The Reunion

For years, the Philippine Cinema has catered to a very limited genre of films, those that are usually made are those who can generate a hefty amount of money or features new stars that has really very wide fan base. It has been quite long since the last Filipino Teen movie and I thought, Filipinos has completely forgotten about it. This year, The Reunion tries to revive the genre that made Claudine Barreto and Mark Anthony Fernandez a household name back in the 90s.

The Reunion tells the story of 4 friends who are not-so-successful with their chosen careers. Now that the upcoming High School Reunion is coming at a close, they are a bit hesitant of showing up knowing that their classmates has better fortunes with their lives. Lloyd (Dee) is an artist working as a graphic artist in local print shop, Boggs (Gil) is a failed real estate agent, Pat (Cipriano) is a singer who wants to make it big in the industry by joining talent shows and Joax (Lim) who is the leader of the group is a lost soul. As the Reunion approaches, they tried to examine their lives and what could have led to their present situation. The adventure started with them finding where Ara (Christine Reyes) is, which they seem to consider as the source of all the changes that happened to them.

The Reunion does not really follow what the title is. I find it really irrelevant. While the soundtrack is really superb, the story lacks the depth of the characters that could have made it a successful piece.The plot has been used over and over again that it has been tiring to watch. There were solid performance for most of the actors in the film. Cipriano, as a newbie, has still more workshops to attend. The situations that the gang was in were pretty ridiculous. Though there are some comedic moments worthy of a laugh or so, still the ones that were not properly executed outweighs the good ones.

The Reunion is a movie that passes by. It is not as memorable as Pare Ko back in the 90s. This is one of the problem of this film, once you get watch it, you get out of the theater and you would wonder what was the film you just watched.

GRADE: C

trailer