Oggs Cruz

Review: Cathy Garcia-Molina's UNOFFICIALLY YOURS
Perhaps the primary motivation for Cathy Garcia-Molina's Unofficially Yours is to craft a love story that has graduated from the conservative romances that the Catholic Church would give their blessings to. Not all love stories happily end with the first... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  

Review: Enrico Santos' MY CACTUS HEART
The biggest problem of Enrico Santos' My Cactus Heart is that its protagonist, Sandy (Maja Salvador), the owner of the titular so-called cactus heart, is nothing more than a standard-issue rom-com dame, afflicted with issues brought about by familial troubles.... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  

ANG PANDAY 2 Review
The malady caused by the proliferation of loud but predominantly empty Hollywood blockbusters in Philippine shores is most evident in Mac Alejandre's Ang Panday 2. The bombardment of special effects has never been this harmful to the eyes and to... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  

YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW Review
Its prologue, which briefly introduces its bouquet of characters and their curious relationships and situations, is divided into three parts, all of which are introduced by the three words of its generic title followed by sayings that would do... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  

SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL 13 Review
In Chris Martinez's Rain, Rain, Go Away, the final episode of Shake, Rattle and Roll 13 which was touted by its producing studio as the last and the best of the horror franchise, water, more than the predictable ghosts that... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  

CinemaOne 2011: AT THE CORNER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH Review
Sa Kanto ng Ulap at Lupa (At the Corner of Heaven and Earth), Mes de Guzman's elegy to childhood innocence, is relaxed in its pace and elegant in its imagery. Set in De Guzman's native Nueva Vizcaya where continuous fields... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  

THE ROAD Review
The first of the three episodes of Yam Laranas' The Road is the most reminiscent of the atmospheric thrills of Sigaw (The Echo, 2004). One night in 2008, three teenagers (Barbie Forteza, Lexi Fernandez and Derrick Monasterio) find an abandoned... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  

WON'T LAST A DAY WITHOUT YOU Review
A romantic comedy that seeks to reinforce the love team between singer-turned-actress Sarah Geronimo and Big Brother housemate-turned-matinee idol Gerald Anderson, Raz de la Torre's Won't Last a Day Without You does not stray far from the established story map... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  

CinemaOne 2011: SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION FROM LILIA CUNTAPAY Review
Most famous for the several short films which displayed a very casual understanding of the idiosyncrasies of Filipino life without relying heavily on cheap charms, Antoinette Jadaone has been regarded by the late Alexis Tioseco as the person that is... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  

CinemaOne 2011: BIG BOY Review
We live in the present, for the future. The past only becomes part of the present through memories, which are but figments of the imagination, collections of reality as perceived, designed and fashioned by the creative mind. Memories are never... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  

Cinemanila 2011: BOUNDARY Review
Confined mostly within the very small spaces provided for by the cabs, taxi drivers live lives that are well-suited for cinema. Although they are forced to interact with people of various personalities, needs and intentions, this human interaction is limited... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  

NO OTHER WOMAN Review
Ruel Bayani's No Other Woman has supposedly earned for itself the distinction of being the highest grossing Filipino movie of all time, for now. It's essentially about marital infidelity, tackling the sordid turns in a married couple's life when another... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  

MAPANG-AKIT Review
In 2009, directors John Torres and Frosti Runolfsson, participants in DOX:LAB which endeavors to partner Scandinavian filmmakers with Middle-Eastern, Asian or African filmmakers for a film project, ventured into rural Antique to document the hudas-hudas, a practice done in a... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  

BUENAS NOCHES, ESPAÑA Review
What separates Earth from space? If we are to base it from what could arguably be the most famous sequence in Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris (1972), it is a speedy ride along a futuristic highway. The sequence, around five minutes in... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  

SAN LAZARO Review
If Wincy Ong's San Lazaro were a student in a classroom full of recent films from the Philippines, which necessarily includes important works from Lav Diaz, Raya Martin and Brillante Mendoza, it would probably be sitting in the back, an... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  

Cinemalaya 2011: STAR-CROSSED LOVE Review
Philippine cinema has never been one that is deeply related with literature. Except for adaptations of Jose Rizal's Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, Francisco Baltazar's Florante at Laura, and other revered texts of national importance, adaptations are mostly limited... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  

RAKENROL Review
Rakenrol is a lot of firsts for its director, Quark Henares. It is his first feature film to be produced and directed independent of any major studio backing. It is his feature first film to be completely free from any... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  

ELEGY TO THE VISITOR FROM THE REVOLUTION Review
Originally planned as a one minute short for Nikalexis.MOV, a program of short films dedicated to the memory of slain critics Alexis Tioseco and Nika Bohinc that featured short works by directors like Raymond Red, Rico Maria Ilarde and Apichatpong... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  

ZOMBADINGS Review
If there's one thing a filmmaker needs to know about profitable filmmaking in the Philippines, it is to acknowledge that the only kind of filmmaking that actually earns money is genre filmmaking. If the film is not horror, comedy, romance,... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  

Cinemalaya 2011: CUCHERA Review
Joseph Israel Laban's Cuchera, a rightfully shocking exposé of the lives of low-rent drug mules, one of the drug mules, opens with the obligatory and totally unnecessary factoid on how there are so many Filipino drug mules who are still... More »
By Oggs Cruz   
  
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FEAR & LOATHING AT CANNES, PART 3: EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL AND I'M TRIPPING BALLS

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Interview: Twitch Talks to HANGOVER III's Ken Jeong

Ken Jeong may often play a lunatic on both big and small screen, but in person it's quite disarming to see just how calm and considerate he comes across. While he got his big screen start in Judd Apatow's Knocked Up, Jeong's real breakthrough was taking a small-on-paper role... More »

Hollywood Beat: Notes On Cutting The Cord And NBC's Genre Programs

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Twitchvision: Talking STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS, MUD and THE ICEMAN

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