Jesus Salonga, alyas Boy Indian

Roi Vinzon's filmmaking debut is a decent effort from the versatile veteran actor. The first time director knows how to set up and stage action sequences and has visual acuity in composing scenes. But his strengths behind the camera does not automatically translate to a necessarily good movie.

Vinzon's script for the movie is pretty good as it allows the visuals to do the actual work and rely on little expository dialogue. The story mixes some passable action with a lot of melodrama and some comedy. The dialogue is authentic street dialect and ideally reflect the surroundings depicted.

The actor hired to play the young version of Boy Indian can't act and he botches the scene where the filmmakers are trying to set him up as a sympathetic character for the audience. For the most part though, the acting from the cast is serviceable. Vinzon's movie has several guest stars including George Estregan Jr., and Edu Manzano. Estregan Jr.'s role is particularly over the top and shows that he is the king of overacting.

Vinzon is obviously selling himself as a bonafide action star in this film but he has the bad luck of making action movies at a time when hard action flicks are considered passe and out of fashion by corporate backed studios. In addition, his film doesn't seem to have the guts to head in a more serious direction as it also tries to be "kuwela" (wacky) perhaps as a way to win the approval of younger audiences. Too bad, because the scenes in Vinzon's film seem to have the right ingredients for it to be another gangster classic but alas, it was trying too hard to please various demographics and doesn't know what it wants to be. Though maybe Vinzon does know what he wants to do with his movie and that is to make something along the lines of Eddie Rodriguez's Grease Gun Gang. The similarities of both films are many: both have caricaturish characters as buddies of the protagonist, both have a leading lady from a wealthy family, both lead characters are ex convicts, both put an emphasis on comedy being equal to the action and so on. But while Rodriguez's movie succeeds as a less serious in tone action flick, Vinzon's film is found lacking in a few areas. The most obvious reason for this is that the subject matter of the movie require a darker treatment, not the frat party style employed in Rodriguez's film.

Another corny aspect of Vinzon's movie is its over emphasis on the "Indian" theme/concept. The filmmakers constantly remind the viewer of this amazing fact by using a recording of an Indian war cry playing in the background when the protagonist is about to join a rumble; the titular character also uses arrows in fighting rival hoodlums and he has long hair like Geronimo. Okay Roi, I get it, your character's motif is an american indian, nice. Compare this to Bembol Rocco's movie Boy Apache where the reason for the Indian getup is due to the character's job as a carnival stunt biker and Vinzon's film seem childish and a bit silly. Also, the other problem with the film is that it is a missed opportunity in storytelling; instead of exploring the fascinating underworld of indigenous gang culture, it tries to be "cute" to pander to the jejemon and jologs crowd. The beach scene in particular is trying to be "meta" by having Boy Indian's gangmates sport his moniker as tattoos in different parts of their bodies. It's simply sickening if you ask me. There's also two goofy joke characters in the film such as a guy with a cowboy outfit and a hoodlum wearing an Elvis costume (played by the aforementioned Estregan Jr.). Apparently, Estregan Jr., as Elvis is pure crínge; I always prefer Kurt Russell or Joey De Leon impersonating the King of Rock n' Roll ("Elvis and James" with Rene Requiestas deserves an academy award for best picture. Speaking of De Leon, Mike Myers totally ripped off the guy. Myers is a f-cking thief and a shameless plagiarist). Vinzon's movie is one tired cliche piled on top of another moribund cliche. There's the wacky sidekick with a speech impediment (aka "ngongo" in the tagalog vernacular), the friend who is a bit of an a-hole, the poor boy meets rich girl but parents of the girl are hostile to the boy subplot, the evil cop who tortures the poor hero in a dark and dingy room, etc. The film is melodramatic, formulaic and generic with a few well staged fight scenes. In other words, it is a mediocre movie wrapped in shiny tin foil. I've read better crime dramas in old local comics magazines back in the early 90s.

In conclusion, Vinzon's film has a few commendable qualities but it suffers from a "been there, done that" sensibility. For a crime drama to truly succeed, serious and gritty are the way to go, not wacky or "cute".