On The Job : Movie Review

On The Job is a Filipino movie directed by Erik Matti and stars Joel Torre, Gerald Anderson, Piolo Pascual and many others. The movie talks about the harsh reality of the corrupt system in the country. It talks about the life of people in the prison and those powerful people outside who abuse them for their own corrupt gain. The story is based on real events where powerful people with money connives with prison guards, policemen and even high ranking investigators to illegally bring out prisoners and hire them as conmen. After doing their job, the conmen returns to prison thus resulting to a difficulty to trace the whereabouts of the hired killers. What I admire about the movie is on how they managed to do it waaaaaaaay good. I actually thought that the way they made the film, the way the presented killing people was so real. It was not your typical Filipino action movie where the hero never gets shot. Here, the powerful prevailed and the truth, no matter how elusive, remained uncovered. 

The scenes were unexpectedly unpredictable which made the story telling believable and does not fabricate the truth. It may not be a perfect and still share some flaws to others who have seen it. For me, the only awkward part was when Daniel Benitez (Anderson) screamed TANGINA as he shows off the tattooed letters of the curse word in each of his fingers. Atty Francis Coronel (Pascual) and Tatang (Torre) delivered a powerful and truthful performance of their characters. Joaquin Acosta (Joey Marquez) actually performed his role without any doubt as if he was a real policeman in real life.

On The Job is a defining movie of our generation and has proved itself to portray the reality of corruption and power in the Philippines. Definitely must be seen by all Filipinos to wake them up in the reality that this is what's happening. That the reality of the current events in the country now is affected by every human being, by every powerful people and the lives that intertwined with each other.

--------

jigomeister

18.09.13

J Gerald C Legaspi is the Filipino author of akosiherardo.blogspot.com and is currently working and travelling in and around South East Asia but spends most of his time in Jakarta, Manila and Singapore.