Matt Damon has said in his previous interview, “We have ridden that horse [Bourne series] as far as we can. So, if there’s going to be another one, then it would have to be a complete reconfiguration.” Hence, upon seeing Jason Bourne and realizing that there’s no story here that
Category: Reviews
Kusina
Something feels right about seeing Judy Ann Santos-Agoncillo on screen. Kusina (Eng. title: Her Kitchen) opens with her giving a smile, and her presence alone commands attention; immediately we are drawn in. We don’t see her again until much later, and while the scenes without her work adequately, the film
Lando at Bugoy
I am left with ambivalence upon learning in the credits roll that Lando at Bugoy is actually inspired by a real-life story. Does that supposed to elevate this film when it also happens to reinforce the silent opinion that the straightforward execution makes it look like it’s something you can
Mercury Is Mine
The defining trait of Jason Paul Laxamana’s Mercury Is Mine is its forthright craziness. Never has madness been beckoned with this much vigor; it’s reckless, relentless, and completely unsound of mind. The film opens with the title character, played by Bret Jackson, a young American, who, in the scene, finally
I America
I America, the new film from Ivan Payawal, is by no means a completely redemptive work. It is, instead, a hand-holding piece that argues the unfortunate failure of last year’s The Comeback is merely an unfortunate setback. And with his new film, the young director, at the very least, makes
Pamilya Ordinaryo
The everyday routine of a Filipino family is founded on endurance and survival: surviving the traffic during rush hours, and surviving to make good on their respective jobs; and enduring the heat, the exhaustion, and the every struggle to make ends meet. That is of course unless you are privileged
Suicide Squad
It’s all crazy pretty,” remarks one of the armed men. Harley Quinn smiles ominously nearby, trapped inside her cell. And this writer wonders whether the same can be said for the entirety of Suicide Squad, directed by David Ayer, and D.C.’s latest theatrical effort to outdo the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic
Ignacio De Loyola
The most earnest moment in Ignacio De Loyola comes from a scene where the eponymous saint asks a prostitute to visualize God sat on an empty chair and think of the things that He would say to her. She replies with:, “He doesn’t care who I was or where I’ve
Ghostbusters
Upon release of the allegedly “lousy” trailer of Paul Feig’s gender-bender reboot of the 1984 classic, Ghostbusters, netizens immediately imagined numerous ways how it could go wrong. Sure enough, this controversy is addressed during the film with a misogynistic, break-the-fourth-wall YouTube comment to a ghost footage, “Ain’t no bitches gonna
Eye In The Sky
How many calls does it take to release a single hellfire missile? How many approvals does it take to sanction the potential death of an innocent in order to kill high-profile terrorists and therefore prevent a terrorist attack from happening? For an average citizen, all these logistics seem to be
Star Trek Beyond
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
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
