A Very Special Love

Yup!  You guessed right.  I watched A Very Special Love (this is a movie if you don’t know) a couple of weeks ago.  Actually, I watched it twice.  Yeah I know.. kinda jologs of me but hey … This is a movie for all walks of life.  It stars Sarah Geronimo and John Lloyd Cruz.  First time, I was alone.  Second time, I was with my mother.

Here’s the synopsis:

Laida is a modern-day Belle. She works hard to provide for her family while believing that someday she will meet her prince charming and they will live happily ever after together. That prince charming is none other than Miggy Montenegro, the youngest of the Montenegro clan—a well established family in the business world. Laida dreams of meeting Miggy every day and every night. These dreams lead her to apply as an Editorial Assistant at Miggy’s newly established men’s magazine Bachelor despite it being a long shot, hoping that working in the company will allow her to be close to the man who invades her dreams every night.
By some sort of luck, Laida lands the job. Overwhelmed by the being in the presence of her crush, and by her instant employment, Laida remains blind to the fact that the Miggy she dreams of is very different from the real one. Miggy in person is a hothead who thinks he’s always right. The word “sorry” doesn’t mean anything to him. Everyone is scared of him, except Laida, who is always ready to defend her dream man. Blindly she caters to his whim, even when he sent her to be his proxy on his date with his girlfriend, breaking her heart a little. Her co-workers question her unrelenting dedication to such a monster but when Laida proves quite loyal to the man, gossip about Laida’s feelings for their boss starts to circulate. Laida, to defend herself, unwittingly reveals information about Miggy’s personal life which earns her his ire. Being shouted at for the first time by the man she dreams of opens Laida’s eyes to reality. And her awakening in turn leads to Miggy’s rude awakening of why people do not like him.

No one has ever talked back to Miggy before. No one dared tell him their opinions and or suggestions. Miggy was always right and that’s how he likes it. But when Laida, a simpleton who just follows his every command tells him to his face that he is wrong, Miggy begins to wonder if the reason for his failures could actually be him. For the first time Miggy apologizes. And this opens the door to a whole new world of a lot of “firsts” for Miggy. With the help of Laida, Miggy slowly learns to be a teamplayer. With the help of Laida, Miggy slowly learns the value of loyalty.

But Miggy’s conflict with his siblings keeps pulling Miggy back to his old ways, and not even Laida’s presence in his life can clear the shadow casted on him by his family. Laida does everything she knows just to help Miggy at the expense of time with her family. As Laida and Miggy’s fight to save the magazine become more intense, so is their fight to keep their intentions and emotions at bay. Will Laida and Miggy ever figure out the right combination to solve their problems in business and in their personal lives? Or will their mismatching personalities, despite their common interest and goal keep them from ever figuring out their perfect pair?

—–from http://averyspeciallove.yehey.com/story.htm

I really don’t watch Filipino movies on the big screen as a rule, my rule.  People say it is a formulaic movie.  Yes, it is.  But I love it still.   Why?  Because it was romantic, funny, the dramatic scenes are just right, the lead stars are excellent, the supporting casts are very good.  It leaves you with a light feeling plus you have LSS (last song syndrome) and you have at least one favorite line.  My only pet peeves are Sarah’s wig, the rain effect, and the movie should have been longer.   Sarah was a revelation.  She CAN act.  It even looked like she was not acting because she was so natural in it.  Well, she had training with soap dramas anyway.  John Lloyd as always delivers, enough said.  The supporting casts have their own highlights in the movie.  The director, Cathy Garcia Molina, did it again.  She is probably one of the masters in this genre, funny romantic movies, or rom-com as they coined (romantic comedy).   This is presumably a low-budget movie for Star Cinema.  There are no out-of-the-country locations like in previous movies, only out-of-town LOL!  The fact that they used Luneta, considered the most jologs location, to shoot some scenes and made it work with the sappy singing and rain effect (that missed in one short scene) is commendable.  It still worked for me and for the other people in the movie house as evidenced by the crowd’s enthusiastic response.

I got to say, I have never experienced watching a movie like this, ever.  Well, except for Schindler’s List and that’s a serious movie so the ‘appreciation’ was only heard after the movie.  The first time I watched this movie, I was kind of debating inside whether I should watch this or not or just watch another movie.  I have just watched Batman so I decided to pick this.  While buying the ticket, I was literally looking at the back then sideways, to see if someone I know could see me. LOL!  It’s like a covert operation.  So secretive.  Hahaha.  Inside the cinema, I noticed it was half-full considering it’s a week day, meaning work day and school day and it was lunch time.

Before the start of the movie, there were movie trailers shown as was customary.  The For The First Time movie trailer was shown.  I guess no one expected it cause there was no reaction.  Not a sound.  For me, it was like “Uh okay, whatever.”  I got to say Santorini, Greece is beautiful.  I just put it in my list of places I dream to go.  The movie itself, however, failed to attract me to watch it.  Presumably it’s a love story.  Boy meets girl or vice versa just like in AVSL.  Only this one, it did not intrigue me.  Miggy’s personality is very intriguing to say the least.  I wanted to see whether Laida’s bubbliness and positive outlook would last in the presence of Mr. Gloomy Guy.  In FTFT, I expect the lead characters will fall in love eventually.  Obviously, there is a conflict based on the crying/argument scene.  It’s just that I didn’t buy it.  Both of them are beutiful physically.  The location is breath taking.  The story is so-so.  Much more typical than AVSL.

Although AVSL is a typical boy-meets-girl or girl-meets-boy story, it does not center solely on this.  The movie devoted a good part of it on family matters.  As I have said before, there are lots of funny scenes.  I simply love the crowd (the people watching the movie).  We were all in synch. LOL!  Giggling, smiling, laughing, crying at the same time, etc.  They laughed out loud, no holds barred.  I was amazed!  People are clearly enjoying the movie so much that sometimes I coudn’t hear the lines being delivered because of the noise.  Some of it I only understood on my second time watching it. Hahaha!  It was funny because I could also hear lots of people crying left and right.

Overall, I rate this movie 4.5 out of 5 because of the minor flaws.  This movie just made it to my all time favorite romantic movies list along with Got 2 Believe and others that are too many to mention.

PS:  Did I mention that they kissed only once and it was not even a proper kiss, just a smack on the lips.  And people is still raving about it that it was sooooooooooooooo romantic and soooooooooooo kilig! Winner!

Philippine All Stars – Champion Again!!

Yes, Yes people!!  Philippine All Stars won the 2008 World Hip Hop Championship.  I know, I know.. I’m kinda late in the news.  LOL!  But man did you see their routine?  Loads of creativity there. Add the Matrix thing going on there and voila!  Champion again!  Woohooo!!

My favorite was in the beginning when a guy got sucked in by a force or something (00:40).  After many times of watching it, I’m still amazed.  00:44 reminds me of The Undertaker of WWF.. haha.  01:31 was cute and fun.. props to them.. haha!  Can’t complain really… I’m trying to find flaws… and there is none (at least for me)!

Congratulations Philippine All Stars!!!!

I Am a Coffee Drinker

I’m not sure at what age I started to drink coffee.  What I know is since I was a kid, I used to drink coffee — watered-down coffee nyahaha — in those transparent little glasses.   I remember the older members of my family (parents, uncles and aunts) having a cup of coffee in the morning and I copied them naturally. LOL!  Up until now my coffee is still watered-down.  The opposite of black coffee.  People will probably think that I’m weird.  They’re going to say it tastes like socks were boiled in it.  I don’t mind.  Yeah, I’m weird.  I like it because I can’t take BLACK coffee.  The bitter taste doesn’t agree with me.  So when I discovered Starbucks and the likes, yay for me!  I like even the less expensive Coffee Experience mainly because of the cost.

Speaking of which, did you know the Philippines was once one of the biggest producers of coffee?  Well, now you know.   What happened, you ask?  Apparently an “infestation” nearly destroyed  the coffee industry in the Philippines.  The Philippine coffee industry could use some help in promoting what else — Coffee.  They’re focusing on reviving the popularity of Kapeng Barako.  There are different varieties of coffee,  for those who don’t know.  They are  Robusta , Arabica and other lesser known varieties.  Barako comes from the  Liberica variety.  Some infos I took from here.  Please check this site, too.

Also, Figaro coffee chain is selling the Barako coffee if someone wants to sample it.  A lot of people rave about it so it must be good.

I think I’m due for a coffee break so this is it!

PLEASE HELP PHILIPPINE COFFEE INDUSTRY.. BUY KAPENG BARKO!

Disclaimer:  No, I did not get paid for this.

ASAP ‘08 Aug 3 Replay episode

I haven’t posted a new blog for ASAP because the Aug 3 episode was just a replay.  Probably the ABS-CBN management gave them a vacation. They are overworked, I think.  Sarah G is porbably one of the most overworked artists there.  She had promotions, tv guestings, shooting movie scenes, rehearsals for ASAP, performing in ASAP, preparing for her new album, etc.  That was for the last few months.  Whew!  The other artists have soap operas that are still in the process of shooting scenes while showing on TV.  Too bad they’re not canned.  I wish they are, though.  That would be the casts of My Girl and Dyosa.  Iya and Luis have MYX.  The others have their own gigs.

I’ll just have to post something then.

Oh well.. here goes..

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I really like the fact that Filipinos are generally good singers and performers but they revive songs all the time and it kinda frustrates me.  Anyway, ASAP mainstays have their new albums.

Erik Santos will be singing in the Beijing Olympics.  Lucky him!  His latest release was the repackaged “Your Love” album.

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Christian Bautista has the West Side Story thing at the Meralco Theater.  Schedule below.

His latest album is entitled “Captured.”

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Sheryn – Starting Over Again

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Rachelle Ann Go Rocks Live

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Gary V Rebirth album

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Nikki Gil – Hear My Heart  (new album)

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Yeng Constantino – Journey (latest album – Feb release)

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Toni Gonzaga’s new album is in the works according to the grapevine (so I’m not sure).  Her latest album though is Falling in Love.

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Bea Alonzo apparently ventured into singing with her new album “The Real Me.”

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Richard Poon, ASAP’s resident crooner already released an album called, “I’ll Take care of You.”

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Billy Crawford’s new album is in the works.  Last album is “It’s Time.”

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Ronnie Liang first album:  Ang Aking Awitin

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Jed Madela – Only Human (3rd and latest album)

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Sam Milby – A Little Too Perfect (latest album)

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Nina – Nina Sings The Hits of Diane Warren

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Sitti – My Bossa Nova (latest is the live album)

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Jay-R Siaboc _ Hiling

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Sarah Geronimo’s new album is in the works.  Latest is the Taking Flight album.

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I might have forgotten some artists.. so I’m sorry.. he he he.

This is it for now!