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In today's Inquirer, I saw a picture of a bunch of guys in spandex. Turned out to be the cast of the movie LASTIKMAN starring Vic Sotto as the elastic hero, Donita Rose as his love interest, Michael V. as his faithful sidekick, and Jeffrey Quizon as the villain. Jackielou Blanco and Michelle Bayle are also in the film. The movie is part of the line-up of this year's Metro Manila Filmfest... which should be renamed the Metro Manila Fantasy Filmfest.

As a kid, I used to watch the original, b&w LASTIKMAN movie on IBC 13 during those lazy afternoons. Of course, back then, they didn't have any hi-tech morphing effects, so you'd usually see Lastikman run off-screen and it cuts to the object he transform in, like a tire or a table and it would have that distinct diamond-pattern that's on Lastikman's costume. There was only one scene where special-effects was used. When Lastikman was buried six feet under, he was able to escape by making his hand snake out of a little hole and up the ground. It then cuts to him already above ground. Wow! That was already spectacular back then.

Vic Sotto looked the part in his blue custume and shades. Jeffrey Quizon looked like DARK LASTIKMAN in his black and silver costume.

It would be great if they promoted this movie with a comic book.

In the same article, it mentioned that FPJ's movie was called ALAMAT. Which made me wonder if he was going to portray a struggling comic book artist who receives great powers after a meteor crashes into his studio. When I made a search online for more info about the movie, it turns out the movie's full title is “Ang Alamat ng Lawin” and also stars Sharmaine Arnaiz.

Other "fantasy" films are:

“Agimat” (Bong Revilla/Ara Mina/Alma Moreno/Gina Alajar)

“Spirit Warriors 2” (Streetboys/Danilo Barrios/Vhong Navarro/Jhong Hilario/Spencer Reyes/Christopher Cruz)

Ugh! I watched the first one. It tried to tell too many stories at the same time. I'm sure it will try to do the same thing again.

There's also “Lapu-Lapu” starring Lito Lapid. Yeah, yeah... I know this isn't a fantasy film, but a story like Lapu-lapu can be portrayed as some high fantasy story like Lord of the Rings. With our luck, it would end up looking like Beastmaster and we'll see Lito Lapid jumping through the air, throwing his swords at the enemy and having them magical return to him.

Ugh! We have to survive a week of all those films before we get to watch LOTR: TWO TOWERS. Well, hopefully I get to watch some advanced screening before Christmas.



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