The Desolation of Smaug

The Retelling Of The Tale: Stories

I enjoyed “The Hobbit“. It was as if the two hours and forty-something minutes was too short to have had the pleasure of taking part in an adventure.

Not because of the HFR, nor the excellent cast and locations, although these aspects of the movie did add to the  joy of watching and unravelling the whole Middle Earth tales and adventures. It was the way the stories were retold by Peter Jackson, or the visuals the whole outfit created this beautiful, sprawling, I should say, rambling place full of character and characters, if you know what I mean.

Middle Earth inspired sketch

But I always get ahead of myself. Maybe because I woke up in the middle of night and felt the need to write these thoughts down.

Let me tell you something first about my love for stories.

Zombadingerzeepocolips

Patayin sa Shokot si Remington

This is something that took me off guard, and a wild movie experience. Not that I saw this in a theater, but nowadays I seldom do line up and buy tickets, because, frankly, the whole movie experience has been a struggle with noisy, impatient audience, idifferent projectionists (or digital operators since real projectionists are rare nowadays), and a whole lot of hype. I may have to watch this one again, because like a book, the first screening is for the bulk of it, the second reading  is for the attention to detail, and the rest is just plain fun.

Ok, enough of that. I was looking for a movie to watch on YouTube. Since Google acquired the service, it has grown to be quite good, even better, but they should take down those awful comments, but that is another thing entirely.

First off – this is an Indie. I could tell from the non-commercial feel starting with the opening scenes. And that is not a bad thing really, because it has the gritty and blurry-film, not the too-crisp handheld cam TV soap operas and most movies have lately. The movie has that old-school feel to it.  The red scarf nearly got me choking on Potato Fries, I was chuckling so hard, bits came out of my nose. I was having fun and that was just 12 minutes into the movie.  The lines are good, smalltown flavor. Righ off I could smell Longganisang Lucban, and the whole time I was pinned (well, almost, I was having coffee, munching on fries and folding some clothes,from my morning laundry) and that makes it more fun.

A crow just slammed into the mayor’s window. Ha ha!  Mimi (Miles Kanapi) does some real good guffaw-inspiring quick liners. Woo-hoo! Fe (Janice De Belen) in her straight-man routine is stoic-funny. Hannah (Lauren Young) is an exact image of what we boys visualize Lucbanen Girls when we were young – beautiful, strong-willed, and unattainable. Mrs.Montano (Eugene Domingo) as always, gets her askew character down pat. The all too familiar Lucban setting contributed to that close-to-home feeling and the bizarre side of an otherwise sleepy town, but visit this place during Pahiyas and it’s another story entirely.

Remington

There was a clear buildup. And then there were the series of unfortunate events. I don’t even want to question why the absurdity of the transformation of Remington. It’s their story and I’m just a listener being regaled by the events. Hilarious! When the dead began to rise, I was sure what was going to happen and that pose – snapshot! – scene really brought me down, and I was laughing out of my wits! In a way, it’s something that could come out of a Stephen King book.

I thank Raymond Lee and Jade Castro for adding some translations to the movie. it sure is helpful to know what the current lingo is. And I enjoyed this movie., because it has the courage to poke fun at ourselves, the homophobia, the misconceptions, the fabulousness all went into this bundle. In a way, they have shown the ills, the fear of the heterosexuals, the hidden agendas behind beauty pageants, our own bigotry and sexism. That seance with Roderick Paulate had me laughing so hard I had to redo my folding. All fun, bits and pieces, the smalltown accents, Leandro Baldemor’s death, and the geek who invented the gaydar. Come on, if these things are not humorous, then, I don’t know what is.

And there was a narration right down to the credits, because it stated a fact that is true, we only learned to diss homosexuals after the Spaniards, those defenders of machoness, came into out land. Babaylans are regarded as the Spirit Bridge, with their beings having both foot in the spirit world and our own.

How’s that for a fun movie?

Go see it, if you haven’t already.

For the full list of the cast and crew, you might want to check out HERE

Image Credits:

http://geisermaclang.com/2011/08/23/rampa%C2%A0with-the-zombadings-and-survive-the-zomba-invasion/

http://www.pinoygigs.com/blog/tag/zombadings/