I was a Speller in Atlantis Productions' "Spelling Bee"!

Last weekend, I volunteered as a speller in Atlantis Productions' staging of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium at the RCBC Plaza in Makati City.

The Tony Award-winning play is known for getting audience spellers and having celebrity spellers in each show. (Obviously, I was one of the audience spellers. :P) The celebrities during our show were model/TV host Phoemela Baranda and TV star TJ Trinidad.

The experience of being on stage as guest speller was fun and memorable. I was given some guidelines by the production staff like what questions to ask and what to do on stage. One important reminder was to follow the instructions and directions of the cast members on stage.

I have to say that being a guest speller is a misnomer because you do more than spelling! Some of the directions the actors will give you are to do some very simple dance movements and actions like clapping and reacting to other actors. There's more, but I'd like to keep it a surprise for future volunteer spellers in later productions. :P It's just too bad that I didn't get a photo of myself on stage during the show.

If your comfortable being on stage and a good sport, I definitely recommend volunteering as a speller in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee if you get the chance at a production in your area.


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Photo on Philippine Star

Yesterday, one of my good friends texted me saying that she found a photo of me and my girlfriend in the Philippine Star, one of the top daily newspapers in the Philippines. Like most people, I was surprised and immediately bought that day's issue.

I found the photo my friend was referring to at the Lifestyle section. The spread was about the recent premiere night of Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. The spread featured other personalities like celebrities and bloggers.

Of course, I'm happy that the folks decided to add the picture (although I'm still not sure why :P).

But it was one pleasant surprise. :)


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7-Eleven Launches Big Bite Match Competitive Eating Challenge

7-Eleven recently the first competitive hotdog-eating contest in the Philippines. Dubbed as the 7-Eleven Big Bite Match, this contest will pit the country's top gastronomic challengers for the top prize of PhP 500,000.

In the recent media launch, competitive eater Tom "Goose" Gilbert came and gave a sample of how trained eaters consume hotdogs in very quick succession. In a face off against Filipino challengers, Goose bested them by eating 10 hotdogs in 3 minutes and 12 seconds. Talk about eating fast! :)

I've never seen a person eat that much hotdogs and I'm sure seeing the record holder of 68 hotdogs down the frankfurters would be a sight to see. Here in the Philippines, we may see our best eaters gobble up tons of Big Bite hotdogs in the finals on August 29, 2009.

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Bloggers I saw in the event:

• Mica
  
• Arpee
• Winston 
• Jonel
• Leira 
• Sire 
• L.A. 
• Karla 
• Sha 
• Anton
• Noemi
• Aileen
• Jay
• AJ

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Movie Review: Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)

Family entertainment just took a good turn with Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

The third installment in the Ice Age series is definitely better than the second offering (Ice Age 2: The Meltdown) and the addition of a new character gave life to the adventures of the unlikeliest herd in the Ace Age: Manny (Ray Romano), Diego (Dennis Leary), Sid (John Leguizamo) , Ellie (Queen Latifa), plus Crash (Sean William Scot) & Eddie (John Peck).

Undoubtedly, the character, Buck the Weasel (voiced by Simon Pegg) stole the show. His crazy antics and oft-kilter behavior made the movie lively and could well be a star of his own animated movie. If you ask me, Buck's addition is like adding Puss in Boots in Shrek-- it was a franchise-saving move.

Animation-wise, the film is superb and since I watched it in Digital 3D, the film experience was tremendous. (More on the 3D experience later. My only nitpick is the over-all blandness of the story and the tiring slapstick of Sid. But bottomline is its a great family movie.

Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is a must watch for parents and kids. And if you can watch it in 3D, take the opportunity! :)


Rating: 4/5


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I watched this film in the newly opened Digital 3D theater in Trinoma Mall in Quezon City. The theater was packed with guests, media, and several celebrities.

I was very much impressed with the new theater and I hope that this technology could be brought to other Ayala cinemas as well. :)


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Movie Review: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

Two years ago, the first Transformers movie captured the hearts of fans of the 1980's cartoon and the robot action figures. As a matter of fact, it netted over US$300 million in box office receipts and generated momentum for a sequel. Heck, even oft-criticized Michael Bay was hailed for his ability to mix humor and mechanized action scenes.

What about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen?

Let's just say if the Transformers is going to be a trilogy, this second installment is the weak movie that will let you hope for the third movie.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is overly long (2.5 hours!) and it could have benefited from more thorough editing. There are sequences in the final hour of the movie that could have been left in the cutting room. (Clue: desert action in Egypt). Plus, the plot is just unsatisfying, even for a fan like me. It involves the "All Spark" (again!) and the links of humanity's past to the Transformers, but it's just too winding and shoddy if you ask me.

The only saving grace is the action scenes, which director Micheal Bay seemed to mastered the art of. A great deal of them involves the Autobots and Decepticons in human-like combat, and they are more fluid and dynamic. Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox reprise their roles and they provide the needed human element in the film. Not that they were excellent, but they were able to givea decent amount of humor and some romance in the robot battle-fest.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a huge drop-off from the first film. If the box-office results reflect the movie's over-all quality, then we have a film franchise that has fallen from grace.


Rating: 1.5/5


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Movie Review: The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)

First off, I'm not from New York City and I didn't watch the 1974 original film starring Walter Matthau. Too bad for me because I think those two things would have made the experience of watching The Taking of Pelham 123 much better.

Set in modern day New York City, the film is about the hijacking of a subway train by a loose cannon named Ryder (played by John Travolta) and how a disgraced Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) employee (played by Denzel Washington) becomes the accidental hero. Like many films directed y Tony Scott, the movie features lots of fast cuts and hyperkinetic action that will satisfy the popcorn crowd.

But this film is no Die Hard-- the plot is hard to follow and the film, in my opinion, gets confusing as I had a hard time following the motivations of the hijack and Ryder's intentions. Likewise, the hero of the film is just too drab. Washington plays a family man, but I never got to root for him. (Heck, I found Ryder's ingenious plan more admirable!)

But the 2009 version of hijack classic is an update that makes sense today. From the energy, the technology, and the post 9/11 sensibilities, The Taking of Pelham 123 is a nice ride.


Rating: 3/5


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Smart Sandbox Media Event at A. Venue

Smart Communications, the Philippines' largest telecoms provider, held a media event for the launching of Smart Sandbox. The event was held at the A. Venue in Makati City, and it was well-attended by television, print, radio, and online media folks. The program was hosted by deejays Mo Twister and Mojo Jojo of Magic 89.9.

Since I've been part of the beta testing group of the new local social network, I've known almost all about the project and I've even posted my evaluation of Smart Sandbox. The surprise for the evening was the official release of the four different television commercials of SandBox (I think this is the first time a website in the Philippines will be given such promotional mileage). The new commercials star superband The Eraserheads, Ateneo basketball stud Chris Tiu, and celebrities Kim Chiu, Gerald Anderson, Piolo Pascual, and Angel Locsin. Here's the old TVC Smart showed initially:



Of course, healthy contingent of Filipino bloggers were there. Here are some folks I saw:

• Fritz
• Arpee
• Markku
  
• Jayvee
• Juned
• Carl
• Sire 
• Azrael
• Rochelle
• Karla
• Sha
• Melo
• AJ
• Noemi
• Eric
• Coy

If you were there, don't be afraid to gimme a poke, OK? :P


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Movie Review: Drag Me to Hell (2009)

After doing the Spider-Man circuit, director Sam Raimi is back on the horror genre and fans should be happy-- Raimi's Drag Me to Hell looks like an instant horror cult classic.

Drag Me to Hell stars Alison Lohman as Cristine Brown, a bank employee who finds herself tormented by an evil spirit after publicly humiliating a gypsy witch. In the next three days Cristine experiences frightening visions and violent visits from the evil spirit, while trying to maintain her professional life and personal relationships. It is in that context where Raimi finds the nice balance between the scary gore-fest and campy humor.

At some point during the movie, I realized that it was getting a little more over-the-top and scary that I didn't take the film to seriously anymore and just enjoyed the jolts and the scares. I then had a glimpse of what Raimi was trying to do: come up with an old-school horror movie away from the "Ring's" and "Saw's" of the world.

And it looks like Raimi has succeeded: Drag Me to Hell is in the Top 50 rated Horror movies in the Internet Movie Database.

Note: The Philippine version of the movie has far too many cuts and edits. And that really diminishes the Drag Me to Hell experience.


Rating: 4.5/5



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Movie Review: Terminator Salvation (2009)

The Terminator is back!

But instead of machines form the future going back to the present day, Terminator Salvation is set on the bleak future, where the machines have taken over the world, and the human rebellion are fighting tooth and nail for survival. Christian Bale plays John Connor, the spiritual leader of the human resistance.

The film is action-packed, as with most movies helmed by McG-- the special effects are top-notch, there are sequences where the camera perspective will put audiences in a thrilling ride, and even a certain terminator we are familiar with makes a cameo. (let's call him Ah-huld).

If you take Terminator Salvation by itself, it's a very good summer movie. But what hurts it is its need to tie everything the previous three Terminator movies together and fails to clearly answer some key questions. This will definitely confuse folks who have not watched the previous films.

As I've said, Terminator Salvation is an excellent sci-fi film, but be ready to be disoriented a bit. The film starts on a new thread on the Terminator mythology, much lie what a rest button does to a machine.


Rating: 3.5/5


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