The Day Manny Pacquiao Poured Ketchup on my Plate

this guy, Manny Pacquiao, the newest Super Welterweight Champion offered me ketchup for my omelette in a one-on-one breakfast date, july 3, 2001...

manny paquiao has been blessed with a lot because he deserves it. before his career uphilled, he lost to a thailander [forgot his name] and came home defeated and practically almost had no chance to regain his career...

my two "kuyas" in the entertainment biz and the son of a former boxing legend [names concealed for anonymity] were proponents in reawakening the career of manny paquiao... and they weren't wrong. manny paquiao has shown promise and what he needed was just another shot at it. and wow! he did not fail them. he made it.

i met manny on two occasions. one, was when he was introduced to me by my kuyas and the son of the former boxing legend on the premise of planning for his first movie. the first one was in a restaurant in sgt. esguerra, near Abscbn with the three biz partners, the owner of the restaurant, myself and my ex-boyfriend. 

the second one was that day, july 3, 2001, breakfast in a hotel in mabini, a one-on-one, to talk about his life as a boxer that may be important details to develop the storyline of the film we were supposed to do that time. we both ate the same breakfast, american omelette and buttered toast, coffee for me and juice for him. he offered me ketsup for my omelette and even poured a good amount of it on my plate. i met jinky, his wife [whom i knew that day was one of twins] after manny and i ate breakfast and after jinky came down from their room.

the movie did not push through because all of a sudden, all of us became busy with separate projects and manny had to continue training. 

lapse of time...

manny was already flocked by lots of people who helped him on his way up. my two "kuyas" and the son of a former boxing legend became proud and happy for manny and let him go on. but as i've known, after every fight thereafter, manny paquiao, despite having met a lot of people, have always sent feelers to look for my kuyas and their friend with the intentions of a rejoinder; a lunch perhaps, or a dinner at least.

this only proves one thing. manny paquiao has always kept his feet on the ground and has never been swayed by fame and fortune. he knows how to look back...

hmmm... i was told that we may meet with him again in the near future... who knows?

...maybe the World Champ will still pour ketchup on my plate for another round of american omelette soon...

to manny paquiao, congratulations. it is a well-earned and well-deserved victory... as always :)

GROWN UPS: something you can relate to... BUT...

GROWN UPS is, well... mediocre.  But it is something that I could truly relate to.  My college friends and I recently had our reunion and I tell ya, the jokes were like 15 years old, yet it still sounded as fresh as when we were all in the campus of our University together.  So in that sense, I could relate to the movie.

Okay, so Grown ups is all about five friends namely Lenny Feder (Adam Sandler), Eric Lamonsoff (Kevin James), Kurt McKenzie (Chris Rock), Marcus Higgins (David Spade), and Rob Hilliard (Rob Schneider), from their high school, if i remember it right (although they looked more like four graders to me), who has won the only basketball championship for a once care-giver-turned  coach (Blake Clark) who have reunited after 30 years during the funeral of their beloved coach.  They continued the reunion for a 4th of July weekend at a wonderful, memories-filled lakehouse in New England.  Sandler became a big hotshot star agent who married a fashion queen Roxanne Chase-Feder  (Salma Hayek) with two kids, both boys, who have epitomized how kids of today take a more sedentary lifestyle with the advent of electronic gadgetry that most of the rich could afford.  James presented himself to his friends as a co-owner of a furniture business but at the end finally admitted that he just rented his car for the weekend and that he got laid off his job with his wife Sally (Maria Bello) who continually breastfeeds their youngest son at four years old.  Rock became a house husband to his wife Deanne (Maya Rudolf) and is in constant heckling and ridicule by his wife's momma, Mama Rozoni (Ebony Jo-Ann).  Spade on the other hand is still single is always bummed-out drunk.  Schneider also called Rob in this movie (the writers had name shortage in this film?) always had had his kicks on older women even since high school and has married Gloria  (Joyce Van Patten, who is incidentally, Dennis Dugan's, the director's ex-wife who also has a May-December, 11-year age diff), a mature horny yet mild-mannered woman specializing in alternative health methods who postponed her cataract surgery just to support her husband get through the mourning at the funeral .

Over-all, the movie has succeeded in a way to convey the nostalgia felt during reunions and the fact that most reunions normally are during funerals or accidents (well at least NOT with my University friends, thank God!) but like I said the movie was mediocre and I expected more from this movie than it just seemingly to be a high resolution video tape of the reminiscing past.

It has a soft-boiled plot that dragged along the lines of reliving the past, the jokes, the humor and the fun being kids and in the finale almost left me agog when all of a sudden, couple and family issues were being thrown out like an open forum.  It could have been done better and it could actually work if the build up within the movie was more evident so that it wouldn't come out as thin and trying hard in the end.

Well, one nice thing about the movie is the way the actors equally share the limelight and have their own shining (if not very shining moments) whether it was to be slapped on the cheek with a dehydrated banana or something else.  The story tries to combine humor and drama (drama? what drama?) but never was successful.  A story must always have a conflict.  It is a standard requirement.  There were several minor conflicts yet never builds up to a resolution.  There were scenes are are so crapped up long taking up precious air time but when taken out of the movie, would never even affect it or the story, which was not too much.  Humor was so utterly slapstick; toilet humor, man-boob-penis jokes that are overly and poorly done and well, makes it dragging and in a word, 'blah'.

On the good side though is that it tackles the values regarding the family and addressing the issue of the more sedentary lifestyle of kids nowadays compared to kids of yesteryears.  It teaches interaction and increasing the children's social skills and not to be too addicted to electronic gadgetry in order for them to totally enjoy what it is to really be a kid.  For that, I recommend seeing the movie. Cinematography and lighting is simple which is good because it fits the simplicity of the movie too.  Production design is realistic. Script continuity had a bit of a problem with discontinuous scenes like when Higgins fell into poop that covered his front and totally his face in the 'arrow-roulette' scene yet the next sequence which was supposed to be a continuous scene, the poop was gone and he was clean.  Lapse of time? No.

In a nutshell, the movie will make you laugh a bit and will actually entertain if your only purpose is to watch and be entertained.  If it is in your nature to critique movies, then this can be a disappointment as it can be so mundane.  

-Ace Aenlle Cruz-LuAllen

Somethin' is cookin' Part Deux

well well well again.

now it is 2010 and is the year of the Metal Tiger... Advanced Kung Hei Fat Choi to everyone...

it was a good year last 2009 (and a busy one, obviously because i wasn't able to blog here for a year :(

NETREPRENEUR/MEGAPRENEUR Magazine was born under RedLogos Publishing, my newest twin babies. It is a 2-in-1 flipside business-lifestyle magazine that is a must-read for those WHO WANT TO GET RICH. A lot of tips, great features (usually of the rags-to-riches type) are splashed through its pages.

It is unique.

And so, the Director is now and Editor (in-chief, that is...) but she would still sit on her Director's Chair soon enough before anyone can say... 'Action!'

Somethin' is cookin'...

well, well, well... it shall be the Year of the Ox by February '09 and whaddya know?

IT'S GONNA BE MY YEAR.

and somethin' is cookin'... smokin'...

maybe my director's chair will be out of the closet soon. but then again, the cosmic forces might just try to negate whatever that is i desire.

and so, i ain't tellin'...

soon, though...

i might just be scarin' everyones wits out. ;)

boo!

TWILIGHT. Cinematically Intriguing. Predictable Plot.

Twilight is a movie top-billed by Harry Potter’s Goblet of Fire Cedric Diggory, Robert Pattinson and is based on the novel by Stephanie Meyer. It is a first of a series; after Twilight comes New Moon then The Eclipse and lastly, Breaking Dawn. I haven’t read the book yet like what I do with the Potter movies; I normally read the book first and see the movie next but I hadn’t had the luxury of time because of pressing time-dictating work load, so I decided to see the movie first instead.

In essence, the movie’s plot was quite predictable because of its simplicity. There is no clear-cut indication that Bella Swan [portrayed by Kristen Stewart], the mortal female lead and Edward Cullins, the immortal vampire male lead were really soulmates in the its exact context [or maybe yet, maybe it was clear in the book but wasn’t too established on film due to limited film running time], but what was clear was that a different and stronger form of love was able to transcend the norms of the ‘normal’ boy-meets-girl-then-the-two-fell-in-love ways of the mortal world.

It also talks about family and family ties; of how Bella tries to juggle herself with her estranged parents and how Edward had to deal with his being different and risks introducing a potential ‘risk’ to their kind’s real secret identity.

What was consistent though was the concept of acceptance. Acceptance was seen in a lot of forms in the story. Acceptance of family estrangements, acceptance of the fact that there are other higher forms of beings co-existing in this planet that could be considered higher than humans and acceptance that even in difference, there springs love.

I think that the ‘vampiric’ concept of the story is more just a backgrounder to the story and was done in the way the movie Titanic was done. The sinking of the Titanic was a real occurrence and served as backdrop to an intriguing love story that could have happened while all the hoola-baloo from stating that the Titanic was an unsinkable ship until its tragic going-under. The love story between Jack and Rose made the Titanic sinking have a human interest angle; that love can come even in the event of a tragedy. That loving someone does not just arrive in the most beautiful of moments. That love can come during highly impossible situations and that these terse situations could actually spur the ‘magic’ and reinforce the love already felt between two people. Although it is widely believed that vampire existence is a myth and the vampire concept is merely simply a part of most cultural folklores, we can say that the love story between Bella and Edward became spicier and more reinforced by a highly-intriguing and curiosity-piqued ‘of the fictional unknown and the supernatural’.

Robert Pattinson is a natural. His smirks. His eyes. They talk. His low, husky voice strengthened his portrayal of a vampire.He is as gorgeous as Stuart Townsend when he portrayed Lestat in the Queen of the Damned. Both look more gorgeous when they are pale-looking blood-sucking hunks [hehe, a nifty side-comment here… I just couldn’t resist, lmao!]

Cinematography was good, Production design was simple because all sets and props were mirroring reality. Lighting was great except during scenes with CG Effects that very flimsy mismatch the actual set in terms of texture and lighting distribution. The script and story continuity was highly satisfactory yet there were flaws in some of the sequences. Mostly minor ones, though, like with a single brush of Bella’s fingers with Edward, Bella recoiled because of his too cold feel. But when Edward finally shook hands with Bella’s dad, his dad never flinched a bit. Did he not feel his cold touch?

If the viewer is an avid vampire or Dracula fan, you’d get a little bit disappointed because there is nothing much extraordinary about the movie’s vampiric portrayals and presentations here. If you go for gory stuff, this movie is not for you.

The film actually presented the concept of the vampire in is basic presentation common to most vampire movies except those movies with costumed vampires sleeping in coffins with bulging fangs and sleek, middle parted hair. A lot of the more modern and recent vampire movies also portray the vampire modernly and less monstrous compared to movies of the same concept a decade or so back; we can notice now that in more modern portrayals, vampires aren’t afraid of the dark anymore and can reflect in mirrors that they can mingle with humans more obviously without having to worry that the sun might melt them or dissolve in a quick splash of Holy H20.

Edward Cullins in Twilight is your modern-age vampire; more human and more feeling.

At the end of the open-ended film [which is already indicative of the sequel; indeed three more books to go], there was a question hanging: Would you make a drastic decision to change who and what you are to be with the one you love?

For some, it is a hard question like addressing religion issues before marriage.

But then, I ask…“Would you or wouldn’t you?”

still having a taste of my burger...

yeah i know i miss being behind the camera.

but advertising has its perks.

unendless invites to functions, mostly still showbiz in nature, judging beauty contests [latest was the Search for Manila's Hottest Buns of Bar One Crowne Plaza and FHM] watching 'em girls strut and jiggle their 'buns' [up and down, mind you] at wee hours of the morning. This search was made possible to launch Bar One's GIANT HAMBURGER: 2 pounds of ground beef, egg and crispy bacon and two damn big buns! that's around 3 pounds of sinful treat.

the burger costs Php 850. and if you are a sucker for punching the calculator, trying to determine if the price is cost-efficient enough, i guarantee it is!

if you are going to Bar One, make sure you have at least 7 friends with you. have the burger sliced into 8 equal pieces and u end up with a slice that is bigger than a quarter pounder. the bread is heavy enough, the patty is awesome. that's roughly Php 106 on equal sharing with your friends. cheaper than going into the top local fastfoods around. and you are eating in a hotel. what a holiday!

this event was sponsored by the scents company i am currently handling advertising and promotions for.

so i guess, for some, they can't have their cake and eat it too.

but i am still having a taste of my own burger...

burp.

MISSING THINGS...

I miss a lot of things.

I miss sitting on my old director's chair, viewing my monitors, barking instructions over my headset.

I miss looking into the camera lens and trying to translate descriptions in the script into the technical view to make it palatable to the taste of the viewing public.

I miss writing screenplays.

I miss the veterans and oldies of showbiz who have become my mentors. Most of them are dead.

I miss stretching out on those 'tindahan-style-bangkos' that you have no choice but to lie your back on in remote shooting locations.

I miss eating with the production crew with their 'ga-ulo ng pusang subo' of food in trays.

I miss the toxic post-prod editings, dubbings and sound mixing. Hard to make sure that lip movement matches the voice.

I miss the walk-out scenes when I am pissed off artists who think they are larger than life.

I miss my power belt bag that I often use in shoots. Inside it: smokes and lighter (that I prolly unconsciously 'borrowed' from a crew member but never returned), a nifty pocket notebook (that has scribbles that haven't been read again) , pen (that I prolly unconsciously got from the Production Assistant), crumpled receipts (of course! for reimbursement purposes; to roll funds to get me another tall, caramel macchiato, java chip or moccha frap) and a small bottle of 70% isopropyl alcohol (not only for hand sanitation but more importantly to pour into eekie yucchy public toilet bowls that you have no choice but to use under very, very pressing situations; instant sanitation-after pouring into the bowl rim, light immediately with the lighter and voila! Some germs and bacteria, dead. Not all of it though...but at least...naman!)

I don't know if I would be able to do another film here or abroad in the near future. Film making in the Philippines is locked to a chosen few who have millions for production and promotions.

Until then, my chair shall be inside my closet. Dusty, sad and waiting for that chance to finally feel my big buns stretching the seams again...