Shit, Brattle and Brawl
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Shake Rattle and Roll 8
Sheryl Cruz, Manilyn Reynes, Bearwin Meily, Nash Aguas
dir: Rahyan Carlos, Topel Lee, Mike Tuviera
This review would be one film festival late. I saw it last Christmas, and was just able to blog about it today. Well, I am investing for my future, I dreamt that I'll get Alzheimer when I turn 45 so it's better to document everything!! Huhummm…
13th floor
by: rahyan Carlos
For a harsh welcome, weakest among the three would be Rahyan Carlos' 13th floor. I havent heard of any follow up for his equally lousy debut Pamahiin (a Dennis Trillo starrer) and here he is again with another lousy effort.
A group of party organizers found themselves haunted by ghosts in a condominium that actually has a history with two of the main characters. The material is not that good, but a good director could certainly do more than what is needed by the material just to push it forward. Good thing is that it is shorter than Pamahiin, so I dont have to hold my frustrations as long as what I did before while watching Carlos' first movie.
Having Keanna Reeves and Bearwin Meily as the lead characters and the almost substantial amount of humor could be hardly considered as enough reasons to excuse the mishaps for this episode.
Yaya
by: Topel Lee
The 2nd episode was directed by Topel Lee, known to many through his Independent Film Festival entry last year, Dilim (stars Rica Peralejo). His indie roots are very well manifested with his treatment; screen not too glossy, not too much effort but very well developed sequences.. The basic approach works well on this episode and the simplicity was overwhelming.
Nash Aguas, a near relative (whoa!sabi yun ng lolo ko ha! Aguas din kaya ako!), delivered a very impressive performance. He just stole the limelight from the big stars that he is working with! He is just more than adorable. The movie is not that horrifying, but you could very well join the bumpy ride with how effective Nash was in playing his role.
Well it's not all praises though, this episode had the worst prosthetics ever used in Philippine Cinema! Their version of aswang looks like Bakekang who just woke up at nadapa sa sangkaterbang bubog! This would be the first time that I saw an aswang who seems to have difficulty in opening its mouth. Sheryl Cruz on the other hand still finds it hard to get out from her "That's Entertainment" days. She seems like a talking dummy with a bad haircut! Tsaka parang minadali ang ending! It seems too abrupt and the reolution seems like one of those ending from "Charmed"; after all that they have been through ay sobrang dali lng palang patayin ang kalaban. Sheryl never showed any emotion of fear (it was unnoticed if she ever did) on any scene, kahit sa ending, wala yung emotion na maniniwala ka na concerned siya sa mga anak niya,… wala, Nada!
LRT 2
by: Mike Tuviera
Mike Tuviera left me a good impression with how his movie TxT turned out, but unfortunately, he didnt hit goal with this one. The plot is rather creepy.Imagine being trapped in a LRT station, with an unknown creature lurking and that would soon snatch your heart out with no warning! This seems like a local version of a 2004 British slasher film, "Creep", but we have tons of victims this time. It's supposed to be exciting and I was imagining a hell of a riot on this episode . Unfortunately, Tuviera wasnt able to maximize the promise that this plot holds. I dont know if his execution of these scenes were limited given that they are running for a GP or PG 13 rating, but maybe that's it, I dont know!
They have a good combination of casts. They are very nice to look at, but pls dont let them speak!! I got so annoyed with Mico Palanca's character, he keeps on screaming and he just keeps that volume thorughout his alotted screentime! It was a good thing for my ear when he finally died. Then we have this irritating love history between Manilyn Reynes and Kempee de Leon!Talking about character development and humanizing people who are about to die in the most awkward manner! They should've just tried to finish the movie without it, or make an entirely different movie about their love story! It just didnt work and inappropriate. If you have seen "The Village", the creature's features on this episode holds close similarity with the presumed creature on that movie as well as with that of the creature from "Jeepers Creepers"!
I was also bothered with some of the scenes there that cant satisfy any logical explanation. There was a scene where Kempee's character is trying to push the gate up to let the other couple out, he was exerting too much effort signifying that there is an oppossite force pushing it down! I cant see any purpose on why he was doing that because the gate is at complet rest at those times! I might have just misinterprted it but Tuviera shouldve gave more attention to details….
