LibreViews

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 ...