mammoth, Sid the Sloth and Diego the Sabretooth Tiger return onscreen to escape global warming in the second installment of the hilarious 2002 animation. Ice Age 2: The Meltdown has more characters, more amusing gags and the memorable Scrat is still trying to catch that old acorn. In Ice Age 2, global warming is melting the world’s ice, threatening to flood the valley where Manny, Sid and Diego are peacefully living with the rest of the prehistoric herd. News of a “big boat” where the animals can take refuge convinces the herd to leave the valley before the ice dam breaks. Meanwhile, the happy trio of Manny, Sid and Diego are finding out they have new issues to deal with. Manny (again voiced by Ray Romano) yearns to discover another mammo...

Review by Vives Anunciacion State of the art horror in an obscure European hotel beats the crap out of a futuristic, effects-filled battle between humans and pseudo-vampires. Two movies exploiting the use of violence – and miles apart in quality, story and style. Hostel Written and Directed by Eli Roth Starring Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson R18/ 95 minutes Lions Gate Films Three American backpackers spend their after-college vacation touring Europe, when they are informed that a specific town in Slovakia is populated by beautiful women lusting for American men. Libidinously incensed, the three scurry to the obscure town and check in an equally obscure youth hotel where guests share rooms co-ed. After a night of pleasure, two of the Americans, Paxton (Jay Hernandez) and Josh (Derek Richardson) discover that their friend Oli (Eythor Gudjonsson) is missing the next day. Things get out of hand when Josh becomes missing as well, and Paxton suspects that the town has dark secrets that woul...

Review by Vives Anunciacion Inquirer Libre March 15 2005 V for Vendetta Directed by John McTeigue Written by Andy & Larry Wachowski Based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore & David Lloyd Starring Natalie Portman, Hugo weaving R 13/ 132 minutes Warner Brothers/ Silver/ Vertigo “No one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.” – George Orwell, ‘1984’ Beneath the futuristic storyline there is more than just spectacular action and effects. There is an idea, and the idea is of fundamental significance: “People should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people.” V for Vendetta is the year’s The Matrix – visceral, verbose, volatile and very good. Fourth i...

Review by Vives Anunciacion Feb 27, 2006 Inquirer Libre "We must not confuse dissent from disloyalty. We must remember always, that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were for the moment unpopular. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of the Republic to abdicate his responsibility." - From the March 9, 1954, "See It Now" television broadcast on Senator Joe McCarthy. Relevance and revolution are major topics in this year’s batch of Oscar hopefuls, all of them benefiting from spectacular performances. The first story is about America’s greatest writer a...

DVD review by Vives Anunciacion Everything is Illuminated Written and Directed by Liev Shrieber Based on the book by Jonathan Safran Foer Starring Elijah Wood, Eugene Hutz 105 minutes/ Region 3 Warner Home Video Comedy/ Drama DVD Features: Additional Scenes, Theatrical Trailer, English and Thai Language Widescreen version Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround DVD: P499 VCD: P275 Now available in video stores Recently the tv show Wish Ko Lang ran an episode about a woman who has been searching for her biological mother for 22 years. The show helped her track down the mother’s whereabouts and mother and daughter were reunited eventually. Nangyayari rin ito sa ibang lahi, sa ibang bansa. Isang universal force ang paghahanap natin ng pinagmulan ng mga tao man o ng mga bagay. Ito rin ang pwersa ng kwento ng Everything is Illuminated. Batay sa short story at nobela ni Jonathan Safran Foer, ang Everything is illuminated ay tungkol sa paghahanap ng isang Jewish American sa babaeng nagligtas sa kaniyang l...

Review by Vives Anunciacion Munich Directed by Steven Spielberg Written by Tony Kushner, Eric Roth Based on the book “Vengeance” by George Jonas Starring Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Ciaran Hinds, Mathieu Kassovitz R13/164 minutes Dreamworks/ Universal Pictures Opens February 8 Thirty years ago the world watched as the “Olympics of Peace and Joy” became the “Massacre in Munich.” Munich is a gripping action thriller that provokes a host of questions but shies away from any valid answer. Serious stuff from Steven Spielberg. In the early morning of September 5, 1972 eight men dressed in tracksuits sneaked into the dorm compound of Olympic Village at Munich, Germany, killing two Israeli delegates and taking nine hostages. The group, belonging to the Palestinian Black September demanded the release of 234 Palestinians and non-Arabs jailed in Israel as well as the release of two German Red Army terrorists. After 21 hours of failed negotiations and a botched rescue attempt, the drama ended in a b...