Clint Eastwood Makes Nelson Mandela Proud

After several years of being a political prisoner, Nelson Mandela becomes a free man in South Africa. The winds of change have swept throughout the globe and Mandela wins the national elections to lead the Apartheid-torn country.

In a stroke of genius, he comes up with a brilliant idea of uniting a racially tense nation - through sports! He turns the losing national rugby team around and rally them into their winning form. In "Invictus", Director Clint Eastwood weaves a heart-warming tale of change and patriotism that should teach Manny Pacquiao a lesson on real nationalism. Just play your game - the one you are good and admired at! Don't be a singer when you can't sing! Don't be an actor when you can't even enunciate well. And finally, don't be a politician. You can serve the needy in more effective avenues.

Matt Damon spins.

"Wanna play rugby in the rain?" invites Matt (who has a convincingly consistent African accent in "Invictus").

Four Couples and a Laugh - Couples Retreat

Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn always had an easy chemistry between them. "Swingers" anyone?

In "Couples Retreat", they recreated fun and moderated hedonism in a couples-only retreat holiday set in Bora Bora (Tahiti) - with mixed results.

Jason and wife Cynthia (Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell) invite their married friends to join them on a 7-day marriage-saving retreat designed by an eccentric French guru Marcel (Jean Reno). As the therapy sessions begin, each couple begin to re-examine their marital relations. Will their Bora Bora holiday draw them closer or send them to the divorce courts? I'll give you one good guess.

Predictability is a staple in films like this, so you know exactly how the whole story ends. Nevertheless, you go along for the ride and hope that your ride is peppered with delightful characters that will make your journey a pleasure. By good measure, you will have fun. "Couples Retreat" has several funny situations - my favorite was the rollicking scene with hunky yoga instructor Salvadore (the delightfully campy Carlos Ponce - who showed a lot of skin!)

The second half is dampened by its trite storyline. But the story arc really had nowhere to go - until its rousing finish. Do you really expect a 5-hanky ending for a movie such as this one? Fun!

Vince Vaughn lost a piece of his thumb in a car accident - so keep your eyes on his thumb. He dislikes cell phones and doesn't own one.

Jason Bateman as "Jason" wants to save his marriage. On the roles that he gets offered: "I've been offered a couple of leads in some movies that really suck. I mean, you know, if they're offering me the lead, the script ain't that great. The stuff that's good, I'm a little further down the cast list." He is happily married to the daughter of singer Paul Anka.

Muscle-bearing yoga instructor Salvadore - the delectable singer-actor Carlos Ponce!

Smoldering sexuality - Carlos Ponce in color or black and white! This Puerto Rican hottie (who stands 6'1") graduated high school in Miami. And is happily married with 4 kids!

The Most Distant Course - Lost Souls in Taiwan

Xiao Tang (the dashing Taiwanese newcomer Mo Zi-Yi) records sounds around Taipei - the raging seas, the rustling of the leaves, the passing train, the blaring karaoke - transfers them on a cassette tape, then regularly mails them to a girl who broke his heart. Unknown to him, she has moved elsewhere and Wu (a new tenant) gets his mails - mails which don't bear his name or return address. As these tapes pile up, Wu (Kwai Lun-Mei) becomes intrigued with the sender and gets clues from his recordings to find him. This takes both of them on a road trip that also includes another lost soul, a shrink(Jiao Xiao Guo) who himself needs psychotherapy.

I love the way the narrative is explored in "The Most Distant Course", taking unpredictable detours in lingering scenes that boast of somber landscapes and unconventional storytelling. The romantic in me is tickled pink. Isn't it a girl's dream for a cute guy like Mo Zi-Yi to constantly send me stuff that he painstakingly records?

It just makes me blush.

Mo Zi-Yi is welcome to keep sending me his "recordings"! And I can't wait for director Lin Jing-Jie's 2nd movie either! "The Most Distant Course" won at the Venice Film Festival in 2007.

Simmering Wait in Cairo Time

It was a post-Valentine surprise to find Patricia Clarkson in my dvd player.

Clarkson, to my mind, is a spectacular actress whose minimalist style of acting packs a wallop. Think Nora Aunor before she got infected with the Richard Merck Syndrome! In fact, actor Noah Emmerich says this of the actress: “Patricia Clarkson’s work is a master class in fullness and minimalism. The scope and power of what she is able to communicate with the slightest of gestures – the sip of a drink or the turn of her head – it’s testament to the depth and potency of her inner life.” I couldn't have said it better!

In Ruba Nadda's "Cairo Time", Juliette (Patricia Clarkson) flies to Cairo to meet her husband Mark who works for the U.N. Unfortunately, setting up refugee camps at the fringes of strife isn't as easy and Mark takes his time to see her. So Juliette is left on her own, rudely realizing that a single woman navigating the streets of Cairo can be overwhelming! Enter Tareq (the very charming Alexander Siddiq of "Syriana") who finds the time to show her around the congested streets and afloat the glistening Nile. When she was offered his company to visit the pyramids, she declines. She promised that her first visit with the magical pyramids would be with her husband. But as weeks draw by, that becomes highly unlikely happening!

After a surreal and hair-raising bus ride and a wedding in Alexandria, she finally decides to see the Pyramids - with Tareq!

The movie takes a ruminative, introspective approach to its storytelling, and Clarkson slow burns! Along with Siddig, she takes us on a very patient journey to wait for love.

With a sweltering cityscape one November, two charming souls seeking for affection, and the exotic landscape, the sound of Adan (call for Muslim prayer), and music from the likes of Abdel Jalim Afez, "Cairo Time" is a satisfying movie that ultimately won 2009 Best Canadian Film at the Toronto Film Festival.

Sharing a moment at the Pyramids.

Clarkson. Attended Yale Drama School and finished her Masters in Fine Arts degree from Fordham University. She is 5'5", Siddig is 6 footer.

Alexander Siddig is at home playing Tareq and says of his role - "It was a real treasure, a treat, to find a character that wasn't intent on trying to blow up the White House or hijack an airplane."

Miriam Defensor-Santiago in a Fishbowl

It must have been a daunting task portraying someone as lividly colorful as the lady senator whose verbal acuity compares to no one. And I have always admired her steely resolve and endless pursuit to justify her every endeavor. Not only is she painfully honest and incorruptible, she is also abrasively sensitive to a fault. But that's what makes this lady a cut above the rest!

Four actresses were tasked to portray her in the "Miriam Defensor-Santiago Story" (shown at ABS CBN) - from childhood to adulthood - Miles Ocampo (the child Miriam), Maja Salvador (the young teen Miriam), Julia Clarete (the collegiate Miriam) and Tessie Tomas (the adult Miriam). I was initially trepidant with this casting as these 4 actresses look so dissimilar. They couldn't even legibly pass as sisters. But as the narrative strain begins to unfold, I was caught with the story of a struggling girl born to an overbearing mother who couldn't take mediocrity sitting down!

We begin to understand Miriam's constant search for excellence, and why she is the way we know her. The drama series humanized the very public and caricaturish Miriam. And it breaks my heart seeing her grieve in public when her favorite child (who calls her "beautiful") commits suicide (supposedly because he couldn't get into UP Law School - as the telefilm suggests). As her constant struggle ebbs, she rationalizes her divine purpose. And if that gives her a degree of peace, I pray she succeeds in getting it!

What the show taught me for sure is that, despite Miriam's occasional delusions of grandeur and intolerance, she is one heck of a hard working and intelligent lady - and that she will probably be immune to this pervasive atmosphere of greed that pollutes our government and our society! And if we have several elections running tomorrow, I shall cast my vote on Miriam Defensor-Santiago - over and over again!

On point of performance, Tessie Tomas was almost spot on, although I was initially reluctant to watch her reduce the feisty senator into a stand-up act! But she was very effective. In fact everyone was! The best performance however was turned in by Julia Clarete who wore the senator's young persona like second skin! She was effusively sincere, her emotions palpable; too bad she is now reduced to the daily shenanigans of a frolicky "Eat Bulaga" when she could run rings around the likes of say, Marian Rivera, or Kris Bernal, or much of the gallery of stars that inhabit GMA-7. Maja Salvador was a curious choice to play teen Miriam. But her very short stint glowingly showcased how passionately Miriam wanted the love and acceptance of an overbearing mother (played by Jean Garcia - and later, Marita Zobel). When she looked at her mother, you could see a daughter's longing to snag her loving acknowledgment - that she indeed is a daughter worthy of her motherly love! Count on Maja to deliver the goods!

Tessie Tomas

Julia Clarete

Maja Salvador

Miles Ocampo

Perfect Wolfman for a Badly Scripted Saga

I was in awe of how gloriously gothic that British era was. It was 1850s, and Lawrence (Benicio del Toro) was summoned back to Talbot Hall in Blackmoor to help find his brother who was feared to have been attacked by an animal. Lawrence had never been home for ages (he was shipped to America when he was younger, to escape the trauma of witnessing his mother's supposed suicide; this also conveniently explained his obvious American accent). There, he meets his brother's fiance Gwen (Emily Blunt) and his once-distant father John (Anthony Hopkins). Will he be able to provide answers to the disappearance?

The first half was compelling, thanks in part to the eerie atmosphere and gloomy mood that befits this dark tale of fear. But as the 2nd half starts to unravel, loopholes start showing up - in bundles. Basic questions begged to be answered: Why would Gwen imploringly offer help for fugitive Lawrence when she didn't obviously have the foggiest to offer him? When she finally traveled back to Blackmoor, she went straight to the Talbot Estate knowing fully well what she was going to face - and didn't really have any solution to offer either!

The scene at the scientific institute was laughable too. Lawrence was tied down a chair while a roomful of scientists and doctors gathered around him, waiting for him to turn into a wolf with the coming of the full moon. As he was finally transforming, the lecturing doctor kept yapping about, oblivious to the transformation happening in the center of the room. Wasn't he present for that exactly? Were the other doctors idiots not to inform him that something indeed was happening? Much til later!

Spoilers here: If Gwen really wanted to help (She implored Lawrence, "Please let me help you!), she surely closed the saga of the werewolves by shooting Lawrence herself! Some kind of help she turned out to be.

The story was set in the 1850's. But this scene shows a fully operational Tower Bridge. The famed bridge only started construction in 1886 and officially opened in 1894. It was a fantastic sight nevertheless. I read somewhere that the wolfman costume (amazing costume really) took 3 hours to prepare and 1 hour to remove! Ouch!

"I was once Che, then transformed into a wolf," offers Del Toro.

Bad Case of Juvenile Imagination - Percy Jackson & the Olympians

It could have been spectacular!

But praytell, how can anyone who's directed a Harry Potter movie come up with such a clunker in "Percy Jackson & the Olympians - The Lightning Thief"? Well, majority of its pitfall lies in its story really.

A group of teens are sent to a summer camp of demi-gods, children of Gods like Zeus, Athena and Hades, et. al. These kids have never met their all-too-powerful parents. Half of their parentage is human, so they come together at a camp headed by Pierce Brosnan who's half-man, half-horse.

But Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) is being accused of stealing the world's most powerful weapon - the spearlike lightning bolt! He must travel to Olympus - by braving the ravages of hell first! - then "explain" to Zeus that he is innocent of this misdeed! On his quest for justice, he takes with him his friends Grover (who's half goat, half human) and Annabeth (daughter of Athena). So we have an adventure!

But setting this wildly imaginative storyline in present day California is anachronistic. The storyline never quite fits! And I always have trouble enjoying a film with a basic premise that I couldn't swallow!

Too bad! It had an avenue fit for a spell-binding adventure, but it turned out to be a pea-brained Nickelodeon flick (charming cast notwithstanding)!

Logan Lerman plays 15 year old Percy, accused of stealing the "lightning bolt" from the titan Gods. Logan is growing up a dashing young man. Strictly Zac Efron territory! He was that brilliant game player in Gerard Butler's "Gamer".

Jake Abel is naughty naughty Luke! He was the frisky high school stud in Peter Jackson's "Lovely Bones".