Another Queridanovela: Viva Films' A Secret Affair Starring Anne Curtis, Derek Ramsay and Andi Eigenmann

As if banking on the success of No Other Woman, the storyline of A Secret Affair is a little too familiar. Only this time, tables are turned as Anne Curtis plays the wailing legal girlfriend with a feisty mother who provides the querida lessons in witty, memorable quotes. And because its theme is too close to two previous box office successes, viewers may hesitate to watch Viva's newest offering thinking the movie offers nothing new. Is Viva Films going to milk this queridanovela campaign dry until the viewing public gets tired of such storyline? 

No Other Mistress? My Neighbor's Affair? Watching the trailer made me think that it took a little bit of this and a little bit of that from previous queridanovela movies. Anne Curtis said this movie was made with a conscious effort to be different from No Other Woman. Unfortunately, the trailer didn't made the conscious effort to show that intention.

And Derek Ramsay reprises his role as the hapless apologetic chap who has all the alibis in the world. Once again, he plays victim to the charms of the temptress as if he didn't like all the tempting. He is once again, in despair after all the humping and pumping-- I was hoping his character would be something more than what was already offered in No Other Woman. 

As for Andi, she's easier on the eyes compared with Christine Reyes who kept putting me off with her insincere acting. Yet, I can't help but think this movie will be far more interesting if they cast both actresses from the previous movie. Mas maganda yung may Barney party no.2. 

(And I enjoyed No Other Woman very much.)

Bottomline, I love Anne Curtis and Derek Ramsay to bits but as a viewer, I need a new story.

Photos sourced from Ultimate Fan

The Bourne Legacy Exclusive Screening at The Podium

This post is long delayed, I know. :) I got two invites to watch The Bourne Legacy starring Jeremy Renner, Ed Norton  and Rachel Weisz in The Podium Mall, courtesy of Sumo Sam. Sumo Sam launched their cinema ad with this exclusive screening, and I must say they did an amazing job. Owner Marvin Agustin was there himself to welcome guests and introduce the newest ad for Sumo Sam. 

Although The Bourne Legacy elicited from me mixed reactions, actors Norton, Renner and Weisz undeniably gave a great job in leading the cast. It's mind-blowing to watch Manila in its Hollywood form, the unsightly shanties made of light materials harmonized the mix-match of Renner and Weisz like they really didn't belong there.

The chase scene that lasted only a few moments was completely justifiable, as one cannot possibly make a drag race out of Manila's horrible traffic. The indigenous use of the Philippine's current economic state like profitable business outsourcing of multinationals to the country, and the use of the local jeepney and motorcycles put so much realism in the film. The ending was lacking, it could have used a little more airtime than a brief 10 seconds of panning the El Nido scenery. They could have played on the Renner-Weisz loveteam a little more, ending up in some remote island where they can live in total peace and harmony. But that's just me and happy endings. :) 

I dragged my friend, Carlo Guison to watch with me. 

Excited for The Amazing Spiderman

We're crazy with anticipation

with the newest Spiderman installment: The Amazing Spiderman starring Andrew Garfied! 

The kids (myself included) absolutely love everything Spiderman. The house is laden with Spidey toys, books, stickers, posters, shirts and even raincoats! I can't wait to see what our new actor, Andrew Garfield, has to offer as Peter Parker as carries the torch to this Marvel legacy. It's an interesting take on how Peter finds the truth about his parents.

I should have paid more attention to my Sci-Fi writing class

Once upon a time I took up science fiction writing in college. I took the course as an elective, while everyone scrambled to get slots for European Languages, Photography, Film and other savvy shiz, it was the only class that had no pre-rog, only 7 people on the list, and the prospect of knocking around departments for what felt like the thousandth time was not very attractive. I signed up right away.

The class was a real tight group --- of nerds talking elf and the whole fracking Star Wars franchise down to the spinoff comics, to the whole goddamn Marvel universe that they can crack wise-ass jokes about them like they exist in real life. The only time I got to actively participate was when we got to the part where we talked about two generations worth of the Bioman epic before it bred the Turbo Rangers and the Power Rangers and a whole lot of Rangers. And all the Japanese costumed heros like The Masked Rider, Shaider, Ultraman Tiga, Giga, etc. That actually marked the end of my childhood as I was programmed to be an adult after that-- meaning no more cartoons for me. No Kenshin, Sakura, One Piece, Recca, Ghostfighter and Dragon Ball Z. i simply did not exist as a child in that era. And up to this day I have my parents to blame that the only pokemons I know is Pikachu, Charmander, Meowth and Raichu. I look at people in cosplays and I sometimes wish I can recognize a character or two instead of poking fun at them walking around the mall holding some stupid bladed weapon made of cardboard.

So after a sem of discussing time travel, super-corporations and alternative universes, we wrote our own short stories as an output of what we learned. My classmates wrote about breeding people from embryos for the sole purpose of harvesting organs (awesome because her idea existed before The Island was produced), some war in space where we actually won and conquered other planets (before Avatar, which means UP students definitely are "the goods"), while I must have written the most implausible science fiction story  that I cant even remember what it was about. I'm sure I wrote something about some fantastic Hobbit-like world that I could have picked up while I was dreaming. 

Now, science fiction films outsells every film genre there is in Hollywood. It is most watched genre of all. The cinemas has to have a new science-fiction related movie every 3 Wednesdays. The highest grossing movie of all time is, guess what, a really special science fiction film named Avatar.

I should have paid more attention to the actual work being done at our science fiction writing class than oogling at our cool, smart professor. :D