Star Trek Into Darkness: A Review

From the same team that brought us the awesome Star Trek movie in 2009, which shattered box office records and introduced the Star Trek franchise to a whole new generation, comes a sequel that from the trailer alone promises to be as kick ass as its predecessor. On all counts, this sequel was a winner and I would not object to seeing another Enterprise adventure to round out a trilogy in the near future.

The first movie was basically an origin story — how Captain Kirk was recruited into the Star Fleet and eventually became the captain of the USS Enterprise, and earned the trust and friendship of his entire crew. In Into Darkness, the story delves deeper into the Star Trek universe to bring out one of the Enterprise’s most dangerous arch nemesis — Khan/John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch, TV’s Sherlock), who stages a one man assault on the Star Fleet for an unknown reason. As the assault results in countless casualties, Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) are sent out on a mission to hunt down the terrorist in an abandoned Klingon territory to neutralize him with the use of 72 photon torpedoes made of advanced technology yet unexplored by man. During the mission, the Enterpise, meet some unexpected complications when its engine suffers malfunction and the crew is stuck in enemy territory. As the plot thickens, Kirk learns from Khan the real purpose of his mission and a web of lies is uncovered within the ranks of the Star Fleet.

I am not a fangirl of the franchise Trekkie/Trekker but I am a big fan of director J.J. Abrams (Alias, Super 8, Mission Impossible, Fringe), and screenwriters/producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who co-created one of my favorite television series Fringe. What they brought to the big screen was the same level of intellect and dynamism that is needed to pull off a successful Sci Fi feature, which was first evidenced by the first Star Trek movie.

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed this movie because it did not dwell too much into the technicalities of the rivalry between Khan and the Enterprise. The story basically explained the roots of Khan’s drive for vengeance and explored the depth of Kirk and Spock’s friendship. It was pretty basic but the approach was just so dynamic that one does not get lost in the intricacies of the characters’ relationships that has been explored for years on television. Instead, fans and non fans alike are given a chance to understand and enjoy the movie at the same time.

What I liked best about this movie was the amount of comedy incorporated into the script. The dialogues were so witty and the cast just pulls it off so well, with a rapport and chemistry that they established in the first movie transcending well into the sequel. The thing was, the movie did not merely revolve around Kirk and Spock alone as the main characters but it also became about their interaction with the rest of the crew. Kirk and Bones (Karl Urban), Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and Spock, Chekov (Anton Yelchin) and Kirk, Scotty (Simon Pegg) and Kirk, Spock and Zulu (John Cho).Their chemistry was just so strong that the characters were able to play off each others’ strength at every turn. Everybody just came together to form a very strong unit which the Enterprise was all about. Despite the fact that they were being shot down by madmen, being attacked by terrorists, the crew went the extra mile to save their ship, save each other and save their family, which was the very essence of the franchise that connected them to their very loyal fans.

Abrams was also able to balance out the exciting parts of the movie with the more dramatic parts providing a variation in the tone of the movie. When I heard that it was going to be super action packed, I was afraid that it would go the way of G.I. Joe Retaliation where the entire film just seemed like a blur of torpedoes, ammunition and firepower but I should have known better.

Benedict Cumberback and Chris Owen of the American Pie franchise. (image from cheezburger.com)

The only thing that kind of bothered me was that British actor Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan. I do not question his acting chops for playing the main villain of the piece but he just looked so much like the Sherminator in American Pie that in spite of being all superhuman and unemotional, I couldn’t take him quite as seriously as I should. (As I surf the web, it would seem that I was not the only one who had the same observation) I thought that Michael Fassbender would have done better for the part, had he not been identified with another Sci Fi origins movie, Prometheus.

All in all, I loved Star Trek Into Darkness. I thought it was completely badass. The stars may have gained weight (yes, all of them) but this did not stop them from delivering a great ensemble performance that even if scrutinized under a microscope would still hold up as great individual performances as well. I still liked the first movie better but Into Darkness felt more like Star Trek to me. Kudos to everyone behind this kickass feature.

Here comes the Boom: A Belated Review

I am guilty of holding out on watching Here Comes the Boom on the cinema despite the fact that I think Kevin James is one of the most talented comedians out there because I fervently dislike Charice, who plays one of the students in this movie. When my brother finally saw it on video and told me it was good, I finally caved and set aside my reservations for the better part of two hours and dived in.

Here Comes the Boom sees Kevin James playing  a disillusioned Biology high school teacher Scott Voss , who, in a bid to save the school’s music program, the dreams of  the school’s young musicians, and the job of one of his colleagues, decides to fight in the MMA to raise the funds needed to sustain the program. With the help of one of his evening class students, gym trainer and former fighter Niko (Bas Rutten), the school’s music coach Mr. Streb (Martin Winkler, The Waterboy), and Ms. Flores (Salma Hayek, Grown Ups), Scott sets out to achieve the impossible – learning mixed martial arts and facing off with some of the sport’s toughest fighters to achieve his goal.

Here Comes the Boom is a typical underdog story, where an average guy tries to save the day, faces an insurmountable challenge and gets the girl. What makes Here Comes the Boom fresh is that it incorporates the budding sport of mixed martial arts into the story. The fact that the UFC allowed the film to use the franchise as its backdrop was genius because it not only promoted the UFC but at the same time, it lent an air of authenticity to this popcorn movie and made it really cool.

Bas Rutten was hilarious as Niko, and one wouldn’t think that he was one of the best power punchers in the UFC with the way he was goofing off.  There were also familiar faces like Stitch, Joe Rogen, Mike Goldberg, Bruce Buffer and Herb Dean. As a fight fan, I appreciated the number of UFC fighters who turned up in this picture for cameos. Chael Sonnen, Mark Muñoz, and Brian Stann were only some of the popular fighters who played guys who got their asses kicked.  It’s great about these guys’ down to earth attitude. They don’t take their stardom too seriously and this is the reason why fight fans connect to the UFC better.

Throughout the movie, it was also noticeable that there were camera angles that showed a fighters’ perspective/line of vision before he got body slammed, or caught in submission moves that gave audiences a closer look at what goes on in the cage, and during training. I thought it was a great move on the part of the director.

Kudos to Kevin James for working hard on this movie.  He was still funny as ever (although the jumping up on the desk part was kind of cheesy) although he lost a lot of weight for the role.

All in all, I enjoyed the movie. It wasn’t the typical Happy Madison fare comedy but it had a lot of great highlights despite the generic premise of the film. The film had good energy and it was a great way to salute the hard work that goes behind teaching as a profession and fighting as a sport. I, for one, thought that this message was really cool.

P.S. If you think that this story is impossible to happen in real life, think again. Former Middleweight champ Rich “Ace” Franklin was a high school teacher before he shifted to MMA.

The Host: Movie Review

So I didn’t get to see Stephenie Meyer’s fifth book to movie feature during its regular run. And I didn’t read the book beforehand either. While I didn’t love it, and I didn’t exactly hate it, I admit that I felt like it was a watered down version of Twilight, but with werewolves and vampires subplanted with aliens who possess human bodies.

The Host is the story of Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan), one of the remaining humans on Earth after parasitic aliens have taken possession of most of mankind. During one of their runs, Melanie is cornered by “Seekers” and she chooses to end her life rather than become an alien host. However, instead of dying, she survives and the soul called Wanderer is placed in her body. As Wanderer tries to gain control of the body, Melanie fights back and gives her “guest” a taste of what being human is really like. She compels Wanderer to return to the resistance, where the love of her life Jared (Max Irons) and her brother Jamie (Chandler Canterbury) are hiding. Things get complicated when Wanderer falls for Ian (Jake Abel), another member of the group and a vengeful Seeker (Diane Kruger) remains on their tail.

The Host had all the ingredients to make it a blockbuster hit. It had a great cast of hot young stars, a great soundtrack and the story was based on a popular piece of young adult literature from the author of the Twilight franchise. However, none of these elements were enough to save the film from itself,  since it was basically a generic YA love story that felt like a composite of other better plotted Sci fi novels, but with less depth and detail.

The film was not without its strengths. Max Irons and Saoirse Ronan had great chemistry, true. But this strength was not enough to compensate for my annoyance at both the characters of Melanie, who came off as quite abrasive and manipulative to Wanderer; or the shallowness of Jared’s character.  In truth, I kind of liked the character of Wanderer better, as with Ian, the supposedly secondary character of the piece as they proved that they had more depth and had a better story than the two leads, whose storyline basically revolved around kissing and groping each other.

All in all, The Host was very uneventful and insubstantial. Many opportunities were lost because the story in itself was unimaginative at best and perhaps written to prove that Stephenie Meyers had something up her sleeve apart from the Twilight saga. Even the ending of this film was the height of cheesiness. Don’t get me wrong. I read all the  Twilight books and loved them. I even watched all of the Twilight films and thought the last one was good. But Sci Fi is not really Meyer’s forte. In itself, the genre is quite tricky and complicated. It’s not just regular fiction.

My advice? No more sequels to this one, please.

The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia Review

I’m kind of surprised that The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia was getting bad reviews from both critics and viewers. I must admit that I liked the original movie, released in 2009 by the same studio (Gold Circle) and thought that the sequel was a pretty decent horror flick.

Ghosts of Georgia is based on the true story of the Wyrick family, who move into a remote home near the woods in 1993 and encounter spirits of black slaves that are trapped in the property. Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill) plays the role of Andy, the father of the household, while Abigail Spencer takes on the role of Lisa, his clairvoyant wife who tries to deny her gift of communicating with the dead. The adorable Emily Alyn Lind plays Heidi, their little girl who shares her mother’s abilities to whom the spirits manifest, and Katee Sackoff  is Joyce, Lisa’s sister who can also see through the veil.

Ghosts of Georgia is very different from its predecessor in the sense that the original Haunting dealt with demonic possession whereas Ghosts was a pretty straightforward ghost story. While the story was admittedly predictable, I thought the execution was very good. It had a great set up leading up to the supernatural scenes. The pacing was good and there was ample time to prepare audiences for the shocking moments.

The casting was spot on, and despite the limited number of characters, the actors portrayed their parts well, especially Emily and Chad. They had great chemistry as father and child. On the other hand, I didn’t like the character of Lisa but I thought the rest of the characters pulled their weight.

All in all, I wouldn’t go on to say that Ghosts of Georgia shot up to my list of favorite horror flicks but like the original movie, it was not a clunker, especially for a limited budget release. I have seen way way worse. It was just too bad that people did not respond to the movie as well as expected.

Still, I would probably go see the third movie in the trilogy The Haunting in New York because of the strength of the first two features in the franchise. I just hope that it gets a better reception than this flick.

Iron Man 3: Movie Review

Forgive me for this belated review. I started writing this two weeks ago and I only got to finish today because things have been a bit busy lately. That being said, I will proceed now to the actual post.

It comes as no surprise that most cinemas have completely filled their slots with Iron Man screenings. In many malls, there are no other movies being featured except for Tony Stark’s return to the big screen. Fans have been waiting for this third installment and after the sheer awesomeness of the first two, who can blame them? Certainly not me, because I was one of the legions who lined up in the theater to support Robert Downey Jr’s iconic Marvel superhero alter ego on its first weekend out.

After the events of New York where Iron Man almost lost his life in the wormhole, Tony becomes obsessed with improving his suits in order to protect the people that he loves from harm’s way (read: Pepper). But a terrorist who calls himself The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) suddenly shows up causing explosions to happen in different parts of the US, as if to send a message to the President. As Happy (now the newly minted chief of security at Stark Inc.) sniffs around a suspicious scientist named Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) whom he recognizes from an encounter with him and Tony decades ago, he almost loses his life to an explosion of unknown origin and Tony takes it upon himself to challenge The Mandarin, whom he believes to be responsible for the expl0sions, to a showdown. Big mistake, as it turns out, because Mandarin gladly takes him up on his offer and attacks him in his home. With the world believing that Iron Man died in the hands of the villain, Tony must work with his wits and save the world from danger anew with the only tools he has left and the help of  a pint sized sidekick, Harley (Ty Simpkins) and his best bud Col. James Rhodes, or the Iron Patriot (formerly known as War Machine).

The third installment to the franchise is quite different from the first two mainly because it does not present Tony Stark as an ultra confident billionaire/superhero but rather as a person with imperfections. This sequel presents Tony in a different light, not devoid of sarcasm and humor but rather a person who is uncertain and afraid of losing the person he loves most. This vulnerability, which Robert Downey Jr. depicts brilliantly allows the audiences to connect to the character on a deeper level and care for him more. It shows him on a more mature light wherein he takes responsibility for his mistakes and deals with them the best way that he could.

The pacing for this movie was a bit slower than the first two because of the dramatic component of the film. However, it was not lacking in cool action scenes and new innovations to the Iron Men suits (yes, plural) But what I liked  best from this episode was the throwback to the time when Tony was in the cave in the first chapter, where equipped with only a few tools, he was able save his own life by creating a device that would keep shrapnels away from his heart — the device that allows him to power the Iron Man suit. This time, Tony has no choice but to Mcgyver his way to Pepper’s rescue with a few powertools from the local hardware, trade wisecracks at a 12 year old small town boy (who was adorable, by the way), and rely on his trusty assistant Jarvis.

Fanboys will get a field day from all of the versions of Iron Man suits that were on parade for this sequel but I guess there will be those that would feel differently about the major change in the Mandarin’s origins in the storyline. While the presentation did make sense, I felt that this movie, despite being kickass as a standalone, was not as fun as the previous two movies. Props to Shane Black who did well in the director’s seat but I liked it better when Jon Favreau was directing the franchise. I felt that the stories were stronger and simpler and more relateable to fans and kids alike.

All in all, I had a great time watching Iron Man’s third outing. I’m looking forward to more sightings of this dynamic superhero on the next Avengers movie.

Olympus Has Fallen: Movie Review

With the number of blockbuster movies to watch out for this year, Olympus Has Fallen seemed undermarketed compared to expected hits like Iron Man, The Hunger Games, Oblivion, The Host and the like. However, looking closer into this movie. One would find that it has a pretty solid cast, a rather ambitious premise and a potential to be one wicked action thriller. On most counts, i believe it delivered.

Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) is the lead Secret Service agent detailed to the White House but more than that, he enjoys a close relationship with President Asher (Aaron Eckhart) and his family. But when an accident makes the President lose confidence in his friend, Mike is exiled to the Treasury Office, where he still keeps one eye out for his commander in chief from a distance. When tension reignites in the Korean peninsula and the the South Korean Prime Minister visits the White House to seek the help of the United States against the North, the White House is blindsided by a daring assault in which its top officials are caught in a compromising situation. With the top brass at gunpoint, all that stands between the fall of Seoul and the future of the United States is the Speaker of the House Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) and Mike Banning.

If one would ignore the glaring loopholes in the story (e.g. lapses in security protocol, the ability of the main antagonist to infiltrate the government without anybody doing a background check, the slow response time of the military and the sheer idiocy of the Secret Service strategy), it would be very easy to enjoy this movie. Directed by the dude who helmed Training Day and The Replacement Killers (Antoine Fuqua), this movie was not short of  amazing strategy, thrills and cool action sequences.  It had sort of a Die Hard vibe going for it but on a larger scale because never have I seen a movie in which the White House decimated on such a level so strategically and so efficiently. Hats off to the writers Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt for the sheer brilliance of the material.

Olympus is the type of movie that will have audiences on the edge of their seats because of the suspense and those with weak stomachs to head for the door for the sheer brutality of the scenes. More than the violence, it gets audiences to think about what’s going on in the world today, especially since North Korea is cast anew by Hollywood as the villain of the piece. It makes audiences think about what would have happened if United 93 had hit its target on September 11 rather than crashing into a field in Pennsylavia because of the heroic acts of its passengers. It also gives an insight into the suffering of the people in the North and what drives them to act as they do.

What I loved about the movie was that it did not have a one dimensional plot. Just when one thinks that they have the entire thing figured out, the villains will reveal a new motive in which a new strategy is revealed. And the action will take off again. It did have a formulaic approach to the movie but it really worked out. Superb cast by the way. Their performances played off each other really well.

All in all, one man saving the world is still a long shot, but I thought Olympus has Fallen was great. Plus, with Morgan Freeman as acting head of state, how can one go wrong? Kudos to everybody involved in this film. A $70 million budget well spent. I had a lot of fun watching it but I’m afraid some of my hair may have turned gray in the two hours it took to finish the movie because of tension. That and a couple of my nails bitten to excess, but these were sacrifices well worth it.

Oblivion: Movie Review

After starring as Jack in Jack Reacher, Tom Cruise takes on the role of another Jack — Jack Harper that is, a tech specialist in what remains to be the Earth’s mop up crew after a failed alien invasion in the sci fi thriller Oblivion.

Sixty years after Earth successfully warded off an alien invasion, leaving the planet almost uninhabitable, tech specialist Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) and his partner Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are two weeks away from completing their mission to extract all of Earth’s remaining resources and rejoin the rest of humanity in Saturn’s moon Titan. While Victoria is anxious to leave the planet, Jack, whose memories prior to the mission were wiped clean by his superiors in case he is compromised, continues to feel that despite the devastation, the Earth is still his home. He is also haunted by the memories of a woman who appears in his dreams, a woman (Olga Kurylenko) he encounters face to face when he rescues her pod from a drone attack. When he and the survivor are captured by the “Scavs”, led by Malcolm Beech (Morgan Freeman) and Sykes (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Game of Thrones), Jack discovers who he truly is what his mission entails. Now, it is now up to him to save the planet that he loves, along with what remains of species.

When I initially saw the trailer of Oblivion, I had high hopes about this sci fi offering. However, when I actually saw it, I felt a bit put out. While there was great cinematography and execution of the basic idea of the plot, I felt that the film just did not live up to its promise of an action packed sci-fi adventure. Rather, I felt like it was more of a sci-fi drama more than anything else.

For one, Oblivion proceeded at a snail’s pace, fleshing out its story, taking its sweet time moving along. It had a very contemplative vibe, bordering on depressing. In wanting the twist to be the main highlight of the film, the movie focused on the mystery of Julie haunting Jack’s dreams, Jack wanting to stay in Earth on his cabin, Jack in various scrapes that admittedly had passable stunts, and Jack doing whatnot. Okay, we get it. It’s Tom Cruise’s movie and he is the lead star. What’s next?

Finally, after the constant back and forth and a lot of speculation about what happened in the war (which took up over an hour of the movie), the truth is revealed and the final 25-30 minutes or so proceeds at a much faster and action packed pace. While it was not in the magnitude of what I had expected for a big popcorn movie like this, I was thankful that there was at least a stab at moving things along.

On the positive side, the film took inspiration from some sci-fi greats like Star Wars in terms of design and stunts. The drone chase was similar to Luke Skywalker’s epic fighter plane sequence in the Empire Strikes Back. Some of Jack’s gadgets even looked like R2-D2. In terms of the set, I must give credit to the production for the details in the set pieces. The majority of white in the setting also lent an air of surrealism to Jack’s life in the Mission Tower in contrast to desert trails and wilds that remain of Earth, which effectively distinguishes the two worlds that Jack treads.

All in all, Oblivion had great potential, had it not been for the pacing. I think that given the story, the film would have benefited from reduced scenes and a real focus on the bigger picture rather than Jack’s personal dilemmas. In the end, it just seemed like the movie was a drama disguised in sci fi setting. Even the ending seemed kinda meh.

So Undercover: Movie Review

I’m a big Miley Cyrus fan but sad to say, her latest outing So Undercover was sooo not her best work. In fact, it could have been the worst that I’ve seen her do.

Molly is a young PI recruited by the FBI to go undercover in a college sorority to find evidence entrusted to the daughter of the mob’s accountant. Desperate to settle her father’s gambling debts, she agrees to take the gig and immerse herself in the world of sororities, fraternities, parties and learning where she finds some use for her sleuthing skills that earn her new friends.

How to enumerate what is wrong with this movie? In a nutshell, it’s a total clunker mainly because it was so lazy that nobody seemed to take any effort in it. Miley’s acting seemed disinterested, the rest of the girls seemed cliché. Nobody seemed to actually work on this movie.

From the unimaginative script to the half baked and recycled sequences, Kelley Osbourne seemed to have been the only character who decided to show up but with her limited appearances, she wasn’t able to make much of a difference in the total outcome.

Deciding from the outtakes, I’m glad the cast had fun doing the movie because as part of the audience, I did not. I could only feel embarrassed that my loyalty as a fan to Miley Cyrus cost me an hour and a half of my life that I could not ever bring back.

Premium Rush: Movie Review

If there is one word to describe the experience of seeing this movie,  it would be “a rush.” Oh wait, that’s two words. What about a frickin’ awesome rush? Well, that sounds a bit better, but that’s three words and that’s my bad. In all honesty, Premium Rush had me at the edge of my seat from the first minute until the last and that, ladies and gents is entertainment at its finest.

Directed by David Koepp, and written also by David Koepp and John Kamps, the film revolves around New York bike messenger Wilee (Joseph Gordon Levitt) who unwittingly receives a premium rush delivery which contains a ticket worth a huge amount of money. He tries to make it to the deadline while a dirty cop indebted to the Chinese gambling mob does his damnest to stop him from delivering the envelope, chasing him all across the streets of Manhattan to achieve his goal.

Premium Rush was a nail biter from Minute One. I loved the pure athleticism and skills of the actors and stuntmen involved in this movie, which effectively depicted the day to day dangers encountered by over 1,500 bike messengers in a city as busy as New York. There were plenty of great riding in the film, further made cool by tricks worthy of the X-games (well, close enough). Man, most of the chase scenes almost gave me a heart attack because of its sheer speed.

I loved the way the story unfolded, and the way the entire film was presented. It had an indie sort of edginess but still tempered by mainstream flavor that would appeal to audiences. This, I think was made possible by great editing and effects. The GPS and the trial and error effects were executed flawlessly and were very relevant to the movie.

There were only a few actors who were in the movie, Gordon-Levitt being on the front and center, but somehow, the movie seemed bigger because of the focus on the key characters.  The irony of his name, being similar to Wil.E. Cayote, who is known for his endless (yet unfruitful) pursuit of the Roadrunner to his character being the one pursued by the dirty cop to great personal cost was a great touch.

Gordon-Levitt deserves a great big pat on the back for pulling off the cycling part of the movie to endearing himself to the audience with his character’s smart alecky ways and resourcefulness, as with the rest of the cast. Levitt was Premium Rush. They couldn’t have cast a better actor to fit the part.

All in all, Premium Rush was a great ride. Hats off to the filmmakers to this salute to bike messengers, all around the world. There’s no greater way to honor them than by showing the audience what an awful risk is involved in delivering messages, and humanizing their profession by highlighting their sense of community.

P.S. Here in the Philippines, bike couriers are called “Lagarista” and mostly carry film reels from one theater to another. There was a movie released in 2000, directed by Mel Chionglo which starred actor Piolo Pascual. It was shown in several international film festivals (Toronto, Chicago, Pusan and Hong Kong) and had local limited release.

Must Be Love: Movie Review

I caught the last full show of this teenybopper rom com on its opening date along with my co- workers. From the minute I plopped down on the seat and opened by popcorn, I braced myself for an hour and a half of lighthearted entertainment filled with LOLs and an occasional dramatic scene which is the trademark of Star Cinema, the studio that produced this movie. True enough, all my expectations were met.

Ivan (Daniel Padilla) and Patchot (Kathryn Bernardo) have been friends since they were kids. They have been through a lot together. Ivan was there when Patchot’s beauty queen mother left her family for loftier career opportunities, and Patchot stood by Ivan when his father ran off with another woman. When they grew up, their familiarity starts to pose a problem with Patchot, who starts to develop feelings for her best friend, who finds it hard to see her beyond the friend zone. Worse, Patchot’s cousin Angel (Liza Soberano) arrives from the US and Ivan immediately falls for her. Even worse, Patchot’s dad (John Estrada) would not allow her to explore her femininity because he fears that Patchot would turn out exactly like her mother, the deserter. When Ivan’s gay uncle (John Lapuz)  decides to help out the lovelorn teen, Ivan begins to see a whole new side to the friend that he has known forever.

The plot was predictable — a no brainer, the stuff formulaic mainstream movies are made of.  On all counts, this should have accounted for a boring disaster.

However, I found that I liked the film a lot despite the recycled plot. It seemed that the excellent direction of Dado Lomibao and the witty script of screenwriters Melissa Chua and Roumella Monge made the film seem fresh and fun, entertaining and relateable to the audience. The script was peperred by a whole lot of acronyms and delivered with a certain sense of coolness which will surely start a fad among teenage members of the audience. Terms like YOLO (You only live once), MTB (Meant to Be), MBL (Must Be Love), slow mo and fast forward will surely dominate the walls of facebook in a couple of days. As for the family element, was incorporated into the film early on so when the focus shifted from the love story to the family drama side, it did not seem awkward and blended seamlessly into the narrative.

The best part of the movie however, was the great chemistry between the lead stars and among the supporting cast members. Young heartthrob Daniel is a natural born charmer and he carries with him an appeal that is not common among young stars of today. When he delivers his lines, it is with great abandon to self consciousness that when he does goofy, it turns out endearing. His dramatic acting could still use some work but there is great potential there. Teen princess Kathryn, on the other hand, maintains a good girl image that is such a foil to Daniel’s effortless cool that makes their pairing work so well. Perhaps, because of working together many times before and establishing a rapport (or something else), the two stars seemed very comfortable with each other which made their scenes appear very natural and heartwarming. The supporting cast, which mainly provided comic relief, lent barrels of laughter rifting through the audience. All this was reinforced by the magnificent backdrop of Cebu as the setting for the film. Surely, this will be a boon to potential tourists who want to revisit the places the scenes were shot.

If I were to post any complaint about the movie, perhaps , it would only be overselling of the tomboy angle for Patchot in the beginning. It is one thing to be boyish but it would seem that her character was also oblivious to the basic tenets of personal hygiene, appearing always caked in dirt, sweat and charcoal. Also, the speed of the courtship between Ivan and Angel seemed to proceed at too fast a pace.

All in all, Must Be Love had a very simple story that carried a very positive message. It spoke about love between friends, family and and love for oneself — looking beyond the superficial and appreciating a person for what he/ she is. Its a bit cliche but for a movie that targets mostly teens, its still a great lesson to impart. A great date movie, or just to see with a bunch of friends. Loads of fun and an awesome way to unwind and spend the better part of two hours. I wouldn’t mind seeing it again, given the opportunity.