Finally we were able to start watching CineMalaya 2014 with the gala premiere of one of the five Director’s Showcase na “The Janitor” directed by Mike Tuviera last Monday sa CCP main hall.
We will admit we only started watching CineMalaya in its third year and a lot has changed since then. For one, audiences are getting bigger.
Not just students anymore and freeloaders and invited foreigners, there are paying movie patrons now who are ready to brave the rain just to watch sa CCP although there are more venues na this year as Fairview Terraces was added as extra venues bukod sa TriNoMa and Greenbelt cinemas.
“The Janitor” is not different at all. With the movie having the biggest cast including three leading men in showbiz Dennis Trillo, Richard Gomez and Derek Ramsay, fans really troop the gala.
Based on a real event sa RCBC noon, Crisanto (Dennis) is a suspended police after killing an underage criminal. He is taken care of his supervisor (Richard) and became chief instructor of a security guard school.
Meanwhile, Mabuhay Savings Bank became the sight of a gruesome massacre and P10-million robbery and so the police force gathered its own information kung sino ang may gawa nito.
Richard gave it to Dennis as he is not part of the police force at isa-isa niyang hinanap at tinarget ang suspected criminals including Derek, Raymond Bagatsing, Alex Medina and Gerald Napoles including its original source na si Nico Manalo.
After having done with the job, Dennis noticed something is not right. Using the supposed massacre perpetuators personal cell phones, not one was talking tungkol sa gagawin nila supposedly noong araw na yun and so Dennis begins asking question.
But before he finally gets the answer, a personal tragedy happened to him and his wife LJ Reyes and also to his supervisor so the movie ended without answering the question.
The movie is big, literally big. Just imagine Dennis, Derek and Richard plus Raymond, Ricky Davao and LJ in one screen almost together. The locations are varied, not just two or three set ups.
Then there’s the action. Everyone with the exemption of the female cast did action scenes so it looks like the return of action genre. Dennis versus Derek, Dennis versus Raymond, Dennis versus Alex, Dennis versus Jerrold, all in separate scenes.
Of course sa pagbabalik ng action, medyo natuwa kami that the longish monologue before the actual action takes place had the antagonist and protagonist nagpapalitan muna ng dialogue.
Then there’s the acting. Off hand, we like Dennis for the Best Actor; Derek, Richard, Jerald, Raymond, Nico, Dante Rivero and Alex for Best Supporting Actor; LJ and Irma Adlawan for Best Supporting Actress but we know it will never happen as Cine Malaya has no history of nominating multiple stars in a single movie so we’d go for Richard and LJ na lang.
That they really gave very good acting is worth the ticket alone, hindi lang pang indie acting na either over or underacting.
Having said all that, “The Janitor” once again suffer from the Pinoy movie’s sickness of so many ending.
We thought magtatapos ang movie after Dennis finished his job, hindi pala. The thing is, the movie lingered on for another 30 minutes looking for the right ending that did not came naman and tying loose ends in its other plots which could be ignored naman as it has nothing to do with the main plot.
Still ito lang ang problema namin sa “The Janitor” and we like the fact that indie producers are really spending money to make the movie more mainstream than independent and just for that which is a big leap in movie making, we applaud…CineMalaya.
( Photo credit to EAS )