Camp Sawi is just the first Pinoy film since Heneral Luna that I’ve watched and reviewed. Actually, I watched this movie a week ago,
but it was such a bummer that I wasn’t interested of writing about it in the first
place. But then again, ever since I
started last year of writing brief reviews about every recent movie (and TV show) that I’ve been able to watch, I’ve yet to skip one, regardless of quality
– even when it’s annoyingly pretentious, utterly atrocious, mind-numbingly stupid, or tortuously bland. Besides, though this movie bored me out
of my mind, it’s still not the worst movie I’ve seen this year so far – that
would be Zoolander 2 or Allegiant. So I probably shouldn’t break the streak now. Here goes...
The movie tells the story of a group
of heartbroken women (and one gay man) who go on a peculiar vacation getaway by
staying in “Camp Sawi”, a boot camp/resort that could help them heal and move
on.
Each woman’s heartbreak is
unique. Bella Padilla’s character is
left for another girl by her long-time boyfriend due to her not being Chinese. Yassi Pressman’s character
discovers that her boyfriend is gay. Arci
Muñoz’s character is a drunken rocker who gets dumped by her bassist/boyfriend via a mean
breakup song. Andi Eigenmann’s character,
a mistress, is being troubled by her conscience. There’s also this catatonic lady whose fiancé gets tragically killed by a runaway car, moments after proposing to her. And then there’s this obese lady – a stereotypical butt-of-jokes fat character – who is dumped by
her equally fat boyfriend just because he has started going to the gym, has lost
ten pounds, and now thinks she’s too fat for him.
That seems to be a fun and
attractive ensemble. Unfortunately, the movie
that they’re operating in is poorly thought of, horrendously paced, severely
underwhelming, and distractingly disjointed.
The flow of the movie feels like a compilation of cheesy, inorganic
scenes. The jokes have potential, could
even be clever, but the execution is generally flat. Payoffs are non-existent.
But the most infuriating thing
about this movie is Sam Milby’s character, Camp Sawi’s camp master. He’s supposed to be the one that would bring
about the healing for these girls. Thus,
in my opinion, the success of the plot development is substantially hinged on
him. However, the character lacks personality. By that, I don’t mean physically – Sam Milby
is a hunky guy – but the character “lacks personality” because he’s so
under-realized… so random. His motivations and background are unexplored. He never really contributed anything remotely profound; in the end, if you think about it, his presence was unnecessary. He acts like
a charismatic, “zen” kind of guy, but with no well-rounded characterization behind it, he essentially
comes off as pretentious. And by extension,
the entire plot comes off as pretentious.
Look, I’m not a big fan of mainstream
Filipino movies. They’re generally dumb, overly melodramatic, cheesy, lazy, boring, and too formulaic. I could enjoy them sometimes when I treat
them in a “so bad, it’s good” perspective, finding amusement in how hilariously
bad they are (that’s why I tend to prefer watching old iconic Filipino movies;
they have nostalgia going for them, and with them, I knew what I would be
getting).
So why did I then proceed to watch
Camp Sawi in the first place? Well, it was a holiday, and it was one of
those times where, you know, there was “nothing else to do to pass the time” and, also, “watching it, not for the sake of the movie itself, but for the companionship of whom you watch it with.” Also, there are some instances when
mainstream Filipino films can be competent – even genuinely enjoyable, clever,
and imaginative. Case in point: Starting Over Again was a surprisingly
fun Filipino movie watching experience for me.
And I was hoping Camp Sawi would
turn out being another Staring Over Again
experience.
Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be the
case.
Post script:
- For the record, how I would love for exciting, thoughtful, clever, well-made Filipino movies and TV series to be the staple.
- You want a comedy-done-right about someone trying to get over a heartbreak by going on a vacation? Try Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
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