Limelight

By Alvin I. Dacanay Another scandal is shaking, rattling and rolling the 41st Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF). 

The CineFilipino film festival, organized by Unitel Productions in partnership with the MVP Group of Companies, promises to offer from February 2 to 8, 2016 a fresh spin on independent or “indie” films: more moving stories and a wider range of genres.

That question—or a variation of it—will be on the minds of beauty pageant-crazy Filipinos on Monday morning (Manila time), when Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach competes with 79 other women from around the world for the title of Miss Universe.

Review by Lindsey Bahr / The Associated Press J.J. Abrams may not elevate the language of Star Wars, but he sure is fluent in it. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is no more and no less than the movie that made us love it in the first place. In fact, it’s basically the same thing. Isn’t that what we all wanted, …

On Tuesday, some in the Philippine theater community will remember one of their own who passed away prematurely on that day, 20 years ago. His name: Carlos “Charley” B. dela Paz Jr. He was a member of the Philippine Educational Theater Association (Peta) who wrote and acted in a number of the company’s socially conscious plays in the 1980s and …

Review by Jocelyn Noveck / The Associated Press Admit it. When you heard another Rocky movie was coming out—a seventh—you thought, really? How many Rocky movies do we need?

By Jake Coyle / The Associated Press New York—Michael Caine sits down for lunch at the St. Regis Hotel in midtown New York, clutching a copy of the day’s Daily News, given to him by the hotel doorman, who has earmarked a photo of Caine and his Youth co-star Jane Fonda. 

Los Angeles—If the teasers, trailers and hints haven’t sated your appetite for all things Star Wars in advance of the latest entry in the franchise, then it’s time to tap into the force of fan films. 

By Jake Coyle / The Associated Press New York—Is there any better team player in movies than Mark Ruffalo?

The Good Dinosaur is Pixar’s most trippy and tripped-up film: a wayward tale, un­certain of its steps, about a Gumby-green young di­nosaur lost in prehistoric forests that are rendered in lushly sensory detail and populated by bug-eyed ani­mations.