Carpool by Jerrold Tarog

Rating: 5/5
This movie short (10 minutes long) won 1st place in the short feature category of the 19th Gawad CCP for Alternative Movies and Video. It was also an exhibition film at the 2006 Cinemanila International Film Festival. It's in Filipino but a version with English subtitles is also available. Directed by Jerrold Tarog, cinematography by Ruel Dahis Antipuesto.

After watching it, I just had this big silly grin on my face. It's just so... real! (Thanks Javi for sharing this with me!)

Spiderman 3

I caught the national premiere of Spiderman 3 last night and the special effects can't make up for the lousy story and poor acting.

The good

• Pay attention to the outstanding soundtrack by Christopher Young. This was the only thing keeping the show together.
• I like how Peter Parker finds his mojo and becomes a poor imitation of Austin Powers. Oh yes watch for his fancy Tango!
• Special effects are nice. Nothing fancy. The Sandman was a cross between Terminator 2 and Imhotep from The Mummy. Fight scenes? I was more impressed by the Matrix.
• Ummm I guess that's it.
  

The bad

• The story has no cohesion; no flow. The characters had no depth. Somehow I had this feeling that they had a bunch of cool special effects they wanted to show and tried to build a story around it.
• The acting. Oh the acting makes me weep. Most of them wear the same expression all throughout the movie. I've seen better acting from the students of Singapore Polytechnic!
• The movie is cheesy. Cheap dialogue, clichés, Spidey posing in front of a huge American flag, bending over a fallen friend as the sun rises in the background. Give me a break!
  

Conclusion:2/5
Two pawikan points. Bonus points for the audience who would burst out laughing at inappropriate moments because of the utter roll-your-eyes corniness of some of the scenes. I'd still tell you to watch it and see for yourself but I don't think it's worth queuing for.

Mel Gibson's Apocalypto

Rating:
Apocalypto is what you get when you cross The Predator, Fugitive and Lost.

Synopsis
A good portion of it is a lot of men in g-strings running around in a forest trying to chase another man in a g-string. (If you like man-ass flesh, you're in for a treat.) As the movie nears the end, the hunters predictably become the hunted.

Critique
There's a lot of blood and gore-- freshly taken hearts (still beating!) raised into the air, skull smashing, blood squirting (ala Kill Bill), beheading, testicle eating (no joke!), bludgeoning, spearing... oh and this being Mel Gibson, it's in a foreign language (Yukatek Maya) so you've got to read the subtitles.

Three pawikan points. Go and watch with your guy friends because this is definitely not a make-out movie. It's supposed to be a "political allegory about civilizations in decline". Ummm whatever. I don't know about that but I know that this is exactly the type of film my dad would enjoy-- a simple plot, no need to think and lots of action.