The Reunion: Movie Review

"The Reunion" is a mixed bag of good things and bad things. Neither does it excel nor turn into something awful that makes it a sell-out to the potential of an Eraserheads collaboration. What you get is a mess of a story (with little or no logical sense at times) but with perfect moments of comedy mixed in to make you forget about its shortcomings. What it excels though is that it never succumbs to being just another local romcom variant. The film has a different vibe as the characters hilariously prod to the end credits. And honestly, that in itself is already an achievement.

Bogs (Enrique Gil), Joax (Xian Lim), Lloyd (Enchong Dee) and Pat (Kean Cipriano) are four friends who are having troubles with their own respective careers since they left high school. As they attend their school's reunion, this sad reality hits harder as they find out that most of their rivals are now successful on their own right. Lloyd then surmises that ever since the four "cheated" and broke up with their high school girlfriends, their lives have taken a downward spiral. In the hopes to make things right, the four decide that they must fix what they broke years ago by reuniting Lloyd with his ex Ara (Cristine Reyes).

Ironically, one of the film's supposed selling points is also the same thing that destroys it. The Eraserheads angle muddle things up and degrades the story and character development. A lot of times, you could literally see how the film forces itself to conform to the songs its featuring. It literally makes the movie predictable at times or with a jumbled story that never feels solid together. We have to admit though, the nostalgia factor alone will make any Eraserheads fan smile. But simply put, this didn't need to have a complete movie based on the iconic band's tunes. Nostalgia is a fleeting feeling but your whole impression on "The Reunion" will stick to you for a long time. What we did like about the movie is that it is unconventional most of the way. Not everyone has a "happy" ending (although having four love teams might be a big factor why this happened) and the individual stories each have their own unique dilemmas. Unfortunately, the movie concentrates on the most generic one (and stupid one at that) but it is forgivable in our opinion. The biggest asset of "The Reunion" is its humor. It's a laugh-out-loud experience with the various antics the four decide to take in the name of love. "The Reunion" may not live up to the Eraserheads moniker or does it shake up the genre. But it's effectiveness to bring out your laughing side slightly makes this better than the usual.

Rating: 3 reels





Why you should watch it:
- the film is funny from start to finish
- feels unconventional most of the way

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- the Eraserheads songs actually limit the film
- the story is a complete mess