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Movie Review

  • Movie Review

    Review: Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis

    April 24, 2016 - By 

    I think I was successfully seduced by the concept of this film because of my Heneral Luna and Honor Thy Father feelings. I was carefully excited for the experience, aware that more than the cost of the ticket (P500 in Glorietta, twice the price of a regular two-hour flick), the bigger gamble was the opportunity cost of my time and energy. A whole work day’s worth of time and energy, to be precise. After eight hours and two 20-minute breaks in between, I came out of the theater with sore limbs and a mind that felt like it was instructed…

  • Movie Review

    Review: Heneral Luna

    September 18, 2015 - By 

    This might not turn out to be coherent enough to be a proper movie review. It sure won’t show off an informed opinion of the historical biopic. I guess this would just be a documentation of my thoughts and feelings after watching the film Heneral Luna. I have a strong inkling I would need to go back to these someday, to refresh and remember. As a kid in school I looked forward to the challenge of Math and English, while cringing at the very thought of my Filipino and History subjects. I hated the dates, the strange-sounding names of people, places…

  • Movie Review

    Review: Cinderella

    March 23, 2015 - By 

    Fairy tale live action is Hollywood’s cash cow of now, right up there with comic book movies, apocalypse theories and dystopian trilogies. If Disney’s Cinderella, however, is any indication of happy-ever-after flicks to come, this trend gives me quite a lot of bibbity-bobbity-boo. Far from the dark, punked up Snow White and the Huntsman and Alice in Wonderland, and different still from Maleficent‘s more child-friendly albeit mildly gothic and at times corny retelling, Cinderella was vibrant, honest, and unashamedly fun. Disney seemed to have decided against a rehash and stubbornly stuck to the core of the 1950’s cartoon movie. Since there are…

  • Movie Review

    Harry Holidays to All!

    January 2, 2015 - By 

    I do realize the greeting above is quite late, because it’s been weeks since Christmas, and it isn’t even properly new year anymore, with 2015 already beyond a day old. My only excuse is the same reason for the greeting – I have been immersed in the best Christmas tradition I’ve only discovered recently, which is to reread all seven magical books (and watch the films) on the life of the Boy Who Lived. JK Rowling‘s masterpiece is nothing short of magic, and I knew that as a kid when I first met Harry (only a couple of years older…

  • Movie Review

    Review: Miracle in Cell No. 7

    December 8, 2014 - By 

    Let me warn you by saying that a movie hasn’t made me cry tears of blood in a long time until Miracle in Cell No.7 (flashback to The Fault in Our Stars and A Moment to Remember). I’ve been seeing this movie mentioned in many Facebook statuses, often followed with the words/emojis “feeling sad”. Curious and fueled by the discovery that it stars the angelic Park ShinHye, I sat in front of my laptop and pressed play. I should have brought a fresh box of tissues.

  • Movie Review

    Review: Lupin III

    December 8, 2014 - By 

    Maybe it is because I watched Lupin III in the midst of the sheer glory of the Rurouni Kenshin trilogy. Maybe it is because I haven’t met a multi-language movie that I liked. Or maybe because this is the first time I’m watching an Oguri Shun film in an actual theater and not just a subbed torrent or DVD, and I had such high expectations. (At least that’s one thing off my lesser-dreams bucket list). Try hard as I did, biased as I am, I found it hard to sincerely like this movie.