12 Philippine Showbiz Today
Cover Story
January 8 - 21, 2019
Jack Em Popoy more credible than Vic and
Coco’s previous entries
VIC Sotto’s filmfest entries
before were all sloppily-made
fantasy comedies but still, people
flocked to them. After Vice Ganda
started eclipsing him at the box
office, he’s been trying to come
up with more sensible filmfest
entries like “My Little Bossings”
with Kris Aquino in 2013 and “My
Bebe Love” with AlDub love team
in 2015.
In 2016, he gave Enteng
Kabisote one last try in “The
Abangers” and it became obvious
that Enteng has really lost its magic
as it was buried in the avalanche
of Vice Ganda’s highly successful
“Super Parental Guidance”. Both
films were rejected by Metro
Filmfest screening committee so
they were actually shown before
the festival proper.
Last year, he did “Meant to
Beh” that is a fairly entertaining
family comedy with Dawn Zulueta
but still clobbered by the entries of
Vice Ganda and Coco Martin. His
entry this year, which pairs him
now with Coco and with Maine
Mendoza, is “Jack Em Popoy:
The Pulis Credibles”. This offers
a truly different and fresh casting
combination of stars from the two
top rival networks.
It’s a case of “Eat Bulaga”
meets “Ang Probinsyano”. It
works even better than Vic and
Coco’s entries in last year’s
filmfest, “Meant to Beh” and “Ang
Panday”, with its more engaging
storyline involving the three leads
as they engage in serious daddy
issues about missing fathers and
adopted babies which was well
integrated into the narrative.
It’s still far from being perfect
and flawless, but we’re glad that
the use of senseless gags and silly
off-putting jokes they rampantly
resort to before in the “Enteng
Kabisote” franchise have been
consciously minimized. Vic plays
his real age as the dad of Maine
Mendoza, but there’s a twist here
that gives him the chance to do
some sensitive dramatic scenes
that, in fairness to him, he was
able to handle very well.
In the case of Coco Martin, he
turns on his full star wattage with
his charming and dashing best as
a dedicated cop who fights a drug
syndicate alongside with Vic and
Maine. He also gets to do some
pa-cute singing and dancing
scenes when he joins a contest
in the movie that’s a segment in
“Eat Bulaga”. As an action star
ala-”Probinsyano”, he’s given the
chance to do many obligatory
daring stunts and fight scenes in
his many action sequences.
Maine is also quite endearing
as the dutiful daughter and
likewise gets to acquit herself
in both her comedy and action
scenes. She is without her
perennial ka-love team, Alden
Richards, in this movie and this
certainly will boost her stock as a
solo artist not depended on a love
team. Providing good support as
the bad guys are Ronaldo Valdez,
Tirso Cruz III, Ryza Cenon and
Arjo Atayde.
The movie will surely also
cater to action fans as it tries to
bring back the hard slambang
action scenes done during the
heydays of Lito Lapid (who makes
a guest appearance) and the late
FPJ where there is a big body
count from all the gunfights. It’s
all very commercial, but thanks
to Mike Tuviera’s fine direction,
we can honestly say that is one
of Vic’s better action-comedies to
date.
The movie starts showing in
Vancouver, BC at Cineplex Odeon
International Village Cinemas, 88
West Pender Street, Vancouver,
BC V6B 6N9.●
MMFF 2018 sets new box office record
with P1.06-B total
It’s already been a week since
everyone rang in the New Year.
But one can’t blame movie
producers for breaking out some
more bottles of champagne after
it was announced that this year’s
Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF)
is the most successful to date.
Noel Ferrer, the spokesperson
for the festival, said this Tuesday
that the 2018 edition saw an
increase over the previous year’s
box-office totals, revealing that it
has made P1.060 billion.
That figure is higher than the
2015 record of P1.050 billion and
was achieved at the very last day,
January 7, it was added.
“Despite the incessant rain
during the holiday season, we
braved and survived the storms
and have created new records,”
he said.
The movie of Vice Ganda
entitled “Fantastica” remained as
the top grosser with more than
500 million gross.
“Jack Em Popoy” of Coco
Martin, Vic Sotto, and Maine
Mendoza landed on the second
spot with estimated earnings of
300 million pesos.
Meanwhile, Anne Curtis’
film entitled “Aurora” reportedly
got more than 100 million pesos
which made it the third highest
Isang
Mapayapang
Bagong Taon
2019!
- Reyfort Media Group
Coco Martin and Vice Ganda both fielded entries to this year’s MMFF, which now stands as
the most successful in terms of box-office totals to date. Instagram
grosser.
The ranking of other movies
is as follow:
4th – Mary, Marry Me
5th – Rainbow’s Sunset
6th - One Great Love
7th – The Girl in the Orange
Dress
8th – Otlum
“As the Metro Manila Film
Festival 2018 closed yesterday, we
thank everyone who participated
and supported the biggest and
longest-running local film festival
in the country,” Lim quipped.
“We are happy to announce
that most of the film entries are
still on extended run in cinemas
nationwide. Everyone can still
catch these films,” he added.
The Metro Manila Film
Festival (MMFF) 2018 kicked
off on December 25 and ended
yesterday, January 7. “Rainbow’s
Sunset” was hailed as the Best
Picture during the Gabi Ng
Parangal.●
- ABS-CBN News/J.Sabala,
KAMI
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