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marco-mendoza777
Reviews
Ligalig (2006)
Cesar Montano, please don't make a fool out of us.....
Having received an "A" from the Philippines' Cinema Evaluation Board (CEB) I immediately became excited to see this movie. After 20 minutes or so, I realized that I had been fooled: I have already seen this movie. No, not exactly This Movie, but a French movie called High Tension, directed by the superb Alexandre Aja. For those of you who are aware of the said film's ending, then babing! there is Ligalig's highly confidential climax (news reports revealed that the stars and the crew of Ligalig were required to sign a contract that restricts them from revealing the film's plot twist).
Anyway, if I am going to watch a highly effective slasher film's rip-off, then it must be a better version. I should at least get my money's worth.
Aside from this, the film also suffers from MTV-style editing and shots and angles that are supposed to be new in Philippine Cinema, but these end up getting tired as they become more repetitive as the film progresses.
4 our of 10 stars.
Basic Instinct 2 (2006)
On its own the movie is passable; Compared to the 1st movie, it just sucks.
The immense dissing Basic Instinct 2 is getting even before its release makes me go say "Hmmmmm...." My take on it is that the issues were just blown out of proportion. I think Basic Instinct 2 is a passable film with a good story and is just a victim of snowballed negative emotions. I'm beginning to feel like to give Basic Instinct 2 a bad bad bad review is somehow cool and there's this need for reviewers to join the bandwagon. It has become the easy target when there are worse films out there. Before I saw the film, i rarely found an objective review (NOTE: I said objective, not positive, because even though I am aiming for objectivity, I cannot say that Basic Instinct 2 is a perfect film, as mentioned earlier, it is passable).
(SPOILER ALERT) I liked the story's twists and how Catherine Tramell's evil schemes and cunning caused the disintegration of Michael Glass. It seems that after all these years, Ms. Tramell has just gotten better deceit-wise.
I agree that the film lacked eroticism and I think that the London setting did not help: It just lacks the sleaze and the lusty atmosphere of California in the first film.
If this film has been shown earlier, say 3-5 years after the first installment, then things would have been way different.