What else is there to do when you’re stuck at home throughout the start of the year to the last month of 2020? Watch/stream/do your daily chores.. but mostly, dry your eyes from binge watching from.. Netflix! 😆
Other than this year’s Cinemalaya, which I only streamed just so I can watch Anita Linda’s last movie. The last movies I watched from Netflix that are worth writing about are these two..
Alter Me starring Jasmine Curtis-Smith and Enchong Dee (3.5/5) (Netflix Philippines)
Mmmm… the trailer gave me way too much expectations and I was left a little unamused by the end of it.
As much as I can, I try to support whatever Enchong does in his career but some of his stuff sometimes goes back to the times when he’s just starting out. Those roles where he is one half of those loveteam couples in a TV show, where if the couple succeeds to capture hearts of millions of their fans, they will be catapulted to being a mainstream power loveteam and they’ll gain a movie deal.. that sort of thing. Same thing that happened to the KX (who later slowed down and became irrelevant as a loveteam, but still well-known in their own solo careers), KN (still ongoing on and offscreen, relevant), and LQ (another relevant loveteam as of this post).
With that said, I am happy that he was paired up with Jasmine. A new change of perspective is what I’d like to think of this. Number one is that he is paired off with someone outside his home network, and number two is the explicitness of this character in this genre apart from his usual love/comedy films from the past. Who would have expected to see him move like that in a Filipino film, yeah? The ending, however, was quite a surprise for me.
I just don’t want him to be a typecast actor in these usual roles as a boyfriend, the other man, a lover, the one who saves the woman, a guy who has been loving someone for many years and never got to move on — anything that puts his character in that position. I really like more of his movies and TV shows where he is playing a character that does not have to depend on another character, or on another person if he were in a loveteam. I would like him to play an independent character in the future.
For some reason, while I watched Alter Me, I felt like that I was watching a mature Lloyd from The Reunion (one of his movies in 2012, trailer above). In that movie, he was in highschool, has a crush on a girl, never got to move on even when he graduated and started working he was still daydreaming and having what ifs in his head with this girl he never confessed to. In Alter Me, it felt like I am watching Lloyd all grown up from being young, to being older (knowing better and won’t be making the same mistake) and into more aggressive methods of making love (especially in the start of the movie). But comedy scenarios cannot be absent in most of our loveteam movies here. For lack of a better term to describe it, the funny/lol scenes left a wrong impression for me, I felt like most of them didn’t need to be there; it felt like it was forced to be there to satiate our interest to watch the entire film from start to end.
Watchmen starring Malin Akerman, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode (4/5) (Netflix Japan)
I was speechless after watching this movie.. that’s all. HAHAHAHAHA. Effects and cinematography blah blah blah looked great, as always, this is a film from Hollywood of course. Storyline was amazing! I loved Dr. Manhattan. Rorschach and The Comedian here. Laurie and Nite Owl for me felt like the villains of this story and not Ozymandrias.. She just wanted to make love to Dr. Manhattan all the time and when she couldn’t have that, she flew over to Nite Owl. Maybe they were a thing in the past of whatever, maybe he liked her but couldn’t go against Dr. Manhattan. I have tried to watch this film a lot of times in the past but I couldn’t get past that scene where Laurie got so angry at Dr. Manhattan I had to stop watching it, that was years ago. So, I’m glad I had all the time to be patient and watch the whole movie this time.
Since the movie was flawless, I was expecting the TV series from HBO to be as good. As it turned out it did not even get to 1% of my expectations. One episode is equivalent to “nope, won’t be following this show”. I looked at the cast listing and the woman from Cinderella Story (starring Hilary Duff) is a main cast on it. Is this TV series still on TV??
Movie version is definitely better. Shortened in 3 hours, but it’s all you need. This movie is a worth it to be watched if you ask me.
Disclaimer: I do not follow the graphic novel or know the backstory of this movie, I’m just a casual watcher. What got me into this movie in the first place is this song from the Smashing Pumpkins used in the trailer below. Hence, that is why I have been on a loop listening from this band after watching this movie.
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