DAYO! Watchi it :)

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Animation

Different, Well made, Funny, Simple, Culture Related, Nationalism Involved, Pride of Pinoys - It is worth your money. Watch It! Support the Filipino Animators! :)

I could have given it a perfect 5 stars, but part of the script was just too "hardsell" of the sponsored product and I just don't like the idea of the Taglish (medyo malandi) speaking characters so much - although I do understand that most children nowadays just speak that way.

If there was a movie in the MMFF that I was most excited about it's BALER (which I haven't seen by the way). Kuya Dencio, who is part of Baler's production team has excited me with all his pictures and the fact that it's a Mark Meily already sold the idea of it to me. Dayo however I didn't hear much of. Sad. This movie wasn't really part of my "To Watch" movies of MMFF simply because I didn't even know that it was part of MMFF.

We started with the movie Dayo because we knew that the other movies will be a hit to most people and the idea of flocking the cinema with them just didn't excite us. Better to start with a movie that wasn't marketed that well, but seemed interesting enough. And a Filipino ANIMATED movie, how can you go wrong? It being an animated movie made me think that maybe, the movie house will still be full because of the holidays and the parents would bring their children to see movies. But it was such a sad sight to enter the movie house and see sooo many EMPTY seats. seriously?!

Dayo is very much a FILIPINO MOVIE. I love that the storyline is very simple for children to easily understand. Bubuy (the lead characted) needed to enter the kingdom of Elementalia where folklores like the Mananaggal, Tikbalang, Kapre, Tiyanaks, Syokoy, etc live to be able to save his grandparents who were eaten up by the Giant Balete Tree.

Bubuy's adventure circles around his quest to find the ingredients for the potion that will save his grandparents from the bondage of the balete tree. In his quest he meets friends, discovers things and other creatures and finds the "brave one" trapped in him. It's A WINNER STORYLINE for kids and kids at heart. I love how the usual "bad" aswangs and folklore creatures were not portrayed as their usual selves in the movie. To begin with, Bubuy's bestfriend in the movie is a young Manananggal. And the ANIMATION is No Bad at all. It was well made.

I only know of 3 Filipino animated movies - Isko, Urduja and this Dayo. I wasn't able to see Urduja but I have to say that there is just great improvement of animation from Isko which was in late 90's or was it early 2000?

Kudos to the popular stars who gave their voices for the characters, led by Nash Aguas as Bubuy, in Dayo. MichaelV and Pokwang were there for comic relief. :) Nova Villa and Noel Trinidad were lovely grandparents and lookout for Johnny Delgado too. :) And John Manzano was just so easy to spot right from the very start of the movie.

On the not so good side
*Ok, ok, they could have been more imaginative with the name of the underworld that ELEMENTALIA. But what can they do a lot of the better names have already been used by other shows and movies - Encantadia, Eteria, etc.
*Hardsell of a couple of sponsored products. Other product placements were really good and the flying around metro manila with all the billboards of the sponsors deserves a thumbs up for creativity - but a couple of products just had to get so much airtime, it ruined the movie. But it had to be done because I know they were paying well.

WATCH IT! :)

Pause . . . and Say a Prayer

I was planning to blog about something else when I logged on to Multiply tonight. But the recent news in Iligan has prompted me to write about something else, write about my dear Iligan - my most recent home.

2 bombs exploded today, midday in 2 of the groceries in a busy street in Iligan. I only went inside Unicity (one of the shopmarts) once or twice but Jerry's, the other shopmart, was a place Hannah (my british counterpart) and I went to a lot. And it's situated along our road home, whether by jeepney or when we just walk. It's so close to "home."

I guess the decision for the GX team that followed us to change communities was a good move, I can only imagine if they're in Iligan right now - only in their 1st week.

3 people are confirmed dead while about 48 are injured. All civilians.

President GMA apparently was scheduled to go there tomorrow so they are linking the bombing with her "arrival." But it still doesn't make sense; such violence will not make sense.

Twilight

Rating:	★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Other

A good number of my friends who have read the book and watched the movie were very much disappointed with the movie. I wasn't quite shocked because I normally am disappointed with movies based on books anyway - so far the Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia are the only ones which haven't extremely disappointed me. Those who have not read the book enjoyed the movie but not to the point of overly praising it. Their reviews, and the others by movie critics, lessened my eagerness to catch the movie. An invitation from my cousin Bianca to see it (2nd time for her) nevertheless still brought excitement.

Warning to My cousins (and others) who LOVED The Movie, especially Sofie and Bianca, you might not like what I have to say. But I think my review is more objective because I don't find Robert Pattinson (ed cullen in the movie) that hot. hehehe.

It was OK. It wasn't grand, it wasn't great, the fight scenes weren't awesome but I wasn't majorly disappointed.

The book to begin with has always been more focused on the love story of Bella and Ed, the movie also stayed true to that. And that made it quite cheesy for me. I admit, there was chemistry/kilig factor between the actors, but the development of their attraction and love for each other was just way too fast, it was lacking some depth that would've made me fall in love as well. They could've added more of their love-hate relationship, or some more scenes that...I don't know, there was just something lacking there, I can't find better words just yet.

Fight scenes! They could've had more of those. It's a vampire movie afterall, you gotta have more suspense, more thrill with the fight scenes. It was a bit similar to "burn after reading," the exciting scenes weren't sustained. Too bad, I found the actor who played JAMES quite hot! ;) And JACOB is a cutie too. I can't wait to read New Moon, Bianca said it's more about JACOB.

I didn't like that the Ending had to be o so sappy and happy. The ending in the book was way better - it was intriguing and exciting. They could've done the same with the movie.

3Stars - glad I waited to watch it here in Davao. Because the price for one ticket in Manila is equal to 2 here in Davao. But I can understand the love of Robert Pattinson fans for this movie. He is quite dreamy, scary and very vampire like here. He was very effective as ED, but the actors who played EMMETT, JAMES and JACOB are more of my type. :)