Upon the launch of the first trailer for Star Trek Beyond – a fast and furious (sorry) ninety-five seconds, frantically scored to Sabotage by the Beastie Boys – the Internet did what it did best: it overreacted. The general concern was that JJ Abrams’ iterations of the beloved franchise
Category: Reviews
Dukot
In a society where crime has inevitably become a way of life, director Paul Soriano (Kid Kulafu; Thelma) presents his latest film, Dukot, as a peephole into the traumas of abduction. The film delves into the psyches of both victims and perpetrators to show that evil persists in all social
Ice Age: Collision Course
The Ice Age franchise, now roughly 15 years old, started with the journey of Manny, Sid and Diego rescuing a human infant back in 2002. Since then, these mammals have been subjected to a meltdown, a dinosaur invasion, and a continental drift. By then, you’d think it’d be best for
Alice Through the Looking Glass
To be fair, I remember enjoying Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland when it was released way back in 2010 and perhaps that was because 3D technology was relatively new by then. Taking the reins for this sequel is James Bobin (The Muppets writer and director) and he borrows the former director’s
Ma’ Rosa
Tales of crime and poverty have long been a staple of Philippine indie cinema; movies that aim to shed some light on the grim realities of life, along with the inequality and corruption that exists in the milieu that comes with it. Thus, it can be pretty exhausting to see the
The Achy Breaky Hearts
Follow my blog with Bloglovin Perhaps a popular opinion nowadays is that traditional marriage has partially lost its allure, most especially to an unprecedented portion of millennials. With its concept constantly reshaping over time and across cultures, society is now capable of embracing new ideas on love and sometimes even
The Legend of Tarzan
When it comes to recycling yesterday’s heroes, one can wonder if there’s still a place in contemporary cinema for Edgar Rice Burroughs’ century-old, Tarzan. Arguably, the last thing viewers want to see is another exhausting reiteration of his origin story – a pratfall that David Yates (director of the last
Sakaling Hindi Makarating
Letters and Romance. Since time immemorial the two have been intertwined like the hands of lovers, or in some cases, the fingers of a pleading man in heartbreak. It is through letters that romance can be sparked, it is through letters that said romance can survive or flounder. Of secret notes
Independence Day: Resurgence
It has been 20 years since the first Independence Day, a movie that I fondly remember as a kid as something that pushed the boundaries of visual effects. I also had a blast with its humorous antics, and campy scenes, earning a nostalgic spot in the 90’s zeitgeist. Fast
Finding Dory
Thirteen years since Pixar’s Finding Nemo made a splash on the big screen, the studio takes another dive into marine life, and revisits the characters we fell in love with in Finding Dory. This time around, the story focuses on its adorable but memory-challenged blue tang, Dory (Ellen Degeneres), and
Central Intelligence
When a film has a tagline as witty and sharp as Central Intelligence‘s – “Saving the world takes a little Hart and a big Johnson” — something tells me that the producers came up with that pun first and decided to commission a script around it after. True enough, this film
Now You See Me 2
Normally, suspension of disbelief can suffice to maximize one’s viewing pleasure in illusionist films, which tend to capitalize on showmanship to camouflage the many plot holes of the story. However, the second act of the 2013 surprise hit, Now You See Me, requires a brain entirely shut off for one
The Conjuring 2
Director James Wan, who is slowly becoming a household name, ups the ante with another haunted house fright fest in The Conjuring 2, following the sleeper hit that started it all three years ago. Stylish and experimental, the sequel keeps afresh the franchise-in-the-making, despite being subdued. We catch up on Ed
The Nice Guys
While there are many ways to attack the buddy cop genre, at its core are two wildly different personalities forced to work together amidst disaster. The rich history of this genre continues this month as Shane Black, writer-director of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, revisits black comedy in his new neo-noir
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
Whenever a terrible movie gets a sequel, we ask ourselves, “WHY!?”, yet in some cases, a funny thing happen…sequels turn out to actually be not bad! Now to say that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is a massive upgrade from the unsatisfactory 2014 ‘reboot’ is an accurate
Warcraft
Movies and video games are both enjoyable activities. But historically speaking, when these two mix, the results are often disastrous. While there is no shortage of contenders for this “worst-of” list (Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, etc.), Warcraft is certainly a notch above of the bunch. Despite sci-fi mastermind Duncan Jones’
Just The 3 Of Us
Essentially, the marketing strategy of Star Cinema’s latest offering, Just the 3 of Us, boiled down to three names: undisputed rom-com king John Lloyd Cruz, back-to-back M.M.F.F. Best Actress Jennylyn Mercado, and box-office director Cathy Garcia-Molina. It was only a matter of time before these two top-billing actors worked together
X-Men: Apocalypse
Looking back, the year 2000 was pretty weird. Y2K paranoia aside, in 2000, Shaq and Kobe were friends, computers shrieked when you were connecting to the internet, and superhero movies were a joke – campy novelties with a thing for rubber nipples. Then Bryan Singer’s X-Men came along. Depth, wit,
The Angry Birds Movie
When the phenomenal game Angry Birds was first launched, children (and adults) of all ages were glued to their smartphones. The 2010 highest-grossing mobile game paved the way for a series of animated shorts and five years later is Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly’s The Angry Birds Movie. You may be
Captain America: Civil War
Let me go just say it upfront — Captain America: Civil War is the best Marvel movie to date. It works so well not just as a continuation but as a culmination of the whole eight years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This feels like what everything was building towards to
The Huntsman: Winter’s War
2016, so far, can be marked as the year of sequels and reboots. While some of which are well-crafted, the majority are either disappointing or simply unnecessary. Falling on the latter category is The Huntsman: Winter’s War, which serves as both a prequel and a sequel (a “sprequel”, if you
Patayin Sa Sindak Si Barbara
Horror is perhaps one of the most diverse genres in film. Since its rich beginnings during the German Expressionism movement, the genre has evolved into several subgenres but remains intact on its main point: to scare the living guts out of its audience. Master of horror Wes Craven once said
The Jungle Book
To those who still hold any degree of skepticism for Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book—Disney’s live-action adaptation of the Rudyard Kiplingclassic—I say just sing along to “Forget about your worries and your strife…” That’s a guaranteed earworm from this really good film. Complete with splendid sound design and flabbergasting CGI
10 Cloverfield Lane
Solving jigsaw puzzles begin by picking a piece out of a scattered mess. Each individual piece is conformed to a different shape, each edge retrofitted for another. Making sense of the mind-bender lies both in the making and unmaking of it. Such is the case of Dan Trachtenberg’s feature film
The Divergent Series: Allegiant
Sequel after sequel, it is a struggle to pledge my allegiance to this franchise that once had the potential but has now consistently gone downhill. For the obvious reason of milking the Divergent franchise, Allegiant is unnecessarily split into two parts. There is no shame in that, really, but what
