The name most moviegoers have become familiar with, year in and year out, on Christmas, especially with the annual Metro Manila Film
Festival (that coincides with Christmas Day till a little over the New Year, is that of Vic Sotto, Bossing to his millions of followers in the six-day-a-week noontime show on the Kapuso network, Eat Bulaga! and the late-night Sunday gag-variety Bossing & Ai with AiAi de las Alas.
Lastyear, Sotto’s Enteng Kabisote 10 and the Abangers got the painful surprise when the MMFF Selection committee snubbed the film, the producers had to book it in theaters earlier than the festival. Its box office take was bigger than all of the eight films shown during the festival. It saddened Sotto that the festival had turn into a middling holiday activity and hoped the MMFF reconsider and would bring back films that would attract the crowd back to the plexes.
Here he is in Meant To Beh, which a new set of members of the MMFF Selection Committee immediately gave a green and go for this years festival.
No, its not a fantasy comedy, like last year’s Enteng, but a family movie with Dawn Zulueta, Ruru Madrid and Gabbi Garcia, Daniel Matsunaga, Andrea Torres and the chubby Eat Bulaga toddler, Baste.
Director Chris Martinez said Sotto wanted a family movie, so he, along with the producers and Bossing, discussed how they’d be able to craft something that would appeal to everyone, child, adult, boys, girls, gay, lesbians…across the board, and the result is Meant To Beh.
“This is one movie that all members of the family will truly enjoy. I’m excited to the hilt after I skipped the MMFF last year. I’m back with a good project that has lots of Filipino values to instill in their hearts and minds of the audience,” Vic said.
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We had lunch recently with former Manila Mayor now Congressman Lito Atienza, who wanted to share the good news about the weekly drama anthology Maynila on GMA Network.
With his daughter Angela Lei “Chi” Atienza-Valdepeñas whom Lito has passed on the day-to-day operations of the weekly production as executive producer, the host of the show said he is very happy the show has been on air for nearly two decades (19 years to be exact) after its premiere on Nov. 23, 1998.
The Catholic Church through the Catholic Mass Media Awards has give the show a citation for being one of the longest running drama
anthology on television. And Lito Atienza is very grateful for the honor given to the show.
Chi said that when his father passed on the baton to her she was a little lost on how to go about the production. “My dad said, ‘you have been in show business, you will know how to go about it.’ So, I had no choice.”
Today the show’s ratings have been improving, and commercials are coming in in droves that sometimes she said she has to turn some down.
Maynila airs Saturdays, 9:00 a.m. Its episodes feature stars from both networks (“We are a blocktimer, so we can feature stars from other networks,” Chi said) and remains faithful to its original vision of providing the audience with important life lessons.
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I watched last Saturday’s MMK. I am glad Hero Angeles is back on the Kapamilya network after a long time. He starred with Alex
Gonzaga, their first time to portray lovers on screen.
The couple faced a difficult challenged.
Although diagnosed with kidney failure, Riza (Alex) chooses to look at the brighter side of life and continues to live positively.
While fighting her disease, Riza meets and changes the life of Joel (Hero), a shy and hardworking breadwinner who learns to love himself and open his heart to love.
As their relationship develops, Riza’s condition gets worse to the point where she will need a new kidney for her to survive. Because of his love for Riza, Joel decides to become her donor.
This was the first time I’d seen Alex doing a straight drama, and I can say she’d be good in other straight-dram roles. Hero has grown bigger (more mature) and lost his cutesiness, but he can move on to playing older characters.
