Manuel Cinco's final collaboration with Robin Padilla marks a milestone in the director's filmography; the filmmaker is entrusted by a high profile studio (Viva) with the responsibility of managing a big production. Even with all the amenities provided, the end product remain formula driven and encumbered by a serious pacing issue.
The script was penned by veteran screenwriter Ricky Lee and seems to be the only time he wrote for an action movie (that I know of). Lee doesn't have a lot of experience in writing action and his forte is mostly in drama which might help explain a few of the film's problems. One notable feature in the film is Cinco's extensive use of the split screen technique which he employed sparingly in a 1989 flick (Alyas Boy Life).
For the lead actor's part, Padilla updated previous old roles in his movie's double portrayal of twins Anton and Elmo; Anton is patterned after Romano, the Ramboesque soldier in Sa Diyos Lang Ako Susuko while Elmo is a goofier version of Eric from Willy Milan's Barumbado. Like other films focusing on identical twins, the key to the success of this gimmick is in the contrasts between characters; Anton is the silent, more reserved type with the Clint Eastwood style speaking voice while Elmo is the boorish and crude, unrefined loudmouth. Many of the more interesting moments in the film result from the twins' amusing banter which means that Padilla did a pretty good job in the acting department.
Meanwhile, the action scenes are somewhat 50/50; there's a few okay sequences such as the shootout in the bus terminal which was decent. The gunfight in the river was quite a chore to watch because of the scene's awkward staging and the
corny use of slow motion. A lot of the action sequences are in truth, half-baked, stale and unmemorable including the perfunctory manner in which boss villain Laroza is dispatched. There's no suspense or build up of tension involved in any of these scenes, with perhaps the exception of the fight between the twins. Through the clever use of doubles and tight choreography, this fight sequence serves to break the monotony of the previous boring set piece.
It should be noted that it's in this film where Padilla made the comedy aspect of his act, a regular staple in his movies. When before, he would limit his comedy act by borrowing from Jimmy Santos' carabao english routine, here he let everything hang out, making quips and wisecracks at every opportunity (To be more accurate though, it was in the earlier Eddie Rodriguez directed action romcom with Ate Shawie where Padilla found his proper footing as a stand up comedian and as good natured, wisecracking idol of the masses). Which really isn't a bad thing as long as the comedy is done in small doses; in films like Grease Gun Gang, Bad Boy 2 and Mistah, Padilla's comic antics are somewhat tolerable because of those movies' other weighty elements such as the action or drama (Though Bad Boy 2 is considered the weakest in these entries). In Cinco's film, a few of Padilla's jokes come off as really corny and not funny at all such as joking about Dindo Arroyo's hair or the lack of hair on a goon's head. The really funny scenes is when Padilla isn't trying to be funny at all (his torrent of expletives in the bus scene).
To conclude, this movie is Padilla's last decent hard action flick (along with Eddie Rodriguez's Grease Gun Gang). It is also one of Manuel Cinco's more competent works in the early 90s.
