A movie in search of its own purpose - **

Ironically, the casting for this movie went through some revisions before finalizing on Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway.  For something as bland as this story, the film requires very good actors to pull it off.

Bill Whittaker ,a 70 year old retiree looking for some purpose, grabbed the chance to work for an e-commerce company whose CEO, Jules Ostin unknowingly agreed to the idea of a senior internship program to promote a  'forward' thinking corporate image.  He got the job to be her assistant and eventually became her friend as well as earning  the admiration of his colleagues.

This film is a lite drama , lite comedy that does not take any particular shape.  Being lite, I guess means that it does not present much of a conflict to keep the drama at a certain level nor does it try to be too vivacious so as not to step into comedic territory.  And so the film really does not do anything special, thus making it sort of  boring.

The two good actors that I admire are the leads of this movie, but their talent can only do so much when their characters are limited by the story.  Robert's Bill is someone who seems to be going no where while Anne's Jules does not seem to come from anywhere.  It was just nice to see them both,  Anne is just perfect for this role and Robert's added wrinkles magnifies every facial expression.

A no nonsense retelling of the 1996 Mt. Everest Disaster - ***1/2

Shot in 2013 and subsequently released in 2015, this film directed by Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur does not pull out to anything but telling the story.  Though there is absolutely nothing wrong with a less stylish method of telling a story, this film decided to keep it as real as possible because it is really based on actual events.

By 1996, coming up to the peak of Mt. Everest has become a business that caters to amateur mountain climbers.  This movie is about that particular expedition in 1996 when there were actually 4 expeditions happening at the same time.  Too many mountaineers and the blizzard that happened on that day in May summarized the disaster that befell the mountaineers who never came back.

Movie starts of really well with some well photographed scenes of Nepal and Mt. Everest.  Then you are given a clinical description of the hazards of  being in high altitudes after realizing how many actors are involved in this film.  It becomes a little overwhelming. Then the story really unfolds and you totally know what is going to happen and you are just waiting for shit to hit the fan so to speak.  But then somehow due to the film's lack of flair and drama you become a little uninterested and detached, then disaster really comes to the story then it becomes a little difficult to watch and you are just there wishing for the ordeal to be over.

This film boasts of a strong ensemble cast led by Jason Clarke whose character is the strength that fuels the story.  Adding color and some vibrancy to this movie are the presence of  Josh Brolin and Jake Gyllenhaal.  And not to mention the contributions of  Emily Watson, Keira Knightly and Robin Wright providing the much needed drama and human touch to this almost documentary style of a movie.

Though this movie does present itself as is, there are some relevant messages that can come up after watching this movie.  Mostly I think it is about how much we are willing to go to fulfill our own dreams may it be to have a successful business or climbing the highest mountain.  

A provocative take on our nation's history - ****1/2

Heneral Luna is a somewhat loose interpretation of an era that is emerging to be one of Philippine's darkest in political history.  It is a story that needed to be told in this time of economic struggle and political ambiguity.  A story about a man who refuses to play politics in pursuit of absolute freedom.

In 1898, the Spaniards gave up the Philippines to the Americans as an execution of a Treaty that was made in Paris.  The Philippine revolutionary government led by President Aguinaldo is at first at a quandary as to the intentions of the Americans until an incident that led to the killing of Filipinos by American troops triggered the Philippine-American war.  This movie is about General Antonio Luna, the commander of the Philippine revolutionary army that led that war.  Though he is a brilliant strategist and a brave soldier, his plans were often foiled by non-compliance of troops loyal to the President.  He led the army like a dictator often embarrassing soldiers who do not even come up to his own standards.  This earned the ire of some quarters that presumably led to his death. 

The general lived a short career as leader of the Philippine-American war, there were probably very little material to work on to produce a full-length film unless the story included his life in Paris being amongst the Illustrados, but that era was only touched on briefly.  So watching the movie was a bit of a stretch because it spent a lot of time on some details that have already been established.  The script needed a little consistency, for the most part the characters were speaking in the contemporary language and at some point they become sort of classical, though this may be a style that the writers employed, I thought that flaw was a little distracting.

The texture of this movie in terms of visuals does not differ much from other period films trying to portray the 19th century until you see the flashbacks.  The movie used a couple of devices to regress back in time using animation and creative camera movements.  The biggest strength of this movie is the performance of John Arcilla as the General, his is a determined portrayal and an undistracted attack with each scene.

This is an important movie with a relevant message.  It is thought provoking and iconoclastic.  It tries to tell you a different version history, a version that you probably didn't want to know and it challenges your idea of a hero.

Misses out on a few chances- **

The movie misses out on a couple of chances to become more than just a typical exorcism movie.  The title was intriguing and sounds a little subversive.  And for someone who gets easily scared with horror films, the scare factor of this film is just OK for me.

The story is about the coming of the anti-Christ.  The lead coming into this event was triggered by a series of tapes kept by the Vatican, particularly two priests who were closely monitoring the works of the devil.  They stumbled upon the psychotherapy session of Angela whose strange behavior started when she got treated for a cut on her finger.  This alarmed the people close to her and they eventually had to put her in a psychiatric ward.   Seeing the typical signs of a possession the Vatican steps in to perform exorcism.

This movie does not scare much,  maybe just a few scenes. I usually walk out of the theater when I can not handle being scared anymore but this was just fine. I sat through it waiting to be more scared but it did not happen.  I am not complaining though.  What this movie did not try to do, is to use more techniques, like editing and camera work to work up the suspense of this film, but I guess this film just wanted to tell the story as it is.

It could have been an exciting film, from the title alone to the actors involved.  I had expected more intriguing stuff from the basement of the Vatican, working on the premise that they do keep documentations of these kind of phenomenon.  I wanted to see more of Djimon but he was just there merely at the start and at the end of the movie.  Michale Pena  was limited to his clerical collar and could not do much to add character to the film.   It has spent a lot of time trying to confirm Angela's problem that the movie ends while it was just starting to get exciting.

An insightful look at the making of a single EDM track - ****

A gritty look at today's 20-something generation growing into a world of quick-single-night successes that promises no realization of any dream.  This film takes on the look that is edgy and dry as it struggles to look for its own rhythm.

It's about  a DJ's discovery of his original sound that will break him into the mainstream club scene in Hollywood.  This discovery is directly aided by an established DJ who takes him in as a protege.  He learns to channel his experiences, his daily life and his struggles to find that organic sound that will set his music apart from the often sampled EDM tracks of today's club scene.

The film moves to an erratic rhythm, but stays too long on the slow side. It excites, it breaks, it dies and somehow it struggles to pick up at every turning point of the story.  But this may be the film's idea of 'telling it like it is', since it follows the relationship of 4 friends who are struggling with their own idea of existence.  At some point the story seems to be going no where, but that matches the characters who are at inert and confused.  At times it becomes exciting as the characters throw themselves in danger for being naive.

The film dares to ask the young people to give more consideration to their future while enjoying their youth and to use  their experiences to move forward.  Though it gives you a long story to produce just one track of music, the end product is remarkable, thus making this as the film to watch this week.

A dramatic representation of emotional growth.- ***1/2

Bright colors and vibrant animation belie the story that is told from inside the head of girl who is challenged to cope with a major change happening with her family while on the verge of puberty.  This new Pixar animation can challenge young people's minds and will put them face to face with their own emotions.

The story is simple.  It is about a girl and his family coping with moving to a new city.  The real journey happens inside the head of Riley, the daughter, as she goes from mental happiness to emotional turmoil as she tries to adjust to her new environment. The story is told through 5 main emotions housed inside what they call as the headquarters.

This movie brilliantly succeeds at transforming emotions into real people talking inside our heads and a re-imagining of our mind set into animation.  It managed to summarize ideas from general science, psychology, biology regarding the mind and translate them into what I term as mental landscape but animated.  It treads on the idea that  we are a summary of all our memories and that our personality is based on experience and a little instinct.

This was a nice film except that to me it was difficult to watch.  It was difficult to see Riley change from a being happy girl to someone who is withdrawn and numb.  Because everything inside her head was represented by actual objects and persons it became more tragic to see her breaking down as if a whole city is being torn down.  Everything is sort of magnified that way and thus while she seems fine on the outside you see her world crumbling from inside and that to me is very tragic.  It took a long time for me to recover from this film as it was to me really sad.

It's a good film, but get ready to cry.  

Absolutely lame - **

A new release that took decades in the making, the most potentially funny cast you could ever assemble and a set-up that could send a nice message to the audience had been put to naught due to a couple of wrong decisions that this film made.

A council of superior aliens discovered the presence of earth and wanted to destroy it, but the law says that they can only destroy a planet if the inhabitants are not able to distinguish good and evil.  And so the council embarked on an experiment to prove this by randomly granting absolute power to a human, checking to see what the human will do given the power. They had randomly picked a British secondary school teacher Neil  Clarke in love with his neighbor Catherine and has a best friend of a dog named Dennis.

I was mainly interested in seeing the three main cast and probably getting a few laughs. I like Simon Pegg in Rogue Nation and was curious to see him sans Tom Cruise.  I miss Robin Williams and so just hearing him as Dennis the dog would make this film worthwhile I thought.  It has been a while since I've seen Kate Beckinsale do something relevant and was hoping that this would be it.  Well I did see/hear them but still is not worth it.  First of all, I was watching this film and thought this couldn't be new,  with the technology available now, editing and visuals shouldn't be very difficult.  It looked like an old comedy film with its texture and special effects that looked a little quirky.  So I was quick to ignore that and just focus on other things like story and characters and stuff but those too did not amount to much.  The characters the movie created were lame, except for Dennis the dog who was just basically being a dog.  Catherine is stuck in a job that doesn't want her and is quick to jump into bed after a few drinks,  Neil took a while to get the message and the hang of using his powers, and couldn't even smart up enough to save himself.

I was almost sure that this film had high hopes for humanity, but I guess the lack of it is what makes this film farcical.  It took a route concentrating more on the relationship of Neil and Catherine  and how one does not need powers to be lovable.  Not bad, but also not good.  I thought this film was a waste of a lot of potential and possibilities but then the production had a different kind of fun in mind.