Shifting gears

During the early phase of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, its host, Christopher de Leon, really got it from everyone. He was stiff, confused and simply didn’t know how to host a game show.

But all those criticisms are now a thing of the past. Lately, in fact, I’ve been monitoring the show once more (after they showed replays during the summer – a result of their studio getting burned down some months back) and I’ve seen for myself how Christopher has improved as a game show host. He is in better control and a lot more confident in handling the program. Why, he has become even more articulate. In fact, he now animatedly banters with the studio contestants and is a lot more cheerful to watch in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

However, I noticed that he has developed this habit of asking the contestants for the supposed "magic word" (to which, the contestant should reply "final answer"). Of course, as you can see, "final answer" is two words and not just one. But then, I’m already nitpicking, so I might as well stop here. But really, I can honestly say that Christopher de Leon has evolved into one of the finest game show hosts on local television today.

As for the host of The Weakest Link, Edu Manzano had always been very comfortable before the microphone. Hosting The Weakest Link, therefore, had always been a walk in the park for him. At this point, he is still doing a wonderful job in what is my personal favorite local game show.

(I would also like to monitor Kris Aquino and her Game Ka Na Ba show, except that I don’t even know what time it airs anymore.)

Rudy’s big, dangerous leap

Like Christopher de Leon, who shifted from drama acting to hosting game shows, action superstar Rudy Fernandez also took a big and dangerous leap when he accepted GMA-7’s offer to co-star with Rosanna Roces in the Thursday night sitcom Daboy en Da Girl.

Performing action stunts obviously is quite different from doing comedy routines, which are more for the likes of Dolphy, Joey de Leon and Vic Sotto. But to everyone’s amazement, Rudy took to his comic role like a duck to water. In just a matter of weeks, he became comfortable in his sitcom with Osang, the more veteran of the two when it comes to doing comic roles – having done (and having won an award for it) 1 for 3. (Besides, a lot of us are getting more and more convinced that Startalk is really more of a comedy program than a movie talk show, so Osang actually gets a lot of practice there.)

To Rudy’s credit, however, he can already parry it, off with Osang and with the other comedians in the series. In fact, he seems to have excellent timing when it comes to delivering his punchlines – especially his one-liners.

After his victory in Manila Film Festival’s best actor, he now seems to be headed for another win – perhaps as best actor in a comedy series?

* * *

From televisions, he’s move on to the big screen. Now showing in Metro Manila theaters is the foreign film Slackers.

Slackers is about a group of college students who cheat their way through everything. Too bad for them, the school nerd (De Von Sawa) discovers one of their fraudulent deeds and are backmailed into arranging for the campus beauty to be the nerd’s girl. Tough job? Actually, it’s even a lot tougher to be able to sit through this awful, awful film.

The film is billed is an adult comedy – so it’s supposed to combine humor with sex. The sex part had been duly excised by the MTRCB and all you’ll see are the really huge but that past drying ?? of this monstrously-made-up elderly woman playing the part of an over-the-hill hooker.

As for the comedic parts, you can’t blame the MTRCB for taking those out. There was no comedy in it in the first place — not even one bit.

Slackers is really one film that lives up to its title. It’s slack — plain and simple. Its script is loose — with the direction negligent.

To the viewer’s disappointment, each scene only slackens up onto the next. The only relief in this film comes in the part where you see on the big screen, printed in big bold letters, the words "The End."