EQUUS Philippines review

Psychiatrist Martin Dysart meets his most challenging case in a young boy of seventeen who has been charged with the crime of blinding six horses by gouging out their eyes. As the play unravels, one realizes that beneath the surface of the crime lies another dimension of the human psyche more terrifying than what it seems to be.

Repertory Philippines has staged EQUUS for the first time in the Philippines starring Marco Mañalac alternate Red Concepcion playing Alan Strang, the 17-year old boy who blinded the horses. Alan worshiped the horses, a pagan trait that he possesses. Marco Mañalac did very well on this part. i think people would expect as a role played by Daniel Radcliffe in the UK rendition. of course, as what to expect in Repertory plays, minimal but very effective stage design. contour of horses' head are nicely done.

on the other hand, as it was my first time to focus on the story other than the visuals, you would pity Alan Strang's character. he might be very conservative and you might wander what are the factors in his childhood to do such murder. his religious mother and strict father might have suppressed Alan's freedom to mingle with other people and as a result, praised the powerful Equus.

Equus
July 9 to July 25, 2010
8:00 PM on Fridays & Saturday
3:30 PM on Saturdays & Sundays

Venue
OnStage - 2/F Greenbelt 1, Ayala Center, Makati City

Tickets
Orchestra Center P 600.00
Orchestra Side P 400.00
Balcony P 250.00

EQUUS opens on July 9th at 8PM, and thereafter on the 10th, 16th, 17th, 23rd and 24th also at 8PM. Matinees at 3:30PM are on July 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25. Venue is Onstage, 2nd floor, at Greenbelt 1, Paseo de Roxas, Makati City. For ticket inquiries, please call 887-0710 or log on to repertory.ph. directed by Audie Gemora.

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ANGELINA JOLIE is EVELYN SALT - a secret agent on the run

Oscar-winner Angelina Jolie stars in Columbia Pictures’ SALT, a contemporary action thriller from director Philip Noyce (“Clear and Present Danger,” “Patriot Games”).

As a CIA officer, Evelyn Salt (Jolie) swore an oath to duty, honor and country. Her loyalty will be tested when a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. Salt goes on the run, using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative to elude capture. Salt's efforts to prove her innocence only serve to cast doubt on her motives, as the hunt to uncover the truth behind her identity continues and the question remains: "Who Is Salt?"

SALT began life with an offhand comment Jolie made a few years ago. “I was meeting with (Sony Pictures Co-Chairman) Amy Pascal when it came up in conversation that she was getting ready to make one of the new James Bond films,” Jolie remembers. “I playfully said, ‘I want to be Bond!’ That was our little joke, and then she found this project.”

“SALT has a lot of elements in it,” producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura explains. “It’s a thriller, it’s an action movie, it’s a spy movie, it’s a dramatic love story, and it has some kick-ass action.”

In the movie, Evelyn Salt must go on the run to prove her innocence when a defector alleges that she’s a mole, triggering Day X – the day when Russian sleeper spies awaken and begin the war against the United States . “Day X is still a controversial topic inside the CIA,” says Jolie. “Some think it’s absolute nonsense and others believe that not only is it real, but sleeper agents have already been activated for certain cases. When we first approached the idea, we thought it was a bit of a fantasy, but as we found out more information, we discovered it was more real than we could have guessed. Truth really is stranger than fiction.”

Jolie describes her character as having had an “understandable reluctance to get close to anybody, and especially to get married, understanding that she was kind of putting him in the line of fire.” However, Evelyn Salt is married to a man who is fully aware of and accepts the risks of being married to a CIA operative.

Jolie says that it’s not unusual for a CIA operative to be married, but it’s a job that can put a lot of strain on a relationship. “I talked to one woman, a former operative, who said it was such a relief when she left the agency – after years of not being able to communicate anything that she did or where she was going, her whole relationship with her husband changed. She didn’t realize how much it had kept them apart, how difficult it had been, until she had a new life.”

To prepare for her role, Jolie did her research. “We talked to a lot of the women in the CIA,” says Jolie. “One after the other, they are just these lovely, sweet women that you can’t imagine being put in a dangerous situation, but they really are.”

Through these interactions with former spies, Noyce says, Jolie learned what an operative would do if she were really accused of being a sleeper spy. “She learned how spies live on the edge, what they do if they are unmasked, how they evade detection,” says the director.

In casting Jolie, the filmmakers felt they could push the throttle on the action quotient. “Salt fights aggressively, in face-to-face combat,” she notes. “In some movies I’ve done, there’s been a temptation – because I’m female – to make the action nice” – and nice, she says, is not how a trained operative accused of being a sleeper mole for the enemy would fight.

“Angelina’s the consummate pro,” adds producer di Bonaventura. “Whether it’s a dramatic scene, whether it’s a funny scene, whether it’s an action scene, she’s going for it. It’s great to work with somebody who really wants to push the boundaries.”

Opening soon across the Philippines , SALT is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Visit www.Facebook.com/ColumbiaPicturesPH and like the fanpage to get the latest movie news, video clips and contests.

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who is Maria Callas?

the name is not unfamiliar to the opera industry. La Divina herself, Maria Callas, is an American-born Greek soprano. born December 2, 1923 as Sophia Cecelia Kalos to parents, George Kalogeropoulos and Evangelia "Litsa" (sometimes "Litza") Dimitriadou.

she had her musical studies in Greece and her career in Italy. there she displayed her singing prowess into the works of Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini; further, to the works of Verdi and Puccini; and, in her early career, to the music dramas of Wagner. thus, earning the La Divina title.

her devotion to the opera has paid off very well throughout her career. however, her dedication to the work but a love of art made her forget about herself when she was stricken with an ailment, losing her voice. she suffered complications in her body that led to her downfall and returning to the creator on September 16, 1977.

La Divina is remembered in the industry by people through Terrence McNally's MASTER CLASS. in MASTER CLASS, we will see Maria Callas' passion for the art instructing her students. and here in the Philippines, we will witness how Ms. Cherie Gil portrays La Divina as a model with love for life.

see MASTER CLASS in the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati City starting July 29 2010. directed by Michael Williams.

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STREETDANCE 3D movie review

in order to win the Street Dance Championships, a dance crew is forced to work with ballet dancers from the Royal Dance School in exchange for rehearsal space. STREETDANCE 3D is Carly's story on how she merged two world's together and achieved what she really wanted. in spite of unseen circumstances, she stood on her feet and graced at the championships. a person that inspired everybody and learned to lead as a follower.

i remembered a couple of dance flicks with this story like Bring It On, Step Up, Take the Lead, You Got Served and Center Stage. minus the cheesy and awkward lines from the cast. but STREETDANCE 3D focused on pure dance without not much focus on the life of the lead. and the greatest thing with this, is it was shot in special 3D cameras with no CGI effects! the images really float from the screen almost real.

STREETDANCE 3D is now showing in all digital cinemas.

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FUN FACTS from the SORCERER’S APPRENTICE

The cast and filmmakers of Walt Disney Studios’ THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE had a blast creating the fantasy adventure about Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage), a master sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan who recruits Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel), a seemingly average guy who demonstrates hidden potential, as his reluctant protégé.
Get a load of these fun trivia about the newest Jerry Bruckheimer blockbuster:

• The Phantom. Balthazar Blake’s vehicle of choice is very rare 1935 Rolls-Royce Phantom. Its engine, appropriately known as the “Merlin,” helped propel Spitfire aircraft for Britain, which helped win World War II. An exact replica of the real Phantom was created for stunt sequences. During filming in the streets of New York City, the Phantom proved to be a huge tourist attraction.

• The Chrysler Eagle gargoyle comes to life in two varieties: the full-size, motion-base, computer-controlled version constructed by Academy Award®-winning special-effects coordinator John Frazier, and a CG version from visual-effects supervisor John Nelson and Asylum Visual Effects.

• Chinatown. The colorful Chinese festival sequence in which a parade dragon comes to life was filmed over the course of two weeks on Eldridge Street, in the heart of New York’s Chinatown. More than 2,000 people from the local Chinese communities showed up for an extras casting call for 500 available spots.

• Nikola Tesla. The inventions, philosophy and spirit of controversial and brilliant inventor Nikola Tesla hung over the entire movie, and by an amazing coincidence, the last day of filming fell on what would have been his 153rd birthday. And the company also filmed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Manhattan’s 110th Street, where Tesla received a state funeral attended by more than 2000 people.

• The Encantus, the film’s book of spells, weighed a mighty 75 pounds. But there were other versions created, including a 10-pound duplicate and a waterproofed floating version for the so-called “Fantasia” sequence.

• Every single page of the enormous Encantus had to be aged by experts in medieval bookbinding, with methods ranging from sanding the papers to wetting them with tea.

• The seven domains in the Merlin Circle include Space-Time, Motion, Matter, Elements, Transformation, Mind, and in the center, the Forbidden domain—Love. The multi-colored flames that shoot out of the Merlin Circle in the underground lab were created by the special effects team like a gigantic stove-top burner, with fire rods six inches below the deck in a water tank.

• The Coat. Costume designer Michael Kaplan and his team created 10 exact copies of Balthazar Blake’s long leather coat, and all of Balthazar’s rings were custom made as well.

• Arcana Cabana. Set decorator George DeTitta Jr. collected no fewer than half a million objects of escalating weirdness for production designer Naomi Shohan’s Arcana Cabana set, including a prosthetic leg, disembodied doll’s heads, shrunken heads, skeletons and a “unicorn skull.”

(Opening across the Philippines on Thursday, July 15, THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International.)

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SNEAK PEEK: “GROWN UPS”

Some guys need a little extra time to mature. In Columbia Pictures’ new comedy GROWN UPS, Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Rob Schneider play best friends when they were young kids and are now getting together with their families on the Fourth of July weekend for the first time in thirty years. Picking up where they left off, they discover that growing older doesn’t mean growing up.

The real-life chemistry between the actors translated seamlessly to the characters they play on screen. In fact, many of the stars of GROWN UPS have known each other for years. Rock says, “Most of the guys met at ‘Saturday Night Live.’ I met Adam doing stand-up 20 years ago easily at Comic Strip in New York . We just hit it off when we were the younger funnier guys in the club. Spade I met at ‘SNL.’ Schneider I met at ‘SNL.’”

Adam Sandler also wrote the script, an irresistible idea for the cast and crew. “Adam’s whole idea was that everyone would bring their families and we’d all have a nice summer at the lake house,” remembers director Dennis Dugan. “It was one of the best summers of my life. Because everyone knew everyone else so well, it was like going to a really great party. Adam really wanted that kind of atmosphere to come across in the movie.”

GROWN UPS also stars Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, and Maya Rudolph. The film is directed by Dennis Dugan, produced by Adam Sandler and Jack Giarraputo and written by Sandler & Fred Wolf.

Opening soon across the Philippines , GROWN UPS is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Visit www.Facebook.com/ColumbiaPicturesPH and like the fanpage to get the latest movie news, video clips and contests.

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the men of INCEPTION

Aside from Leonardo DiCaprio, Warner Bros.’ new sci-fi actioner INCEPTION also features a top caliber group of exciting actors, lead by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“(500) Days of Summer”), Tom Hardy (“RockNRolla”), Ken Watanabe (“The Last Samurai”) and Cillian Murphy (“Batman Begins”).

In the film, Dom Cobb (DiCaprio) is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction: stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb’s rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption.

Director Christopher Nolan offers, “It was fascinating to watch the actors evolve as a group, very much the way the characters do in the story. It really brought a richness to their scenes together. As a writer, you hope for that kind of chemistry, but it’s not until you get on the set that you see the cast bring out their characters’ idiosyncrasies and interesting inter-relationships. That’s a vital part of any movie, especially a heist movie, and I think these actors really delivered that.

“The film follows a team of very different people, each with singular skills, who are brought together to accomplish a very special task,” Nolan continues. “If any one of them fails, it can spell disaster, so each individual is integral to their success. And we understand everything they’re going through because we are on that journey with them.”

Cobb’s longtime and most trusted colleague is Arthur, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. While Cobb is the master planner, Arthur takes care of the details. Gordon-Levitt asserts, “Arthur is the organized one, the one making sure everything is in its right place. But as fastidious as he is, Arthur didn’t want to apply his organizational skills to being a lawyer or doctor or any of the things he could have been because sharing dreams is fascinating. It’s not just a job for him. Ultimately, it’s not the money he’s doing it for. He wouldn’t risk his life for a good paycheck. He loves it.”

Tom Hardy plays the role of Eames, who, he notes, possesses surprising skills as a forger…and not just on paper. “In the dream world, Eames can project the image of anyone, so he’s actually forging an identity in a physical manifestation and can convince another person that he’s whomever the team needs him to be in order to aid their deception.”

Ken Watanabe portrays the role of Saito, a rich and powerful business magnate, who offers Cobb a very special job with a promise of payment more valuable than money. Simply put, if Cobb can give Saito what he wants, Saito will get Cobb home. There is only one condition: Saito wants to accompany Cobb’s team on the job to be sure he gets what he’s paying for. Watanabe observes, “At first, it’s only a business relationship, but as the story continues, Saito and Cobb develop an understanding and a respect. They need each other.”

The target of Saito’s business proposition is Robert Fischer, who is about to inherit control of his dying father’s multibillion-dollar empire. Cillian Murphy, who plays the part of Fischer, points out, “Despite his vast wealth, Robert is riddled with all sorts of insecurities, as one might expect of someone who has lived his entire life in the shadow of a hugely powerful individual. It doesn’t help that he has a very strained relationship with his father. So here you have a person who is about to inherit the world and is lacking for nothing except, perhaps, the thing he wants most: a proper relationship with his father.”

Opening across the Philippines on Thursday, July 15 in IMAX, Digital 2D and regular format, INCEPTION is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

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