Watchmen

Cast: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino; Director: Zack Snyder; Producers: ; Screenwriters: David Hayter, Alex Tse; Music: Tyler Bates; Editor: William Hoy; Genre: Sci-Fi/ Action; Cinematography: Larry Fong; Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures, Paramount Pictures; Location: Vancouver, Canada; Running Time: 162 min.;

Technical Assessment: 3
Moral Assessment: 2
CINEMA Rating: For mature viewers 18 and above

The story is a film adaptation of the 1980s graphic novel by Allan Moore and Dave Gibbons. It opens in 1985 with the murder of Edward Blake (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), afterwhich the audience is taken into a historical journey from the 1940’s World War 2 to the Cold War of 1980s in the six-minute opening credits. The main story is set in America during the time when superheroes have retired since they have lost their favor with the public. Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), a vigilante, tries to investigate this murder and discovers that Blake was actually The Comedian. Rorschach believes he has uncovered a plot to eliminate super heroes and sets forth to earn his retired colleagues. Although burdened with their own issues, the retired superheroes once again don their costumes as they try to uncover the conspiracy to tip the balance of power and rid the world of superheroes.

Watchmen is a visual treat with a profuse with images of metaphors and symbolisms. The historical montage set to Bob Dylan’s “The Times Are Changing” is cleverly brilliant. The musical scoring is outstanding with a selection of 80s songs aptly reflecting the scene’s essence. The movie is quite long but watchable with Snyder’s meticulous direction and treatment. However, the performances are so-so and the storyline a little tedious as it bombards with too many details and sub-stories, especially for those unfamiliar with the comics version. The adaptation, a little too faithful to the original material, does not make an interesting translation to film. The narrative which shuttles from one era to another also becomes confusing.

The movie is both relevant and obsolete. Relevant because it contains observations on real issues like the Cold War, the Vietnam War, nuclear destruction, quantum physics, the peace movement, drugs and crime, power and violence. However, although these issues are legitimate, they are now considered out-dated. The heroes of Watchmen represent different moral choices one makes – Rorcschach strictly adheres to the letter of the law, Ozymandias will sacrifice himself for the good of the many, The Comedian prefers pleasure over what is good and what is right while Nite Owl always does what he feels is the right thing even if it is unlawful.

The movie is definitely not suitable for children and teenagers mainly because of the graphic and disturbing violence and explicit nudity and sex scenes.

Booking

Cast: Marco Morales, Emilio Garcia, Mercedes Cabral, Anita Linda, Snooky Serna, Charles Delgado; Genre: Drama; Distributor: Sunflower Films; Location: Manila; Running Time: 90 min.;

Technical Assessment: 2.5
Moral Assessment: 2
CINEMA Rating: For mature viewers 18 and above

Si Gener (Emilio Garcia) ay nag-resign sa kanyang trabaho sa munisipyo upang maging full time talent manager ni Lando (Marco Morales) na nagnanais maging sikat na artista upang maiahon sa kahirapan ang kanyang lola (Anita Linda). Lingid sa kaalaman ni Lando ay may matinding pagnanasa sa kanya si Gener kung kaya’t labis ang ginagawa nitong pagtulong. Ngunit sadyang hindi mabigyan ni Gener ng magandang proyekto si Lando kahit pa inilapit na niya ito sa ilang kaibigan sa showbusiness. Darating ang isang magandang pagkakataon nang maghanap ng manager si Anna (Mercedes Cabral), isang struggling starlet na rumaraket din bilang prostitute at siya ring nagsisilbing bugaw ng kapatid na lalaki (Charles Delgado). Mabubuhayan ng loob si Gener dahil may nakalinya nang proyekto si Anna at maari na niyang maisama si Lando sa gagawin nitong pelikula. Ngunit ang inaakala ni Gener na magibibigay sa kanya ng suwerte ay siya palang magiging dahilan upang tuluyang mawala sa kanya si Lando.

Halatang minadali at kulang sa budget ang pelikula. Pabago-bago ang kaledad ng kuha pati na ng tunog. Hindi rin makatotohanan ang pagganap ng ilang tauhan lalo na si Emilio Garcia na hindi kapani-paniwalang bakla. Maging si Marco Morales ay sadyang wala pa ring ibubuga sa pag-arte. Kahanga-hanga naman ang natural na pag-arte ni Mercedes Cabral. Markado rin ang mga papel nina Anita Linda at Snooky Serna. Sayang at hindi gaanong nabigyan ng pansin ang kuweto at istorya na hindi malaman kung saan pupunta. Bagama’t malinaw ang motibasyon at klaro ang patutunguhan, naging kakatwa ang dating nito dahil hindi nailahad nang makatotohanan. Resulta’y walang dating ang kabuuan ng pelikula at malayong-malayo ito sa sinasabi nitong inspirasyong pelikula ni Lino Brocka na Bona kung saan ay halos kaparehas ng papel na ginampanan ni Garcia ang kay Nora Aunor. Masyadong naging mababaw ang Booking sa pagtrato nito sa isang tema na dapat sana ay mabigat at malalim.

Ang pelikula ay patungkol sa naiibang pagmamahal ng lalaki sa kapwa lalaki. Ngunit halatang ang mismong kuwento ay nalito kung pagmamahal nga ba ito o makamundong pagnanasa lang. Sa halip na ipaunawa sa manonood ang tunay na kalagayan at kuwento ng mga bakla sa lipunan ay naging kasiraan pa ng mga ito ang pelikula. Isang baklang may mahinang diskarte at marupok na damdamin ang bida. Walang lakas, walang talino at walang utang na loob. Bagama’t naging matibay ang paninindigan niyang hindi ibugaw ang alaga, hindi pa rin malinaw kung ito ba ay sa ngalan ng kabutihan o sa ngalan ng kanyang sakim na pagnanasa dito. Ang pagtatalik naman ng dalawang lalaki ay lalong hindi katanggap-tanggap. Ipinakita naman sa pelikula na hindi masaya si Anna bilang prostitute at maya’t-maya itong binabagabag ng kunsyensiya ngunit hindi pa rin siya nagkaroon ng matibay na desisyong magbagong-buhay, bagkus ang ginawa pa niya’y humila pa ng iba patungo sa putikan. Pag-ibig sana ang nais na mensahe ng pelikula sa bandang dulo ngunit hindi pa rin ito napanindigan sapagkat ito ay pinatunayan sa pamamagitan ng pagpapakamatay. Ang pagpapakita naman ng kanilang pagdarasal at pagsisimba ay pawang paghuhugas kamay na lamang. Hindi upang bigyang pag-asa at pagkakataon ang mga sarili na magbagong-buhay. Dahilan sa tema at eksenang hubaran sa pelikula, nararapat lamang ito sa mga manoonod na may edad 18 pataas.

The Reader

Cast: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross, Alexandra Maria Lara, Lena Olin; Director: Stephen Daldry; Producers: Donna Gigliotti, Anthony Minghella, Redmond Morris, Sydney Pollack; Screenwriters: David Hare, Bernhard Schlink; Music: Nico Muhly; Editor: Claire Simpson; Genre: Historical Drama; Cinematography: Roger Deakins, Chris Menges; Distributor: Paramount Pictures; Location: Germany; Running Time: 123 min.;

Technical Assessment: 3.5
Moral Assessment: 2
CINEMA Rating: For mature viewers 18 and a above

In 1958 15-year-old Micheal Berg (David Kross) falls ill while traveling in Neusdadt , Germany . Thirty-six-year-old tram conductress Hannah Schmitz (Kate Winslet) helps him return home. Apparently Michael has caught scarlet fever and must rest at home for three months. When he recovers, he visits Hannah’s apartment to thank her. The two begin an affair during which Michael reads Hannah some literary works he is studying. Their affair is cut short when Hannah suddenly leaves after receiving news of her promotion to an office work in the Tram Company. In 1966, Michael, already a law student observes a trial of several woman SS guards accused of letting 300 Jewish women die in a burning church after the 1944 evacuation of Auschwitz . He is surprised to see Hannah as one of the defendants. The trial reveals that each defendant chose 10 women who were brought to the gas chamber every month. Hannah’s fellow defendant’s points to her as the mastermind of the church fire report. At first she denies but caves in after the court asks her to provide a sample of her handwriting. At this point, Michael realizes Hannah’s secret. Hannah gets life sentence for her presumed role in the genocide Meanwhile, Michael begins recording the stories he has been reading to Hannah and sends her the cassette tapes but never writes or visits. In 1988, Michael is asked by the prison official to help Hannah’s transition into society upon her release. Michael visits the aged Hannah, informs her that he has secured a job and a home for her, and that he would fetch her on the day she will be released. On that day, Michael learns that Hannah had hanged herself, leaving for him instructions on what do with her money.

The film is a powerful poignant drama of coming of age, heartbreak, guilt, shame and redemption with the Holocaust as backdrop. The drama is gentle and downplayed. Winslet, who already has won several Best Acting Awards for her role as the simple minded Hannah, delivers a profound and honest portrayal. Fiennes is believable as scarred and detached lawyer who in unable to develop a lasting relation and Olin is effective as a Concentration Camp survivor still bitter and damaged from witnessing the atrocities of the Holocaust. The movie, though shuffling from one decade to another, develops clearly with a crisp and powerful screenplay. The production design is truthful enough to transport viewers from Post-war Germany to the modernization of the 80s and at the same time creative enough to illustrate images and characters using the austerity of Hannah's apartment or the dignified set-up of the courtroom. This is one of those movies that creep in on you almost unnoticed but leaves a permanent imprint.

The film presents Hanna as being too morally or intellectually blind to understand the consequences and impact to other people of her words and actions. Her sensibilities are misplaced with her thinking that being illiterate is more shameful than deliberately tolerating mass murder, and that maintaining order as a prison guard is more important than saving the lives of 300 women prisoners. However, morality and goodness are not products of a literary excellence. It is assumed that choosing what is right is innate in every person and that ultimately one is responsible for the choices he makes, schooled or otherwise.

Guilt is presented as a shameful history of the young generation and a dark secret of the old. One’s crimes is cleansed not with social justice, personal suffering or tokens of apology but also with the realization of all aggrieved parties that one needs to accept responsibility, forgive and start anew in the effort to make life better for other people.

There are several disturbing premises and scenes in the film that may offend the sensitivities of more conservative viewers. However, over-all these do not make the movie objectionable. One, the sex scenes and nudity throughout the film, although graphic, are not exploitative. Two, although the affair between a 30-year-old and a 15-year-old is alarming, it is used to depict a young generation trying to understand the crimes of an older generation. Three, Hannah's suicide is morally unacceptable but from a psychological point of view one might say that an aging, lonely, broken and once illiterate woman who was coldly received by the one person she was fond of might have felt pushed against a wall and found no reason to continue living.

Parents are strongly cautioned as very young and immature audience may not handle well scenes of sex, nudity, suicide and others.

You Changed My Life

Cast: Sarah Geronimo, John Lloyd Cruz, Rowell Santiago, Rayver Cruz, Matet de Leon, Joross Gamboa, Gio Alvarez, Dante Rivero; Director: Cathy Garcia-Molina; Producers: Malou Santos, Vic Del Rosario; Music: Jessie Lasaten; Genre: Drama/ Romance; Distributor: Star Cinema Productions/ Viva Films; Location: Philippines; Running Time: 120 min;

Technical Assessment: 3.5
Moral Assessment: 4
CINEMA Rating: For viewers age 13 and below with parental guidance

Anim na buwan na ang nakakalipas nang mabihag ni Laida Magtalas (Sarah Geronimo) ang puso ng kanyang “man of his dreams” at boss na si Miggy Montenegro (John Lloyd Cruz). Naayos na ni Miggy ang problema sa kanyang pamilya at masayang-masaya ang kanilang pagsasama ni Laida. Na-promote na si Laida pati na si Miggy. Sa pagkaka-promote ni Miggy, kakailanganin niyang magtrabaho sa Laguna at magiging bihira ang pagkikita nila ni Laida. Dito magsisimula ang problema nilang dalawa kasabay ng pagbabalik ng dating best friend ni Laida na si Mackoy (Rayver Cruz) na magiging ugat ng pagseselos ni Miggy. Sa gitna ng mga komplikasyon ng relasyong Laida at Miggy ay magkakaroon naman ng oportunidad si Laida na magtrabaho sa Canada. Magkaroon pa kaya ng happy ending ang dalawa?

Muling pinakilig ng tambalang Sarah-John Lloyd ang mga manonood sa pagpapatuloy ng kanilang kuwento na nagsimula sa A Very Special Love. Tulad sa naunang pelikula, hitik ang You Changed My Life ng mga nakakatuwang eksena at di-malilimutang mga linya. Tunay na maganda ang chemistry ng dalawa. Maayos ang daloy ng kuwento at malinaw ang nais patunguhan. Magagaling ang lahat ng mga tauhan na binigyang buhay ang kanilang bawat karakter. Sa gitna ng kilig at tawanan, mayroon ring tamang timpla ng drama ang pelikula. Yun nga lang, pawang naging masyadong limitado ang kuwento at problema sa dalawang bida. Hindi na gaanong napalalim ang mga isyung pampamilya at ang ilang mahahalagang karakter ay nawalan ng sariling kuwento. Gayunpaman, ang pinakamahalaga’y naihatid ng pelikula ang kuwentong Laida at Miggy sa mas mataas na antas.

Nakakatuwang pagmasdan kung paanong ang dalawang taong wagas na nagmamahalan ay pilit na gumagawa ng paraan upang panatilihin at pagyabungin ito. Nananatiling dalisay at walang bahid ng kalaswaan at makamundong pagnanasa ang relasyong Laida at Miggy. Tunay na hindi kinakailangang magpakita ng laman o malabis na halikan upang ipakita ang pagmamahalan. Napakalakas ng mensahe ng pelikula na walang imposible sa dalawang taong nagmamahalan. Hindi hadlang ang pagkakaiba ng estado sa buhay maging ang panlabas na kaanyuan sa dalawang pusong nagmamahal. Kapuri-puri din ang pagpapahalaga ng pelikula sa pamilya, pagkakaibigan, trabaho at higit sa lahat, sa makabuluhang relasyon. Sa gitna ng kaguluhan at maraming komplikasyon sa pagbabago ng mundo, nanatiling matibay ang pagkakaibigan, pagpaparaya at pag-ibig. Ikanga rin sa pelikula, hindi nagsusukatan ang taong nagmamahalan sapagkat iba’t-iba ang kayang ibigay ng bawat isa. Ang mahalaga’y lubos at buong-puso ang pagbibigay at pagpaparaya.

The International

Cast: Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Ulrich Thomsen, Brian F. O’Byrne; Director: Tom Tykwer; Producers: Llyod Phillips, Charles Roven, Richard Suckle; Screenwriter: Eric Singer; Music: Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek, Tom Tykwer; Editor: Mathilde Bonnefoy; Genre: Drama/ Thriller; Cinematography: Frank Griebe; Distributor: Columbia Pictures; Location: New York, USA; Running Time: 118 min;

Technical Assessment: 3
Moral Assessment: 3
CINEMA Rating: For viewers 14 and above

The IBBC, a global bank with headquarters in Luxembourg, does not merely lend money but also broker’s arms deals. In fact, its power-grabbing board would have no qualms about assassinating anyone who gets in its way or gets to know too much. On this premise, Interpol agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) who witnesses the mysterious death of a partner while working with him in Berlin, obsesses about meting out justice to IBBC’s victims. Sharing his probing dedication is New York assistant district attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts), and together they pursue IBBC’s ruthless principal Jonas Skarssen (Ulrich

Thomsen), and the bank’s sinister German fixer, Wilhelm Wexler (Armin Mueller-Stahl). Their sleuthing takes them from New York to Milan to Istanbul, but whenever they would be on the brink of proving their case, the evidence vanishes.

The International succeeds in creating a scenario that would not seem improbable in a global economic situation that many fear has gone haywire. Surely with the restraint employed by director Tom Tykwer, Owen—intense, handsome and unshaven—comes on as the perfect Interpol agent who loses sleep on a case. Watts also plays up the plucky lawyer side of her character (and even swears like a man at one point) so that the platonic quality of the partnership between Salinger and Whitman is enhanced. There are no heroic feats for the hero here, not even stunts that are physically unlikely outside of a movie, because it is precisely his vulnerability that the plot tries to explore as he bears the weight of the conflict between the desire for justice and the dangers of vigilantism. Just about the only adrenalin-drenched action you’ll find here is the shooting scene at New York’s Guggenheim Museum, where the beautiful museum displays and installations being peppered with bullets threaten to distract the viewer from the gun battle going on. By the way, the Guggenheim shooting was filmed on an interior set in Germany.

The International delivers not so much a moral lesson as a moral warning. If there is one eye-opening thing it can do to moviegoers, it is arousing in them the suspicion that such a situation as this could not be far from being real. If movies in the past showed money-laundering as the worst that banks can do, The International is saying that keeping secret Swiss bank accounts is kindergarten stuff compared to international intrigue, arms trade, and murder that bankers may now be engaged in. That banks, armies and governments actually network independent of national boundaries could be frightening to dwell upon, particularly if you detect a connection between a country’s war expenditures and its plummeting economy. We dread to see the day when missiles and warheads are sold over the counter—like headache pills—but in The International that day is already here. All because bankers have jumped into the power-grabbing fracas that used to be the exclusive turf of armies and politicians.