Star Cinema's In My Life - Something to Watch Out For

Wow, John Lloyd Cruz is the man! That was what I thought after seeing the full trailer of "In My Life" yesterday. He was so into his character. He was so gay - aaaw! Now this is the kind of film that has the makings of succeeding in the tilts. It was so natural. There seems to be no pretensions.

Unlike "And I Love You So," "In My Life" focused on the story so after seeing the trailer, you will know if you are going to watch it or not. "And I Love You So" tried convincing people that it was a good film by bombarding us with so many "too good to be true" dialogues and lines which were said by the characters in the film. As a moviegoer, I wouldn't be convinced to see the film just because Bea or Connie or Sam said the most cheesy line I have ever heard my entire life. They got so engrossed in looking for these lines that they forgot to market the film in a way that it would be appreciated by many, just like how "In My Life" is currently doing.

I haven't seen Bea's film and I don't have any plans. It did not offer anything new. Even Bea appeared to be old with the kind of story. We've seen same acting from Bea in her past films. They should have given her something different, like what they have let John Lloyd tackle in his new film.

But I may be wrong, maybe it clicked like what is being announced on ABS CBN shows lately. And even if it flopped, people would only attribute that to the fact that the movie wasn't shown on SM cinemas.

Another thing that makes "In My Life" a stand-out as compared with "And I Love You So" was the right pairing of John Lloyd and Ms. Vilma Santos. They owned the screen and the film that even if sometimes I get distracted by Luis Manzano's amateurish attack on his role, especially when he was crying to his mom (ampanget nya umiyak hehe!), I forget about him immediately after seeing scenes with both John Lloyd and Vilma.

The only thing that must be resolved right now is the conflict between SM and Star Cinema. They should act on it fast because they will both lose big time if "In My Life" will suffer from the same fate as "And I Love You So."

And I Love You So - Another Flop in the Making?

All those who think that the upcoming Star Cinema flick, And I Love You So, will become a hit, please raise your hands. This film is very important to Bea Alonzo's career. The first time she has tried to veer away with her team-up with John Lloyd, via Dream Boy with Piolo Pascual, it was a flop. This can be attributed to the fact that even they were big TV and film stars at the time, they did not have the magic and chemistry when paired up.

The other half of Bea (in TV and films), John Lloyd Cruz, was able to succeed even without his perennial love team. The John Lloyd and Sarah Geronimo team-up used the old kilig concept of love that opposites attract that made them Box Office King and Queen.

Now that Bea is once again trying to prove that she can make it without John Lloyd, I doubt that this film is the material for such goal. It would already be shown some time this month, but until now, I still can't get what the story is all about. What they are trying to market at this point is that Bea was bolder in this film, literally. I don't think that would help much to convince the female moviegoers that they should give this a try.

Sam, Sam, Bea is with Sam Milby in this film. I don't know about his fans, but I don't like his current appearance, especially his hair. He doesn't look tidy anymore. In terms of magic, Star Cinema could have tried to place Anne Curtis instead of Bea. The other leading man, Derek Ramsay, would not help much to the success of this film. The guy is plainly overexposed. He really has a good backer, er, manager, for him to land good roles both in TV and films even though he doesn't have as much following as his other contemporaries.

Star Cinema should really think hard about their lineup. After T2 did not do well in the tills, they've shown another horror flick, Villa Estrella. I suppose that the latter did not do any well in terms of earnings because I've never heard anything after it was shown. This was due to the fact that the actors of the said film are still not capable of making it big in films, because they also haven't proven their worth on TV either.

And now comes Bea's film, And I Love You So. Is this going to break the flop curse for Star Cinema? I think that Bea has enough following for the movie to earn some, but not as big as expected.

I just hope that Star Cinema would soon utilize actors that people want to see in films. Enough of Derek Ramsay and Jake Cuenca, please. And they should also be able to give memorable stories with unique plot points that will make people want to see the films after they have seen some snippets and teasers of these.