MMFF tripping: Ang Panday

It's actually a tradition for hubby and me to watch at least one movie included in the Metro Manila Film Festival. For this year, we chose to watch Ang Panday starring Bong Revilla.

(We noticed that for the past Film Fests, we watch either a Bong Revilla or Vic Sotto starrer. We would've watched Wapakman, but because of a very negative feedback, we chose to skip it.)

As we all know, the movie is based on the creation of Carlo J. Caparas and was portrayed by the King, Fernando Poe, Jr. It tells the story of Flavio, a blacksmith in a folklore universe of the Philippines, and his destiny to fight the big bad of all mankind, Lizardo. Throw in a love interest named Maria and you have a formula for a cheesy flick set in a parallel world.

Okay, so here's the rundown of my comments:

1. It's got a cheesy story, as expected, with cheesy lines. But it can't be helped...

2. Graphically, it's nice. Kudos to Riot Inc. for doing a good job. Not very much comparable to Hollywood, but we're slowly getting there (time and budget are what the industry needs).

3. Musical score was good. Can't say the same about the Pupil-penned theme, though.

4. Unnecessary scenes and characters were included in the movie. I don't know why directors bother to do so.

5. No product placement. Yipee!

6. Hubby kept ranting about the "little details." To put it simply, we were wondering why Bong Revilla was kept ridiculously clean throughout the movie.

7. Philip Salvador's character laughs a lot. It gets irritating at some point.

8. The movie had so many scenes and settings based from big Hollywood films. Look for inspirations from movies such as Lord of the Rings... and Thundercats. LOL!

All in all, I guess it was okay, if you're more for the formulaic movie plots. Well, it won as Best Picture for this year's filmfest, so you might want to check it out.

And for the record, Wapakman's gimmick (if it ever was a gimmick) became its downfall. Tsk.

Villar's "Naging Mahirap" ad: Really now?

For your reference, here's the full ad. Listen to the lyrics:



A few things I just noticed:

1. Villar harps too much on his "mahirap" angle. I like the "sipag and tiyaga" slant more. This ad is the complete opposite of his first slogan.

2. People will take this literally. If you say you will take them out of poverty, they will take your word for it. And when you don't, they'll hate you. Remember the Bible story about giving man fish and teaching him how to fish? The ad seems to lean on the former. And that is not good.

Truth is, no one will pull you out of your misery except yourself. You have to work for it and not let anyone do it for you.

While I don't dislike Manny Villar, his ad is an epic fail.

Getting Trailer Addict-ed

It's my last day of work for the year, I'm taking a leave beginning tomorrow until the end of the month. So while I've got no work to finish, I decided to check out some trailers for 2010 movies.

I would've gone to YouTube, but the site's blocked by our office's firewall. Apple Trailers would've been okay if I had a Quicktime player. Good thing there's TrailerAddict.com to satiate my hunger for movie trailers.

So far I've watched those of Iron Man 2, Nine, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and The Wolfman. Still have to browse for more trailers, and so far I'm satisfied.

Visit TrailerAddict.com and have a blast getting a sneak peek of your most awaited movie for next year.

Brittany Murphy dies at 32

This was the news that greeted me this morning, the first news bit I saw upon opening my computer.

Actress Brittany Murphy died in her home due to cardiac arrest. She was found unconscious and was brought to the hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

It's so sad to hear news like these, especially when you feel like someone's gone too soon, at such a young age when she's enjoying her life.

May you rest in peace, girl.

Ooh, a new look

...for my blog, that is. I kinda like this new layout, it's cleaner and less cluttered than before. I wonder why I didn't see this over at BTemplates in the first place?

Earlier, I had a problem with the comments box. As trail29 from TalkPh pointed out, the captcha phrase in the comments box couldn't be entered. I thought it was because of the template. But I changed it and it still had that problem.

Good thing I went over to the Help Forum and found the answer. One guy told me to insert a tag in the HTML which will adjust the size of the box (I think). Well, it worked!

And then I decided to keep this template. I realized I like blue anyways.

So there, enjoy the new look of my Point of View.

Movies to watch out for in 2010

MSN Entertainment has just released its Top 10 Movies to See Next Year. Yes, of course it includes Twilight Saga: Eclipse and the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The list actually is pretty interesting because, by the plots, these upcoming flicks are sure to be a hit. Just noticed, though, that they missed out on some movies, including:

* The Book of Eli - Denzel Washington kicking ass and Gary Oldman as the bad man. Coolness!
* The Last Airbender - I'm just hoping M. Night Shyamalan does this justice. I loved the series.
* Clash of the Titans - Elementary days come to mind. But this one would surely have better effects. And a bald Perseus.
* Prince of Persia - With Bubbleboy, er, Jake Gyllenhall in the lead role, I'm curious as to how this game-turned movie will be. Nice trailer, though.
* The A-Team - Okay, so because I'm anticipating this, you'd probably have an idea of my age. But heck, it's a cool macho series (and I'm a woman...). Would want to see how it turns out.
* Tron - Got to watch the 80s original, and the trailer made me wonder what happened to Jeff Bridges' character during the hiatus.
* Toy Story 3 - Of course.

This early, the list leaves enough to make you wonder what else are in store. I'm getting excited...

This Season's Picky Taxi Drivers, part 1

It's not an unusual occurrence, but it happens a lot especially during the Christmas season: taxis refusing to accommodate passengers. They always have a lot of excuses on hand, the main one being "traffic."

I don't get why they would choose to let go of potential income and continue to waste precious gas by driving without a paying passenger in tow.

Don't they realize that people flagging them for a ride are interested in giving them income?

There are also those taxi drivers who would ask for a hefty price and wouldn't use the meter, just to see if people will fall into his ruse called overcharging.

I believe Manila's LTFRB are doing something about this. You can text the taxi's plate number and report if they turned you down or overcharged you. Sadly, I forgot to put the number on my phone.

So anyways, I'd like to list down the plate numbers of the taxis who refused to drive us from Makati (AIM) to Malate (behind Aristocrat Restaurant) last Friday, December 11 at about 5PM:

PVK 382
TYE 566 (Body name: TAI)
PXE 995

And though he did accommodate us, I would like to post the plate number of the taxi who charged us Php300 (did not use the meter) for the same route on that same day:

TXV 842

There you go. Have a safe trip this Yuletide season.

The side effects of Coldease

My officemate felt that she was going to have a cold this morning, so she bought Coldease, the latest cold medicine out in the Philippine market. I've heard a radio commercial of theirs days back and advertisement banners have been plastered in EDSA. It said that you should take Coldease before you actually get a cold (or something to that effect).

Got no photo of it, but it's a soft gel capsule which, according to the label, is made of herbal ingredients. Everyone's switching to natural (just like Lucy Torres... er...), so I guess the makers of this one, Unilab, is just itching to jump into the bandwagon.

Thing is, on the fine print, it's got loads of side effects. To enumerate:

- nausea
- dizziness
- vomiting
- abdominal pain
- tingling sensation of the tongue
- diarrhea
- headache

Skin irritations, like rashes, and other allergic reactions may also occur.

There's a disclaimer, though, that Coldease should not be taken for more than two weeks to minimize side effects. So they may or may not happen to you when you take it.

So far, my officemate hasn't been complaining of anything related to the aforementioned side effects. I guess it just struck me as weird that one herbal medicine could have such a number of side effects.

Maybe I'll ask my doctor about this one first, in case I get a cold.

Iron Man 2 Teaser Poster Out

... And behind the iron-cast hero is a monochromatic version of him, also known as War Machine.

I'm no comic book fan (not much, maybe) but this gets me excited because I really liked the first installment. I thought that Robert Downey, Jr. was tailor-fit for the role, despite his lack of height (Iron Man is tall).

Big question now is, will Don Cheadle, who replaces Terrence Howard in the sequel, fit into the role of James Rhodes? Stark's buddy from the military will be the one donning the silver armor, and quite frankly I think Cheadle is pretty, er, petite for the character. Acting-wise, I have no arguments. I guess I just don't see him as a military guy. He's not buffed, not quite tall, and I kinda feel the suit's too heavy for him.

Well, we'll see how this goes come next year. Fanboys, get ready.

Deathly Hallows Teaser Trailer on TheRemembrall.org

Thanks to my Plurk buddy, I got a sneak peak on the teaser trailer of the latest Harry Potter installment on The Remembrall site. Being a fan, it's exciting to watch how the story will be translated from book to film (again).

Truth to tell, I always thought that HP is better read than watched on the big screen. There's always some alteration going on during production. Sometimes I feel that what I saw on the movies didn't compare to what I imagined while I was reading the book. But what the heck, it's still Harry Potter and the rest of the crew. And I can't wait to see the final installment.

(Hmm, is the movie version of Book 7 in two parts, as earlier reported? Must take a look into this...)

Satiate your hunger for HP as you watch The Deathly Hallows trailer over at The Remembrall.

Kris Kringle: Playing Santa Promo

Just joined TalkPH.net and found this contest from member Yuuki. It's open to GirlTalk and TalkPH members only (wow, I'm member of both, hehe!).

All you have to do is place this badge somewhere in your blog:



and be her top commenter for December. $19.99 is up at stake, to be deposited to the winner's PayPal account.

Though I don't think I'll be her top commenter for the month, I'll just join in the fun. :)

Joining TalkPH. net

Was browsing through my online friends' blogs when I stumbled upon TalkPH.net from Realm of a Dreamer. It's a local forum where you can join discussions (like the usual forums that have been around), but what's special about it is that they have an Ad Revenue Sharing Program, which helps you earn while you create a topic or participate in a thread. Earnings are entered to your Google AdSense or Yahoo Publisher Network. For this, I entered my Google AdSense account.

I've just joined a few minutes ago, as of this writing, so I'm still in the process of learning the TalkPH.net ropes, so to speak. I'm going to join in the discussions and see how this goes from here.

If you want to join TalkPH.net, you can click here and register.