Author: Je Cabebe
A woman in a covert rescue mission gets shot, wakes up with no clear memory of who she is, and now battles with the thought that maybe she isn’t the good person people around her, believe she is, in ABS-CBN’s new action drama series. There are a lot in common between the new TV series, The General’s Daughter, and the now 3-year-old primetime leader, FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano: both are from the production unit, Dreamscape, and are respectively topbilled (in titular roles) by two of the industry’s biggest stars, and are both delving into the chaotic world of terrorism, patriotic service,…
The first teaser for the new Blacksheep film, has all the feels of a devastating ‘hugot’ movie. Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil star in ‘Alone/Together’, where blockbuster director, Antoinette Jadaone is the one directing it. In the opening scene, Soberano’s character, Cristine, rushes through the stairs of Palma Hall in UP Diliman to ride a jeepney. She is joined byGil’s Raf in the next scene inside an Internet café where the two seemingly celebrate Cristine’s high grades. A conversation between them while sitting in one Sunken’s benches, cuts through the next sequences. Earlier this month, Liza and Enrique teased their…
On January 11, S Maison at Conrad Manila (SM Mall of Asia Complex) allowed members of the press and some important guests to see the conclusion to M. Night Shyamalan’s trilogy of comic book thrillers, before it hits the cinemas nationwide on the 16th. There is a sizable room in which ‘Glass’ is allowed to thrive. Unfortunately, the film suffers from its struggle to keep the three narratives within such room, and make them merge into one potent plot. The result mostly turns out frustrating, but there are brilliant moments that somehow compensate for where the film lacks. And for…
Netflix’s British teen comedy, ‘Sex Education’ is every teenage drama the streaming service has already pulled off — controversial, daring, charming, heartwarming, all at the same time; except, it plays with a weird but oddly satisfying mix of the genre’s known and unknown elements. Hilariously shameless and charming, ‘Sex Education’ is a standout study that goes beyond depths, without sounding too academic to undermine its entertainment value. At the center of this teen sex-comedy created by Laurie Nunn, is socially awkward high school student, Otis Millburn (Asa Butterfield), who struggles to come into terms with puberty. His mother, Jean (Gillian…
Sarah Geronimo took Laguna by storm during her sold-out THIS 15 ME (stylized “this is me”) concert on Friday, November 30, at the Sta. Rosa City Multi-Purpose Complex, Sta. Rosa City, Laguna. It was the first time a local concert show, let alone of such scale, was hosted at the said venue. Fans were treated with energetic and breathtaking performances that featured Sarah’s biggest hits since she first came to the music industry. Coinciding her 15th year in the recording scene, THIS 15 Me is Sarah’s little way of giving back to her fans who have been following her since she won…
In “Cain at Abel’s” first few minutes, it is marked with palpable intensity. There was a commotion among street men who were engaged in a cock fight, but in their midst, a much bigger brawl between two brothers—Elias (Dennis Trillo) and Daniel (Dingdong Dantes), got into the picture. Cut to the next scene—a chaotic chase led both of them to a deadly exchange of fists and bullets. Every shift of the frame displayed sophistication, each action sequences, impressively staged. Hailed as primetime royalties of their home GMA Network, Trillo and Dantes are joined by three veteran directors, Mark Reyes, Don…
The Philippines has the longest holiday season in the world. As early as the first day of September, Christmas tunes start to dominate radio airwaves and malls, and children start rounding up houses and streets doing carolings. Bibingka and puto bungbong become best-sellers, and children selling ampaos roam the sidewalks and streets. Giant Christmas trees and similar christmas-themed parks start get lit up. While these traditions strongly represent holiday symbols, Christmas is never really around the corner until the two giant TV Networks –ABS-CBN and GMA Network, that is– released their Christmas station ID’s. Doing a station ID has never…
The Philippines has the longest holiday season in the world. As early as the first day of September, Christmas tunes start to dominate radio airwaves and malls, and children start rounding up houses and streets doing carolings. Bibingka and puto bungbong become best-sellers, and children selling ampaos roam the sidewalks and streets. Giant Christmas trees and similar christmas-themed parks start get lit up. While these traditions strongly represent holiday symbols, Christmas is never really around the corner until the two giant TV Networks –ABS-CBN and GMA Network, that is– released their Christmas station ID’s. Like their past station IDs, ABS-CBN…
It’s difficult to deny that ‘Grindelwald’ is a beautiful movie–at least, in the merit of its technical splendor and thematic complexity. But that portion may be just one of the few things to look at in this sophomore film from a series meant to chronicle the events before Harry Potter. In the film, the story of the evil necromancer, Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp), trapped in one of American Ministry of Magic’s highly guarded prisons, is followed. Presumably inescapable, the heavily fortified prison is proven to be futile in the presence of Grindelwald’s nasty allies. While the path rolled out from…
Hope springs in the first trailer of Paul Soriano’s film, ‘First Love.’ Starring Aga Mulach and Bea Alonzo, the film seems to tell the journey of a dying woman to finding her ‘first love.’ Ali (Bea Alonzo) has this heart condition called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM), which is not rare but could be fatal to someone who has it. In the trailer, it is revealed that Ali needs a new heart, and she tries to make the most of what’s left while she can. Nick (Aga Mulach), whose idealistic notions about life may potentially make him the worst specimen of a…
There is a consummate grace in ‘Exes Baggage’ that keeps it afloat amid its oversized sentimentality. Tones and colors are deftly engaged with texture that the form they create reveals striking dynamics between the players and the bittersweet landscape confining them to an emotional love affair. Like ‘That Thing Called Tadhana,’ the film arrives at a cathartic epiphany that comes on the heels of a desire to seek some form of personal liberation. In the film it exists in two people’s effort to free themselves from the unnecessary baggage of both their past relationships and the one they are committing…
Jerrold Tarog’s sophomore bid at re-imagining Philippine heroes in the more contemporary context, is tamed by its restraint to underscore the chaotic parts. Like its predecessor, ‘Heneral Luna’, ‘Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral’ thrives in both its moments of quiet and chaos, but it is in the former where it musters its more powerful sentiments. This choice to keep most of the proceedings with a significantly subdued energy is what separates ‘Goyo’ from ‘Luna’ whose frantic and often dangerous verve essentially defined the character and the film. It sort of lessens the excitement, but the tension it creates is equally compelling.…
The new Cathy Garcia-Molina film is painfully honest and it won’t excuse itself for anybody who comes unprepared. Except, there is no way to be prepared. ‘The Hows of Us’ is squarely designed to rip hearts apart right from the opening frames. Far from the emotional wreckage it delivers, this tribute to adamant love affairs somehow finds a way to build beautifully choreographed barters between the dreamy and sweet moments of auspicious romance and the inevitable days of struggle to keep the flame alive. In the film, George (Kathryn Bernardo) and Primo (Daniel Padilla) are young sweethearts with long-term plans. Their…
Fely Malabaño (Nova Villa) is a feisty and bossy 70-year old woman whose constant nagging caused her daughter-in-law, Angie, so much stress, that it sends the younger woman to the hospital. Her only son, Ramon, decides it was finally time for his mother to be sent in a retirement home where he thinks she’d be happier. To escape the possibility, she wanders through the night and finds a photo studio, whose owner promises her to bring back her 20-year old self. The film never really finds this an anomaly, that Fely literally returns to her younger self, and leaves the…
In A Nutshell: A man and a woman, the latter poor but very beautiful, the former extremely rich (yes, RICH) and princely handsome… a lovely daughter, a huge inheritance, jealous family members, new parents, deaths, lots and lots of deaths…’Ngayon at Kailanman’ is as cliché as traditional pinoy soap operas can get. The debut of Star Creatives’ new flagship primetime series, ‘Ngayon at Kailanman’ is teeming with scenes of people getting killed, most of which by gun shots. Save for the crisp visuals, an overabundance of deaths isn’t entirely a fresh way to pilot a show, but it works in…
In a nutshell: Two childhood best friends, rich girl, poor boy, an arranged marriage, a problematic marriage, family businesses…and oh, yes, infidelity. This new show is practically a hodgepodge of soap opera clichés. And surprise…it still works! ABS-CBN is turning on the tone switch for its late primetime programming a little sooner than expected. Three months ago, the nights were lighter (except for some occasionally mellow episodes, though some overly dramatic) with the Piolo Pascual-Arci Munoz-starrer, Since I Found You, which graced the small screen with its breezy airiness, light humor, and lovely take on modern-day romance. But the network…