Entertainment Earth

Bula Review – Ayanna Misola, Rob Guinto (Now Streaming on Vivamax)

Here’s my Bula review which stars Ayanna Misola, Rob Guinto, Mon Confiado and more. This is directed by Bobby Bonifacio Jr. Now streaming on Vivamax.

 

The music and songs used here can range from funny to catch to obscure to campy. They did a good one of using a melodic version of Bituin in a pivotal scene early on in the film. But then that gets subverted a little bit because its then used as background music for a rather ‘risque’ moment involving Misola and her constant fantasizing and eventual breaking into the condo of one of their regular customers in the laundry shop she works for.

I don’t regularly review Vivamax stuff but from as far as I can tell, they do love to put Ayanna Misola in crime/ murder dramas. Watching Bula has this same vibe as Kinsenas Katapusan to be honest. Maybe they could bench her from this genre I guess? Or they could push this further and give her this particular niche projects.

Even if the film wants to look serious and all, you can’t help but laugh at the visual effects of blood spurts and all that crazy stuff. Even the smoke produced from hydrochloric acid looked terribly fake.

The delivery of some lines can also go from “hey OK” to that’s so corny. There’s this certain pa-cute element that they could have just steered clear of. There’s also the way the screenplay was written where Rob Guinto goes “Yung talent coordinator ko, si –“. Its off putting. Like if the dude is going to be important, they could have written a different way to introduce the character.

Mon Confiado also continues to show how good of an actor he is. Playing Meldie’s “lover” he’s pretty much a vegetable at the start of the movie and also plays a bit of an exposition tool, being Meldie’s confidant and “play thing”. Good on the writing to give us an idea of what he’s been through but he’s also not a saint as you’ll see in the movie.

I liked a lot of visual cues and easter eggs that they presented here. There’s one scene established in the first act after the reveal that Meldi was a serial killer and had mental issues and she breaks into her new target’s home and she does this pose with a bull horn behind her giving this devilish aesthetic. Pretty cool.

I’m torn between saying this was OK or was a waste of time but honestly speaking, I enjoyed the camp and the music and the insanely convenient plot and how silly the police investigators here at the start. Nobody even bothered to check the houses near the crime scene? Really?

I liked how this film is objective whether you see the ending as a good ending or a bad ending or an ending that justifies what she has done.

If there’s one thing that hobbled the film it’s how its so predictable. You’ll know how things was going down but still it managed to stick a nice twist or two by the third act. It does open some problems and questions that never gets resolved or answered.

Overall, I think the movie was OK. It had some nice moments and a few cringe moments too.

VERDICT: 7/10

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