Ang Babae sa Septic Tank: A Review

Photo courtesy of juice.ph

I had the chance of watching Ang Babae sa Septic Tank with my sister and I had a good LOL moment. It’s been a while since the last time I laughed out loud in the theater, so this must be something special.

The film deals with the rigors of movie-making, following the journey of up and coming filmmakers (a producer, a director and a production manager) in their road to the Oscars. An idealistic breed of young talents who had high hopes of creating the best, if not one of the best films, this country could have ever produced. Their idealism, however, has been challenged left and right with various obstacles.

For one, they couldn’t seem to agree on which treatment to use – is it indie, docu drama or musical? Add to it the challenge of choosing the best actor to play the part of the lead role, Mila, which eventually landed on the lap of Eugene Domingo, who, by the way, has her own version of an over-the-top melodrama treatment of the film in mind, of which she has no qualms laying on the table.

Eugene Domingo is perfect. I really love her acting style, or maybe, just who she is as a person – talented, witty, funny. The supporting cast is no less exemplary. I was really entertained. However, her character as a diva actress is proving to be yet another challenge to the team as she becomes somewhat of a pain, having so many demands that could jeopardize the project altogether. In the end though, it was thought to be workable.

The biggest hurdle probably is when they made an ocular inspection of the film setting, a dump site somewhere in the metro. There they came face to face with the very reality they are trying to capture – the poverty, the squalor - not only in a visual sense but also true-to-life. They experienced first-hand poverty’s ill-effects on human behavior. Now they had to deal with a big financial loss. Their car got burglarized, and with it are all the money, equipment (i.e., laptops), and most importantly, the ideas they’ve worked so hard into putting together to make this dream project into reality.

Now, if this doesn't make a spoiler out of me, I don't know what will. Absurdly enough however, in a seeming act of deterrence from going all out with it, I was spurred to leave it to readers to find out how the story ended.

Now that's being left hanging.

Movie Buff-ing

It’s blockbuster season at the cinemas and I’m having my fill with lots of them as of late. This includes Kung Fu Panda 2, The Hangover 2 and Green Lantern.

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Kung Fu Panda 2 scores points for entertainment, both visually and for the laughs, and for some no-nonsense values formation.

Po undergoing some daddy issues resonated with me personally as I have been kind of like the character at some point – I probably still am. I can totally relate.

Family-oriented films - and the 1^st Kung Fu Panda film, in particular - have a way of making you feel good and inspired after you leave the cinemas. The 2^nd part left me feeling the same.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

The Hangover 2 reminds me of my trip to Bangkok some years ago, where we went to the city’s red light district to experience some one-of-a-kind, never-before-seen (to me), exhibition of women doing some nasty stuff with their, er, private parts (think cigarette smoking, shooting dart pins and ping pong balls into the air, among other things).

Only, in the movie, they went to a transvestite club, one of them having had an intimate encounter with a vixen wannabe. This person, this ambiguity of the male breed, threw the audience off after making some brief indecent exposures of his dangling, er, schlong.      

The wolf pack’s love for adventure, however twisted, and their enduring brotherhood, is almost covetous. I wish I have such friends. Theirs is an interesting and funny mix of the good-looking, and the not-so, goofs.

Green Lantern

Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

“In brightest day, in blackest night,

 No evil shall escape my sight

 Let those who worship evil's might,

            Beware my power... Green Lantern's light!”

So goes the oath the Green Lantern recites when charging his ring.

I’ve read a few reviews about this film and the common complaint is that the movie has not been faithful to the comic book version. This is an old tune. Books - and comic books, for that matter - made into film would almost surely render it unfaithful, almost every time. I don’t know what’s up with that.

Well, I'm not a comic book junkie, so there’s nothing I could have benchmarked the movie with. I can only judge it by its own merits.

The movie is a visual treat, that I can say, both with the CGI special effects of the galaxies and the planet Oa and the emerald colored power of the 'will' splashed everywhere; and with the two leading characters who are truly eye candies (I wish to have the same physique as Ryan Reynolds and I love the gorgeously hot Blake Lively).

I kind of expected there would be more substantial conflicts and action-filled fights between the Green Lantern and the possessed professor Hector Hammond. The movie kind of fell short in building the tension between the two, thereby giving a somewhat disappointing, lackluster climax. It also failed to bring the scare out of the audience with its uninspiring and somewhat haphazard portrait of the evil creature Parallax - who is supposed to be a creature of pure fear- but was somewhat turned funnily into a confusing amalgam of dark and shapeless fog and smoke.

Interestingly, as if to make up for its would-be disappointments, prior to the start of the movie we were (in a gesture that can almost be described as pre-emptive) given freebies - one huge bar of Hersheys and a coupon which entitles the bearer to a donut and a cup of coffee at Krispy Kreme.   

Hmm... looks like someone's currying favor, eh.

X-Men: First Class

Photo courtesy of laughing squid.com

I still remember the excitement and wonder brought about by the first X-men movie, where it seems characters (which I only get to watch as cartoons on TV) came to life.

The movie humanized the characters and their struggles, and has actually hit closer to home, as the struggles themselves and the events surrounding it, which were based loosely in real life, made it relatable and real.

Who did not, even at one point in their lives, experience some form of ostracism or discrimination, and vice-versa? Who did not fear the unknown at one point, which made us discriminate and shut others off, thinking they are freaks? Well, we still do. To that which we cannot explain, we still fear.

Photo courtesy of pajiba.com

Now, let’s talk about technology, movie magic. The visual effects can only be described as awesome. If this movie was made even just a few years back, it would’ve looked corny and would not have delivered as much as it did the year it was released. 

Considering there weren’t much fanfare generated to rake in sales (at least, from what I remembered... I might be wrong), I think the movie could have earned more.

Photo courtesy of the guardian.co.uk

It’s nice to see another franchise of the film however, X-men First Class, which is somewhat a prequel to the first movie. It was interesting how characters developed their powers and how the events of the time set the stage for what was about to be a long, arduous and costly struggle between humans and mutants. HOT mutants, I might add.

Mutants playing part in averting what could’ve been the Third World War by thwarting a nuclear face-off in Cuba, one of the most nerve-racking moments in history, sets the tone for the film. An interesting plot made only more so by the different characters set in the backdrop of a cool 60’s vibe makes for an entertaining and profound film.