In my more vulnerable years to soupy Star Cinema selections, I've always been reminded by a friend, his advice: "Don't over think it, they're not pulling any tricks at all. No magic tricks for you today, mate." I suppose he's right and in the long run I've digested him, hence my previous anger about these exceedingly schmaltzy pictures awash with either acceptance or ignorance. Their latest, Suddenly It's Magic is no different, a tacky material honey-glazed by a set of eye-indulgent landscapes and an efficient experimental team-up comprised of a local female actor and a Thai superstar. And that's what are the people's gripe here: Suddenly It's Magic is seemingly made for two reasons, 1. to earn money, and 2. to import a foreign actor in the local cinema. Hypocrisy it is if I'll say there are other reasons behind its production.
Its bland and uninspired filmmaking runs on a punishingly formulaic script by Vanessa Valdez (The Mistress) and Enrico Santos (In the Name of Love) that follows Marcus (Mario Maurer, Crazy Little Thing and Friendship), a brokenhearted Thai actor who escapes to the Philippines in order to take his mind off of his cheating girlfriend. Somewhere in Ilocos Norte, he tells Joey (Erich Gonzales, Corazon: Ang Unang Aswang) that she makes the saddest-tasting cupcakes ever. Naturally, the baker gets insulted. Despite their terrible beginning, the two inexplicably spring a romance, which eventually is challenged when Marcus had to choose between his new flame or his long-gestating ambition to become a better actor than he is now.
"I stopped believing in fairy tales and happy endings. But you, you make me believe in them again," Maurer drops it okay, but the particular scene doesn't get away from the line's own cheesy nature. I'm pretty sure that I found this quote on Tumblr, I mean, I'm not intent in telling you this but it's true. Both leads are serviceable despite their underwritten roles: Marcus's bad experience from his girlfriend and Joey's father's declination of her weren't expanded to something satisfactory. Didn't move along at all. Dubai director Rory B. Quintos appears lazy and implausible. For a full-length theatrical feature Suddenly It's Magic practically crawls in desperation, but for a two-hour cosmetic or toothpaste commercial, it's first-rate.
I've long accepted the fact that Star Cinema will continue to be commercially triumphant on this side of the cinema, but rarely in my books. And the fact that I have written a review this long, that I've had this much of things I've said about the movie, terrifies me. "Don't over think it, they're not pulling any tricks at all," very true, my friend. This film is no fantasia to be considered "magical". "No magic tricks for you today, mate," or maybe I'm over thinking. B-
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