While the 2025 live-action version of How to Train Your Dragon remains faithful to the original 2010 animated film, I think it is best viewed without comparing it with the animated film, or even without knowledge of the latter. Don’t get me wrong; the live-action film is grand in scale and execution, with breathtaking flyingContinue reading “Hiccup and Toothless Soar High”
Category Archives: Movies
Haunted Mansion Succeeds Despite Its Flaws
Haunted Mansion (a 2015 Filipino horror movie currently streaming on Netflix) successfully delivers the scares as it weaves an old and not so interesting study on teenagers and their hormones with a more interesting back story of the mansion involving two upper class sisters and a commoner. Ella (Janella Salvador) has a third eye andContinue reading “Haunted Mansion Succeeds Despite Its Flaws”
Everything About Her: Wounded Souls Get Second Chances
Everything About Her (a 2016 Filipino film currently streaming on Netflix) is about second chances and forgiveness, with a life-threatening illness triggering the resolve to correct past mistakes, make amends, and forgive. It sounds heavy but thankfully, the movie presents it in a light drama infused with comedy, providing the actors enough space to workContinue reading “Everything About Her: Wounded Souls Get Second Chances”
Apocalypse Child: The stories we live to tell
Apocalypse Child (a 2015 Filipino film currently streaming on Netflix) takes off with a view of the beaches of Baler, with a voiceover narrating the myths enveloping Baler and its people: a tsunami swept over the municipality of Baler leaving only 7 surviving families; the production crew of the movie Apocalypse Now left a surfboardContinue reading “Apocalypse Child: The stories we live to tell”
BLISS Explores Abuse in Varying Images
In Bliss (a 2017 Filipino film currently streaming in Netflix), Jane Ciego (Iza Calzado) is an actress who has been in the film industry for too long, and though successful, has yet to win an acting award. While on the verge of a burnout, she decides to produce her own film to market to internationalContinue reading “BLISS Explores Abuse in Varying Images”
The Heiress Employs a Bland Narrative
In The Heiress (a 2019 Filipino horror film which just started streaming in Netflix last week), Maricel Soriano plays Aunt Luna, a mambabarang (a sorcerer in local folklore) who would do everything in her power to keep her niece, the titular character Guia (Janella Salvador), for the coven, even if it means sacrificing her ownContinue reading “The Heiress Employs a Bland Narrative”
Pamilya Ordinaryo is No Ordinary Film
Pamilya Ordinaryo (a 2016 Filipino film streaming as Ordinary People on Netflix) is an honest, in your face, uncompromising look at the lives of street children. We see them everyday; so we may have become so used to them being part of the streets. The film, therefore, pushes us to at least acknowledge that theyContinue reading “Pamilya Ordinaryo is No Ordinary Film”
The Boy Foretold by the Stars: A Charming Tale of Love
The Boy Foretold by the Stars presents a brave yet sweet story about two high school boys finding love in and falling in love with each other as they let their belief in fate and destiny dictate their judgment and courses of action. Dominic (Adrian Lindayag) is a gay student in an exclusive school forContinue reading “The Boy Foretold by the Stars: A Charming Tale of Love”
The Missing Pleases the Eyes More Than It Scares
A horror drama, The Missing follows three characters’ search for missing pieces of themselves caused by past traumatic experiences. Iris (Ritz Azul) is a restoration architect who is on her way to recovery from PTSD brought about by her witnessing the kidnapping of her younger sister. Job (Joseph Marco) is a fellow architect and Iris’sContinue reading “The Missing Pleases the Eyes More Than It Scares”
Fan Girl: Deconstructing Fanaticism the Dark Way
That Thing Called Tadhana; Relaks, It’s Just Pag-ibig, and Love You to the Stars and Back are just some of Antoinette Jadaone’s films that try to make us believe in the beauty and joy of love, and the possibility of it to blossom over a day or two, between two strangers defined by their respectiveContinue reading “Fan Girl: Deconstructing Fanaticism the Dark Way”
The Hungry Film Lover 