Graceland (I) (2012)

When a kidnapping goes wrong, a desperate father risks everything to save his daughter from the men who hold her captive.

Director:

Ron Morales

Writer:

Ron Morales

Stars:

Arnold Reyes, Menggie Cobarrubias, Dido De La Paz

2 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Arnold Reyes	...	Marlon Villar
Menggie Cobarrubias	...	Mr. Manuel Changho
Dido De La Paz	...	Detective Ramos
Leon Miguel	...	Visel
Ella Guevara	...	Elvie Villar
Marife Necesito	...	Mrs. Marcy Changho
Patricia Gayod	...	Sophia Changho (as Patricia Ona Gayod)
Bernadette Diao	...	ChiChi Body Double
Yam Wilson	...	ChiChi
Angie Ferro	...	ChiChi's Grandmother
Angeli Bayani	...	Lina Villar
Archie Adamos	...	JoeJoe
Lyn Sherman	...	News Anchor / Teacher (as Lynn Sherman)
Rommel Luna	...	Lover
Marcial Umoso	...	Detective Marcial (as Marical Umoso)

Storyline

Family man Marlon Villar - a longtime chauffeur to corrupt Filipino politician Manuel Chango - is faced with an unthinkable predicament when he is ambushed while driving both his boss's and his own daughter home from school one afternoon. In the chaos of the kidnapping attempt, things go horribly awry and Marlon's daughter is taken and held for ransom instead. Desperate to save his daughter, Marlon must navigate the conflicting motives between the ruthless kidnappers, untrustworthy Chango and determined detectives eager to name him a suspect without letting on the wrong girl was taken hostage. As events spin wildly out of control, Marlon, Chango and their families are forced into a rapid downward spiral of deceit and betrayal that will leave no one innocent.

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Plot Keywords:

kidnapping | detective | school | deceit | slum | 

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Taglines:

A Life for Every Lie

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Genres:

Crime | Thriller

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Philippines

Language:

Tagalog

Release Date:

26 April 2013 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Metro Manila, Philippines

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$13,059 (USA) (26 April 2013)

Gross:

$20,791 (USA) (3 May 2013)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Imprint Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

"Dark Day"
Written by Mike Thies and Topu Lyo
Performed by Live Footage

User Reviews

Unusual Kidnap/Ransom Movie with a Twist • 6/10

This isn't the best ransom flick I've seen but it's certainly a bit different from what's usually on offer, especially for a low budget non- English speaking Independent. Technically it's not brilliant and the direction appeared erratic as did the script because the main problem with this film was the pacing. It was noticeably bad. It stopped and started quite abruptly throughout causing the scenes which had high drama to appear flat and unimportant when the direction should have led to each big scene with a bit of a build up to get us prepared for some emotion, When you consider the subject matter of child rape and kidnapping, these are things that need proper and careful handling which wasn't really the case hear.

There are a couple of scenes where the young girls are completely naked and I'm 99% sure they were in their 'very' early teens. This would never be allowed in a lot of countries and the English speaking countries in particular are extremely strict on things like this, and rightly so. The scenes were totally unnecessary and could have been done tastefully.

The acting is decent and the two main actors who play the kidnapped daughter Ella Guevaraare and the father played by Arnold Reyes are well known in the Philippines. Even though the story shows us the dark underbelly of child prostitution and political corruption there is at least a sort of satisfactory outcome but it still wasn't an easy film to watch.

Not for everyone

Score: 6/10

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