Poetry under fire Noel Vera Once there was an actor-animator named Paul Grimault and a screenwriter-poet named Jacques Prevert who became friends, then ...
Annecy Award Winners The French Embassy was kind enough to lend me the tapes of the Annecy Winners, and they're a wonderful holiday treat--incredibly varied,...
Jan Svankmajer's "Moznosti Dialogu" (Dimensions of Dialogue, Czech Republic, 1982) Considered by some to be his masterpiece, the twelve-minute film is divided...
Bruce unfunny Noel Vera Jim Carrey's latest picture "Bruce Almighty" turns on an ingenious premise: what if Jim Carrey, star of the "Ace Ventura" films and ...
The Matrix O'erloaded (Please note: plot discussed in close detail) I never thought the original "Matrix" was the hottest thing since pancakes; this sequel...
Flower Power Noel Vera Filmmakers Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman's "Adaptation" is, to summarize the seemingly unsummarizeable, all about...
Song and dance Noel Vera Gil Portes' "Munting Tinig" (Small Voices) is about a teacher (Alessandra de Rossi) who arrives at a backwater town as substitute for...
"T3" or not "T3?" Noel Vera "Terminator 2" (or "T2" as people liked to call it) was a step up the ladder of Cameron's monumental megalomania. It was his...
Many faces of Eve Noel Vera The tagline of Marc Munden's "Miranda" goes "smartsexydangerous…" which is about as clever as the movie gets. Christina Ricci...
Little girl lost By Noel Vera (Note: plot of film discussed in close detail) Hayao Miyazaki's " Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi" (Spirited Away, 2001), about the...
Baa Boys Noel Vera Okay. The deal went something like this: two movies were opening this week: Hideo Nakata's "Dark Water" and Michael Bay's "Bad Boys 2." For...
Comatose women, non-stop parties, and more Noel Vera From August 7 to 13 it's Cinemanila time again, and again the organizers have come up with a whole...
The Mickey Mouse Club Noel Vera I haven't read Alan Moore's "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" (comic books are an expensive hobby), but I have read enough...
Kiddie rides Noel Vera One thing you can say about Robert Rodriguez, he has the courage to push his basic concept to its logical conclusion: since the films ...
Sinbad the Snowboard Dude Noel Vera Dreamworks' "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas" tells of a young pirate named Sinbad who attempts to steal a glowing blue...
Mortal combat Noel Vera "The Medallion" is all about, well, this pair of medallions that when put together grants eternal life (superhuman powers included at ...
Men from Mars, women from Venus Noel Vera Ray Lawrence's "Lantana" is a strange, hothouse creature: like the plant that gives it its title, it holds delicate...
One too many times in Mexico Noel Vera Robert Rodriguez's "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" is supposed to be the sequel to his previous action flick "Desperado"...
Ordinary People By Noel Vera (Please note: plot discussed in close detail) Roberto Rossellini's "Rome, Open City" begins with a précis of Roman life under...
Dumb and dumberer Noel Vera You wonder why they ever made a sequel to "American Psycho," Mary Harron's screen adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis' infamous...
Recipe for horror Noel Vera Singer-songwriter-impresario turned filmmaker Rob Zombie's debut film "House of 1,000 Corpses" is famous for having been shelved by...
The quite American Noel Vera Graham Greene nowadays never seems to dominate our attention, yet never seems to totally leave it, either. After a recent major ...
Life is but a dream Noel Vera Shinichiro Watanabe's "Cowboy Bebop" is, I think, a bit different from most anime out there (had to add an "I think" because...
Delhi drizzle Noel Vera Mira Nair's "Monsoon Wedding" is that blandest of the bland: a generic, feel-good, conventionally-shaped-and-told catchall of an ...
In the navy by Noel Vera Despite the rather dry title, "Master and Commander," Peter Weir's uncommonly good adaptation of Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey novels ...
Looney toons Noel Vera Perhaps the best compliment one can pay to this latest film of Joe Dante ("Gremlins," "Small Soldiers") is that it evokes, more than any...
Tolerable comedy Noel Vera Joel and Ethan Coen's "Intolerable Cruelty" is the brothers' latest, more-or-less sincere attempt at mainstream acceptance, a...
Two fantasies by Gerardo de Leon: "Sanda Wong" and "Sawa sa Lumang Simboryo" Noel Vera Gerry De Leon's "Sanda Wong" (1955), has been lost for years; only ...
Manila, at the edge of water Noel Vera Mario O'Hara's "Babae sa Breakwater" (Woman of the Breakwater) is about the community of people living along the Manila...
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