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Bi-U-tiful!
The lady Gambit of the hour is played by a reel and real enchantress, Marian Rivera. She plays the dazzling Cara who has a tragic and mystifying past. The film starts with a flashback when Mount Pinatubo erupted and the young and naïve Cara has foreseen this in the tarot cards of her grandmother played by the legendary Gloria Romero. On New Year’s Eve, Cara feels she is being called by the whispery cards. As she lays it down, she manifests the knowledge that tragic events will happen.
The film is about fortunetelling. Ironically, the film cancels out the word fortune, and speaks. A few months back, I had my first tarot card reading session given by a lady who looks quite typical for her eerie profession. She introduces her craft more as psychotherapy. She prohibits questions that will be regarding health and death. I think it’s quite disreputable for her to tackle those things so it is really something to avoid. I am astounded that two films I have recently seen have tackled the misfortune. The other film is Ang Manghuhula by Paolo Herras. I could have bashed both films for their irregularities and being quite negligent with the repercussions it could get across to the viewers. But I assure you, both films have squeezed in other elements to make them realistic, imaginative and entertaining.
Years have passed; Cara decides to climb a mountain with his fiancé Miguel played by Dennis Trillo. They are lost in the forest side of the mountain and decide to stay in a cave for the night. When Cara wakes up, Miguel is nowhere to be found. Weeks have passed; there is no news of Miguel. Cara decides to get hold of the tarot cards of her grandmother to know where he is.
Cara seems to be highly intuitive with the things around her and this could be a great benefit on her part. I think, even without the tarot cards, you could see in her dazzling eyes the wisdom she has manifested. I think she might do a better acting foray in the horror genre like the role as Nieves in the Shake Rattle and Roll X than flaunting her comedic prowess in Desperadas 2 and even a hysterical drama stint in One True Love. But in Tarot, she has proven again that she shines. This could be a genre she is at home with and has saturated all the excesses of the melodramatic acting.
Tarot could be your next DVD purchase and could be relished for its worth especially if you crave for audience-oriented horror thrills. This film has been sprinkled with conflicts and twists, similiar to your well-liked flavored popcorn. But sometimes flavored writing needs some buffing up and polishing despite a contentment whether between the filmmaker and the studio or with the filmmaker himself. Still, it is every man to his taste. But my intuition says, Jun Lana’s writing is in best form in Sa Pusod ng Dagat by Marilou Diaz-Abaya. Charlie Koon's Rating: 
Go Girl! Girl Power!
The story is easy to follow through. There are four half-sisters, and all of them have chock-full of attitude problems. Courtney is played by the masa pleaser Marian Rivera. Her full-time problem is she dislikes having a baby despite being married to a not-so-hunky hunk husband Patrick (Will Devaughn). Isabella (Ruffa Gutierrez) is a matron who tries to control the career of her younger lover Vito (Jay-R). The suicidal Stephanie (Iza Calzado) is having a post-partum syndrome and picks a fight with everyone especially her husband Richard (TJ Trinidad). Patricia played by the wacky Rufa Mae Quinto gets troubled with her relationship with Congressman Fely played by Christian Vasquez.
Comparing all the characters, I personally think that Quinto’s character is adequately conveyed through the screen. Her trademark of dense humor will always be well-liked. But there is an extreme twist to the storyline. They have another half-sister who is played by Ogie Alcasid. She is Luga Luda, a tranny looking princess from the island of Kehwali in South Africa. She speaks gibberish but most of the time in an SMS way of conversing, I get the entire idea of it. Well, she is also desperate. She craves for twinks with an oblique carnivorous gusto.
Aside from their attitude which is compulsory in a way because of the film’s title, you can also see how women have discovered shopping for clothes and makeup makes them at ease. They smile throughout while sashaying in Bonifacio High Street. Not to mention that we are in a tropical country. They all looked glamorized under the unswerving heat of the sun. Despite their pathetic lives, they maintain a pretentious demeanor while they are strutting their stuff in public.
The technicalities for Desperadas 2 are nearing mediocrity. It looks rushed in most parts. Even dubbing is again evident with all the unsynchronized mouthing of words. Weaving the story of the dilemmas of these sisters looks nondescript. It appears to be sloppily written and the leverage for this kind of comedy is like the audience from the primordial times. It is not progressive at all. The comedy element in this film could not be defined even in various forms. It is opprobrious to the terms slapstick or burlesque for the dry humor it has given away.
I am sure that the lad paired with Luga Luda was ensorcelled. She has no redeeming loveliness in her. Despite the contrived goodness she has shown to her other sisters, we have to be reminded that she has carnivorous tendencies (literal sense) for crying out loud. And with the other women in this film, there is nothing that could be admired for their plight for being a free woman. It gives a negative light on womanhood and a shameful light on Filipino comedies especially to a jaundiced eye. There are other better comedy films than this. A film does not need any feministic concepts to make the film look pragmatic in context and superior in substance. Sometimes, it just causes a film to be very messy and hypocritical.
Charlie Koon's Rating: 
Your chest is so...
Migs (Dingdong Dantes) is a neurologist who is engaged to a nurse named Joyce (Marian Rivera). Upon announcing their engagement to his family, his sister Ara (Bianca King) immediately informed Migs' past girlfriend Bela (Iza Calzado) and advised her to go back to the Philippines. After the wedding, Migs becomes involved in a motorcycle crash and suffers isolated retrograde amnesia. During the time of his recovery, Migs has lost all memories of his wife Joyce. But instead, he chooses to unite again with Bela.
The premise is pretty interesting and it is the only good thing I can say in the film. I can also forgive the clichéd/formula story and plot devices they have adhered to for the past few decades. But it is beyond the pale if they have abused the formula itself. It is also given and yet it is still not cohesive. Migs has amnesia and yet he portrays his character that he also lost all his good values and manners. He acts like a puppet manipulated by the creative core of this film production. This is not love anymore as love gives reverence to the very essence of showing it. A person who suffers amnesia might be a little stressed and shows embarrassment but definitely not to the point of being rude. Even if the character’s neurologists explained the side effects, the actor’s execution is unbearable. Joyce is another problem as she embodies the maudlin expressions of empathy without reasonable gravity. She did at some point in time manage to get angry but it still does not advance the way she should deal with love as a matured individual. Anyway, she gets the sympathy which is entirely the idea of it. Although in the long run, a good story does not need any of this cheap gimmickry.
It is disheartening to watch a film more so a film that tackles the universal language of Love and hate to see everything it has offered. The quality of the technicalities is satisfactory but the other essential foundation has been laid into a dull and gloomy terrain. The acting of the two stars is disgusting to imbibe. Good thing that Calzado gives a performance that could be well regarded as a decent performance and even the character appears to be the paramour.
One True Love is not in any way true love and I am certain about it. I am glad to hear in the news that it did well in the box office even the entire production looks a bit low-cost. Hopefully the money they get in this film will be used again in making a film (hopefully a 'decent' one). Audiences are easy to please. With the theme love, it is more trouble-free as we get to feel it not exactly the same as when others feel it. It is always unique. One True Love has integrated the fantasy love formula that has been here for years. It could be shameful to use. But if it has the certain ‘it’, it will have magic and not an abysmal ending.Charlie Koon's Rating: 
Bi-U-tiful! 
