Overlong, uneven, miscalculated. Star Cinema's love anthology 24/7 in Love is a treacherous attempt because one will deduce that anthologies simply have this nature. If played right, anthologies are competent and watchable selections. But if done on the contrary, an anthology could be one nightmarish cinematic experience. Star Cinema's latest romance offering - its messy execution, flimsy structure and hit-and-miss romance - I feel such forlorn feeling to announce that the movie is leaning towards the latter. Forlorn. I wrote the word for reasons that I will explain in the later parts of this review.
The intermittent serviceability of the film keeps you waiting, hoping that the next segment would be better than its previous. Which is partly true because the next segment will be able enough (not necessarily "good"). Enough to keep you waiting for the next. The fluctuating wave of the segments' unevenness is a reckless punch to the bowel as if you're driving on irregular bumps and hills - the movie takes you to the bottom of the hills and at the top of it. Expect a higher altitude and it would be disappointing. And then you finally reach the point where you want to vomit as if you were on an exceedingly crazy and wild road trip.
True enough, Kathryn Bernardo's loud acting as the hyped fangirl is the main story arc. She sets out on a mission to film other people's plans on The End. This is her compiling a video to upload to Daniel Padilia's (I'm too sorry, I'm forgetting their character names) contest for his concert. The prize? A track-long serenading and maybe a smooch. This is loosely attaching with the other six stories that are comprised of some very good ideas and narrative with pressured execution. Missed opportunities for the film. A fresh rip-off of The 40-Year Old Virgin thrusts Pokwang in the middle of a cougar romance with Sam Milby. A crushing secretary builds an intimate relationship with his obnoxious hypersexual boss. Best friends fall in love with each other (The spin? The male half is gay.). A resort employee talks wisdom to a visitor. In the middle of a puppy love, Piolo Pascual plays the special cupid. And ex-lovers find their lost love with each other.
Forgettable episodes like Angelica Panganiban's and Pokwang's ironically has ample amounts of profundities, but brisk run time and pressured execution takes away their would-be brilliance. Pascual, Maja Salvador and Bea Alonzo's segments are all charming; of great supply to keep you holding on. Kim Chui and Gerald Anderson's last part is supercilious. The movie knows it's the best card it could play, hence its longer run time and its "finale" placement.
In the beginning, I told I felt forlorn in announcing how the movie is not so good. Which is true, too. It's because the movie has some moments of half-cooked brilliance, bugged with snappy run time that ultimately resulted to one overlong feature, anyway. This is what turned my pitiful sorrow to rightful contempt: The Doomsday premise doesn't seem to become of importance by the later parts of the film, which is unappealing frankly. I was hoping to see some End of the World scenes and all I got was a bunch of people dancing to some tune. Pokwang kind of summarizes the movie when she drops the epic: "Yung nag-joke 'yung universe pero hindi nakakatawa?"
VERDICT: C+
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