Shake Rattle and Roll Fourteen: The Invasion (2012) Online

The fourteenth instalment of the SHAKE, RATTLE & ROLL franchise is a step up from those which came previously. It's still not great, but it does rise to the level of being merely average, thanks to plenty of incident and the like. The three stories play out in order and for once were all directed by the same guy, so they have more consistency in terms of quality. First up is the usual reading of the will scenario, with the twist that the deceased was a comic book writer whose supernatural creations now come to life to plague his relatives; expect Dracula rising from his coffin and the like. Next we have a squad of forested soldiers coming across a zombie outbreak and being forced to fight for survival in an action-packed story. The final story is the most imaginative and sees a couple exploring the ruins of a collapsed shopping mall before encountering something extraterrestrial in origin. Lots of cheap CGI in this one.

Ugh, to be honest, this movie was the pits. Panama was so similar to an American movie House on Haunted Hill (1999) that I cringed at the obvious way it ended. Herbert Bautista was so hammy that I understood why Janice de Belen's character would be angry at him all the time. The movie did not make sense compared to House on Haunted Hill. Why would the uncle want revenge on the family? The bickering only gave a slight reference that maybe a family problem came and made the uncle angry enough to have his creation Buboy kill them all. Lost command was also similar to several American movies. One about a child carrying the virus (28 days later) and a city in Alaska hunted by zombie like creatures to extinction. The scenes were poorly executed by the way and very GROSS, not scary but GROSS. Martin Escudero's role may be a tongue in the cheek reference because of Zombadings but it ruined the whole plot. Honestly, I kept waiting for the zombie soldiers to do a "zombading" pose.

Unwanted would have been a great sci-fi film and could have stood on its own. Instead, it got lumped in with Shake rattle and roll so basically, the third part lasted 45 minutes. There was a reference to the Mayan calendar. The scenes were so hurried and abrupt sea monsters started attacking, the mall fell down and suddenly a demonic-like human was telling them about them. Vhong kept the movie lively with his antics but it was supposed to be a horror movie. The ending was very confusing. Apparently, the world ended in a Starship Trooper kind of way. The effects were stunning though, it's as if Chito Rono burned the whole 3d effects budget on a 2-minute ending just to give the phrase "The End....of the world".

Unfortunately, during this part of the movie, the audio glitched forward. The raspy alien voice could barely be heard and we didn't understand what the connection was with the sea monster, freaky alien demonic being and the starship trooper like ending. And why the aliens started looking like Vhong and Angel Locsin in the end.

I'd give plus points for Unwanted because of the amazing 2-minute ending showing a lot of digital mastery and effects. as for everything else.... I still weep for the Philippine movie industry.