Nengkoy’s Movies, Sarah’s Wigs, My Day-Off

Posted on June 9, 2014 by heavenliner

nengkoy: a great tagalog movie buddy

Are you the type of Philippine inhabitant who has difficulty looking for a friend whom you can drag to a cinema to watch a Filipino movie?

I am.

Fortunately, I have Nengkoy. This is because every time I crave to watch a Filipino flick I could easily drag my mother to the nearest movie house. Aside from her senior citizen discount, what is good thing about Nengkoy is that she doesn’t want to watch any Hollywood movie!

Thus, if I am channeling the “persona of every domestic-helper-on-a-day-off”, she could be a great movie buddy and companion.

In actual fact, I along with a couple of the members of my zany family was with Nengkoy at SM Mall of Asia. We watched the cheesy movie of Sarah Geronimo and Coco Martin entitled Maybe This Time.

maybe this time movie poster (taken from google images)

I would not want to be critical and diagnostic on how bad the movie was. What is good about this types of movies is that you need not bring a lot of brain cells to analyze, digest and comprehend it. Besides, I had too much thinking and analyzing already. So in general, I enjoyed it. I liked it because it gave me a couple of laughs.

Coco Martin was surprisingly comical, diverse and atypical! But the big revelation was Sarah Geronimo. The sweet girl can act. Too bad she no longer sport those ill-fitting wigs she wore in her movies with John Lloyd Cruz. I miss those atrocious wigs! The movie could have been more hilarious if she did!

Na relaks naman ako impernes…

When Zac Gets Horizontal

Posted on February 1, 2014 by heavenliner

This probably is the sexiest scene Zac Efron has made so far in his movie career. Ironically, this also is his funniest. I’m pretty sure after seeing this clip from the movie That Awkward Moment, a lot has strangely been wanting to become a toilet bowl.

Tigasin! Hahaha!

Catching Fire (The Movie): The Long Wait Is Not Over Yet

Posted on December 4, 2013 by heavenliner

While I fell on queue to buy tickets for the movie Catching Fire, I grasped and recognized that finally the long wait is over for the release to the sequel movie of Hunger Games. It was a long agonizing wait! The feeling of patiently waiting for its commercial release here in the Philippines was basically the same when I was awaiting for the release of the book a couple of years ago.

The film is definitely entertainingly engrossing and absorbing! I even wanted to press my left hand’s three middle fingers against my lips then raise it while inside the movie house when defiant revolutionary people of various Districts were raising theirs to show their opposition to President Snow and The Capitol.

peeta & katniss on their way to the quarter quell

I refuse to make a review of this movie since there have been tons of reviews and write-ups about Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark and this entertaining film. Let me just say which part of the movie that I like most.

The best part of the movie for me was actually the end part of it. It ends abruptly which will leave you wanting for more. After being so engrossed watching on how the turn of events happened, the end part would make you realize and be reminded that the movie is a sequel awaiting a sequel. The ending will simply haunt you.

If you think that the long wait is over, you definitely are mistaken.

Pakibilisan ang pag syuting…

Epic Pornographic Fail

Posted on August 4, 2013 by heavenliner

porno

When the movie suddenly stopped and reeled on the credits, I felt blunt. The people in front of me were already standing up and leading their way out of – CCP’s Tangahalang Huseng Batute – theatre, but I was still seating there trying to absorb and figure out what I just saw.

That is what I exactly felt when I saw the Cinemalaya 2013 Directors Showcase category entry entitled Porno. I don’t know who or what was blunt. I don’t know if I was the one who was so stupid I did not get what the movie wish to impart or if it was the movie that was simply dull and dreary it should be considered an epic fail.

I guess the director’s failure to string together the engaging tales of the three main characters was deliberate. The failure to interconnect the key characters with each other in the film is typical of a real porn movie. And I hate porn movies because of this usual and seemingly incoherent plot. I can therefore say that I similarly hate this movie because of this.

With the excellent actors in Porno, the movie had its greatest potential to be one excellent film. Rosanna Roces, Yul Servo, Angel Aquino and even the short stint of Bembol Rocco were effectively compelling. Carlo Aquino only confirms that he is one great actor of his generation. When his tale being a porn dubber by profession ended in the movie, I was still yearning that his character would pop out in the end. If the writer and director effectively interlocked and inter-related the stories of the 3 characters, I would definitely have raves about the film.

But the movie as it is was like watching three slurring short films that were not connected with each other at all. For me I’d rather watch the corny and clichéd yet entertaining Shake, Rattle & Roll franchise trilogies of Regal Films than watching an incoherent movie like Porno.

Epic peyl…

“Nuwebe” Inside The Sleep Cave

Posted on August 4, 2013 by heavenliner

CCP Little Theater

For me, few of the most sleep-inducing places on earth are the theaters of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). It has autumn-like indoor temperature that makes you want to hibernate. It also have super soft comfy seats, an easy-to-the-ear acoustics as well as relaxing lighting facilities which would make you drift off faster. It is one big sleep cave!!

Therefore, if I watch a show in CCP it needs to be very good, interesting, entertaining and/or thought provoking for me to stay awake.

nuwebe

With this thought, I actually almost fell asleep while I was watching the Cinemalaya 2013 New Breed entry entitled Nuwebe. It has an interesting plot but the director seemed to have missed on how to impart and expound on the attention-grabbing material. It was a lame creation. Some loopholes of the movie were actually being laughed at by the audience. The only redeeming quality of the movie was the superb acting by the lead character played by Jake Cuenca.

I was about to fall asleep when credits at the end of the film started rolling. I did not clap my hands and I simply stepped out of the CCP theatre… silently snoring.

Kaantok… Zzzz…

Superman Ceased Wearing Briefs While A New Superhero Wears Panties

Posted on July 7, 2013 by heavenliner

I’m a bit disappointed when I saw on screen the changes in the Superman costume. He has gone commando (sort of) and no longer wears with those red little briefs. But with or without the red underwear, the Man of Steel will always be my favorite superhero.

But wait. In the midst of giving up the red briefs by the western-made superhero, a new superhero emerges from the other side of the planet. He’s Hentai Kamen. The eastern-made forbidden superhero! He’s not wearing briefs but a pair of panties.

Unlike the old-fashioned and non-sense red briefs of the Superman, the panties for this Japanese superhero, I guess, would be very essential. Why? It is used not to cover his golden balls but to actually conceal his face and his identity.

Watch this and behold the hero of Japan…

Hentai Kamen is no ordinary panty-masked hentai for he is the Hentai of Justice!

hentain kamen

I would die and go to heaven in case a movie would be made starring the Man of Steel and Hentai Kamen. Imagine two super powers from the east and west??? This dream of a movie will definitely give the Avengers a run for their money.

Kayanin kaya ng mga cosplayers ang kostyum ni Hentai Kamen???

World War Z and the Philippine Zombie

Posted on June 30, 2013 by heavenliner

pile of zombies going up the israeli wall in the movie World War Z

Zombies are not counted in traditional Filipino mythical world as well as folklores of the ghoulish variant. There is actually no Filipino-Tagalog translation for a Zombie. And to further prove this point, the old Filipino letters actually does not have a letter Z in it. Thus, zombies are non-existent in the Philippines and that it is a product of a western mind.

With this underpinning thought, I am confident that in the zombie-movie World War Z, the bug did not originate from the Philippines. But the movie made me anxious and curious if zombies would be able to reach the Philippines. Like Japan and Indonesia, the Philippines is an archipelago. Thus, to reach and cross its borders you can only enter either via air or water never by land.

I am not a fan of zombie-genre-movies but World War Z ranks right up in my list in terms of making me stunned and jolt right on my seat. Though the movie was intensely entertaining, it is regrettable that it did not illustrate if the Philippines was infected or was in the clear. But with the depiction that the infection will alter a person’s appearance and behavior in just 12 seconds, I presupposed that the Philippines was indeed spared. Why? A zombie characterized to have poor dexterity can’t fly an airplane or sail a boat. And with an extreme aggressiveness and severe hunger for human flesh all passengers of an airplane or a ship would easily be infected before its engine can even start.

When Brad Pitt decided to go to Israel being one of the countries that have kept the zombies at bay because of their construction of a wall, I was shouting “Go to the Philippines!!! You will be safe here!!!” inside the cinema hoping he would hear me. And when the zombies were able to go over the wall of Israel and infected its citizens depicted in a visually astonishing style, I was again shouting inside the movie house “I told you Brad!!! I told you!!!”

a usual occurrence in zombie-filled manila

Maybe the reason why there is no zombie here is because we Pinoys already have so much to deal with. Like having the same equation in different dimension, the zombies of the Philippines are in the form of car thefts, kidnappers, pickpockets, armed robbers and atrocious taxi drivers. These are the on-going catastrophe of Philippine society.

I no doubt enjoyed the compelling World War Z movie and I just hope, similar to what Brad Pitt and those scientist/doctors did in the movie, we finally discover a cure or antidote that would put an end to the pandemic Philippine zombies.

Maging mabuti. Hwag maging sombi.

Anna’s Cups Is Erika’s Music

Posted on April 23, 2013 by heavenliner

erika: the lady with pretty good musical foresight

This post is dedicated to my niece Erika who would frequently play this music when I and my relatives were having a fun vacation in Japan.

Last year when I was in Japan, Erika could not stop playing the song Call Me Maybe when it was still fresh and not yet a big hit. She even fell asleep in front of the computer playing that song.

This year, while having a vacation in the same country again, Erika yet again keeps on playing a song. This time its entitled Cups sang by the lovely Anna Kendrick. Though not really a new track, this song was included in last year’s musical movie entitled Pitch Perfect.

As an upshot of incessantly hearing the same song over and over which is similar to a hypnotic induction, I and my relatives were actually swayed to watching the movie via web while in Japan. And we did and we had a good laugh! The movie was purely entertaining!

Surprisingly, while we were in Japan, Anna Kendrick last April 12 actually published/released a new (director’s cut) video of this track on YouTube which as of this writing has reached more than 2.6 million hits. Though the acapella version is really fresh this remixed edition has some cool vibe it in.

Here’s another pretty cool version

Now that I’m back in Manila, Cups is starting to become a huge hit…

Tenks Ikang… Lavet…

Terrific Argo, Cheesy Actor, Brilliant Director

Posted on February 6, 2013 by heavenliner

When I learned that Ben Affleck the cheesy actor who once dated the cheesy singer/actress Jennifer Lopez and starred in two of the cheesiest movies of all time Gigli and Jersey Girl won the prestigious plum for Best Director award in almost all prestigious award giving bodies in America, I was shocked, stunned and stupefied. I thought there must truly be something wrong in America nowadays! I thought that America’s inhabitants must have gone foolishly cheesy.

My impertinent brain percolated that Ben Affleck being a film director is in no way count in the hierarchy of importance and skill from the pool of film geniuses who were also nominated this year. Steven Spielberg, Ang Lee, Quentin Tarantino and Kathryn Bigelow definitely are of much greater creatures in the universe of film making.

But when I saw the directorial job of Affleck in the movie Argo, I was more than shocked, stunned and stupefied. There was nothing cheesy in it!

The action, the tension and the pacing were brilliantly built-up my fingernails hurt because of the nail-biting climax. It was so wildly riveting and grippingly entertaining my butt aches because it held me at the edge of my seat. The movie was absolutely brilliant! Now I can say that Affleck remains to be a cheesy actor yet has turned out to be an exceptional director.

Mahusay pala ‘tong si Direk Aplek.

The Fab Les Miserables

Posted on January 20, 2013 by heavenliner

young cosette

Les Miserables being an excellently rich and emotionally charged material (music by Claude-Michel Shonberg and English-language lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer) any actor may he/she has an average or excellent singing voice will for sure be driven to do a first-rate performance.

This is what turned out the 2012 movie to be. The whole cast were simply magnificent in showing off the explosions of emotions. No wonder Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actor awards respectively and as of this writing are nominated in the Oscars for the same categories. I was intensely overwhelmed by their performances.

gavroche

Aside from these two great actors, the three other thespians that blew me away were: Eddie Redmayne (who played Marius); Isabelle Allen (as young Cosette); and Daniel Huttlestone (as Gavroche).

The kids Isabelle and Daniel were so endearing. Isabelle I suppose had the best singing voice among the cast. Her representation of young Cosette was raw yet captivating. Her singing voice and facial features perfectly fit her role.

Daniel on the other hand was simply charismatic. Not to mention his thick British accent was so adorable. I was rendered speechless and was totally dazed by his performance especially when he was shot and was shown lifeless on the floor while being honored by the villain Javert.

marius

Eddie Redmayne for me was the biggest surprise. I was stunned by his performance. He was particularly brilliant when he was singing “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables”. He was so good I can even feel the freckles on his face acting out the volcanic grief Marius (his role) was feeling.

Overall the movie was great and magnificent. However there are two silly points I did not like.

First, there were too many facial close-ups. From my own observation, 85% of the movie was a close-up of the actors singing. There were too many of it, I already had the longing to count the number of wrinkles and skin pores present on Hugh Jackman’s face for every close-ranged shot he had so as to check if it is the same number on the next or previous scene he had.

Second was the quality of the singing voice of Russell Crowe (who played the interesting character of Inspector Javert). Crowe’s singing voice for me was a bit weak bordering to being quite gentle. He can carry a tune alright but for me villainous Javert’s tone of voice is supposed to be rougher, deeper and oppressively frightening.

I guess it’s not new to everybody that I love “contravidas” (villains). I have written quite a number of them here in this blog (press: link1 or link2 or link3). That is why I was excited to hear the commanding singing voice of Inspector Javert when he sings “Stars” in the movie (one of my favorite songs in the musical version). But for me Crowe fell short of my demanding expectation and was actually a bit of a disappointment.

Yet overall, Les Miserables (the 2012 film) is what a Hollywood movie should be. Touching, entertaining, superb and charismatic!

Ibang klase ‘to.

Nengkoy

ruminations & travesties of the favorite yet naughty son of Nengkoy

Category Archives: movies