JustinCasey83
Cesar Montano stars,wrote the screenplay and directed this film entitled "Ligalig" which happens to be a French rip off of the movie made by Alexandre Aja and starred by Cecile de France and Maiwenn known as "High Tension".No question that this Filipino film totally imitated the French slasher flick from beginning to end.It took everything from its story,the characters,the murders,the twist of having the main character - Junior - who is suffering from double personality and the conclusion.Too bad that it was a poor imitation as some elements that were done were out of place such as the masturbation scene,the shower scene,the gun toting mother and brother,the prostitutes involved and many others.As for the additional elements such as the melodramatic and violent characters,they looked simply out of place as well and does not contribute to the overall story.What's worse,there are more questions that needed to be answered at the end of the movie as plot holes can be detected by intelligent viewers.Added to that,the use of special effects too were clumsily done and excessive.They could be tiresome as the movie progresses.One might even laugh at their use in some of the scenes.In summary,this was a bad movie.I know that the Philippines can produced better films than this.
hazel-diaz
The movie Ligalig was released for DVD rental this month here in the US. I was able to see it over the weekend. I was really disappointed. It's a shame for him and wife Sunshine to claim that he came up with this story. He copied the whole thing from a French movie i saw last year titled 'HIGH TENSION". It was released here in the US as DVD rental movie. I wish Cesar would have just made the movie but should have advertised it as a copy then i would not be very upset and disappointed in him. Oh boy, it's really a shame. I hope someone would be able to send this message to him. I guess, he thought no one would see the French movie and went on claiming he came up with this story.
marie
I saw the trailer for this movie and it was enthralling and looked like the greatest thriller of 2006. Sad to say, it is a great disappointment for me.The movie starts with a hyper-extended sex scene (complete with audio) which I did not find relevant to the plot of the story (except for the fact that the woman in the scene was the prostitute acquainted to Cesar Montano's character, Junior, who was murdered). I mean, why the full-blown sex scene? What happened to "fade-outs"? The rating was only R-13! I assume that this is something to lure men to catch the movie. It's something to boast about for them, isn't it? ("Hey, this movie is steamy! Go see it!")The second thing I noticed was the use (or misuse thereof) of green/blue screens. Cesar plays a taxi driver in the movie. The problem was that the scenery around him was so so evidently unrealistic. You could see where his taxi ended and where the CGI magic began without subtlety. Most movies have their cameras switching one or two angles every now and then, while this movie kept going 360 degrees round and round over and over. It made me quite dizzy.The third thing was that almost everyone in the movie smoked like chimneys. Again, what relevance to the story? The ending was the biggest bummer. It was a rip-off of Secret Window. Need I say more? I left the theater irritated. One good thing: The makers of this movie know their trailers. It's really deceiving. They should stick to strictly trailers. Leave the actual movies alone. Please.
Marco Mendoza
Having received an "A" from the Philippines' Cinema Evaluation Board (CEB) I immediately became excited to see this movie. After 20 minutes or so, I realized that I had been fooled: I have already seen this movie. No, not exactly This Movie, but a French movie called High Tension, directed by the superb Alexandre Aja. For those of you who are aware of the said film's ending, then babing! there is Ligalig's highly confidential climax (news reports revealed that the stars and the crew of Ligalig were required to sign a contract that restricts them from revealing the film's plot twist).Anyway, if I am going to watch a highly effective slasher film's rip-off, then it must be a better version. I should at least get my money's worth.Aside from this, the film also suffers from MTV-style editing and shots and angles that are supposed to be new in Philippine Cinema, but these end up getting tired as they become more repetitive as the film progresses.4 our of 10 stars.
AD
