La Visa Loca -- close to being denied....

Title: La Visa Loca (B)
PH Release Date: May 25, 2005
Actors: Robin Padilla, Rufa Mae Quinto, Johnny Delgado, Tessie Tomas, Noel Trinidad, Isay Alvarez, Robert Seña, Marissa Sanchez, Ricky Davao, Raymart Santiago
Director: Mark Meily
Story and Screenplay: Mark Meily
Editor / Music: Danny Anonuevo et al. / Vincent de Jesus
Design / Photography: Norman Regalado / Lee Meily
Producer: Tony Gloria
Studio: Unitel Pictures


© Unitel


A green card for greener pastures… that’s what most Filipinos are looking for, but that isn’t Jess’ main priority. His focus is more on just getting a visa to finally set foot on the modern-day promise land, which he knows for a fact to be not quite easy. With his insistent girlfriend and his diabetic dead father on completely opposite sides he’s finding a really hard time figuring out what to do and struggles to find some ways to get the visa that he’s been longing for. Will he get it??? I wouldn’t dare say… you may end up not choosing to watch this movie.

When I first heard that Sharon Cuneta and Robin Padilla will be teaming-up again, I instantly thought of my beloved aunt who now resides in Japan. She’s a real fan of hers and she’ll absolutely love another “Maging Sino ka Man”. Much to her dismay, and my delight, they’re not teaming-up as a screen couple but as producer-actor. Yup, Sharon is one of the executive producers and Robin plays the lead role. I am not a fan of his, but because Mark Meily left quite a good impression on me story wise in Crying Ladies I decided to watch this movie (primarily because Sin City was moved to the 1st of June… screw them), thinking that it may be worth it. I wouldn’t say it wasn’t completely worth it but I wouldn’t say that I paid less for what they offered.

Crying Ladies, for me, is one the best movies made since the turn of the century. Though I had a lot of problems with Meily’s direction, the story stands tall. I couldn’t say the same for La Visa. Somehow the story, no matter how incredibly relatable and Filipino-like, seemed to be repellent. This time the problem is not with his direction, but more of the screenplay and characterization.

It is as humorous if not more than Crying Ladies, but it’s not as emotionally stirring. I just didn’t feel the connection with any of these characters, except during the highest points of the movie: the beginning and the climax. Other than those two parts mentioned, they’re all detached from those watching them.


© Unitel

I don’t blame the actors for it but more of the writing. The constant laughs and the parodies clouded the emotions they needed to exude. The intentions were good, I get it, we all did, but Meily needs to realize that moviemaking is different from writing an episode for a politically and socially relevant version of Bubble Gang. If he wants to make such a difference, do it in Mendiola, don’t make such a good story suffer! It wasn’t like these with Crying Ladies but this one, it just went way too overboard. Like that feeling one gets when something is suppose to be funny, but because it’s the same kind of jest you’ve been witnessing all-day long, you end up feeling bored or even barmy.

Another problem I had is with his “pasyon chorus”, oh my god! What the hell was he thinking! This is not going over the board instead completely making a 360°. Once is tolerable but five friggin’ times??? The whole thing felt fake, not mentioning that the lyrics were not that pretty. Wow…. Before I wrote this, I was actually thinking of saying that this movie is nice… but the way it’s been goin’.. I doubt it…

The music is good especially during the opening credits, which is also visually stunning. The cinematography is okay, some off lights but passable. Editing was not much of a problem, maybe if they were given a better material they could have come out with something better.


© Unitel

If there’s one thing that made this movie somehow work, it’s Robin Padilla and Johnny Delgado. It is rare and I mean once in a blue moon type of rare, that we see Binoe does something completely out of his element. Away from the usual bad boy image, cop-gone-rogue type of image. In this one he’s totally not himself. The same old charisma he had for years but this time its just different. Too bad the character isn’t enough to be completely lovable. It was a good performance. Johnny Delgado, as always is just a knockout, not physically but acting-wise. He simply rocks. He’s probably the best in the country today. He has this unique quality of making you feel and connect with whoever it is that he plays. Rufa Mae didn’t have enough exposure but she did fine.

I don’t blame the movie in its entirety as the cause of my not-so-great feedback, I think the overhyping did kill this movie to me and it will too to some. It’s not the high-class comedy everyone’s been promising, it’s just a regular parody that sometimes gets it right but in an exaggerated unappealing way. Yah, you’ll have a couple of good laughs and some important issues to take notice of but somehow it just wasn’t enough. And the ending just made it more unlikely. It was completely off the tone of the movie.

The one scene that I did love was the climax. It will be crazy to tell yah how it was but it was great. The finest moment of the movie. The beginning was quite good as well. I do recommend this to everyone for the climax alone. This kind of movies rarely come, it may not be as perfect or better than we expect and hoped, but at least it’s something out of the ordinary “kilig” movies we only see these days. I mean seriously, just how many love stories are there that we haven’t heard of? So, in conclusion, this movie actually is nice. And at the current state of the Pinoy movie industry, nice is very, very good.


Grading Sheet:
Story – 17%
Screenplay – 15%
Direction / Execution – 15%
Acting – 18%
Technical Aspect – 15%
Total: 80% = B