Time & Again: Movie Review

You know when an item you have was made not out of love but just as a common commodity. Basically, making it as generic and as cheap as possible. There's no life, no thrill, no kick to having it in your hands. This is the very same feelings we got from "Time & Again". It is a film made from a production line mindset - it is as generic and as unsatisfying as its streamlining made it out to be.

After being hurt from a previous relationship, Apol (Winwyn Marquez), a barista in a coffee shop, has never fallen in love again. But one day, she gets to meet a customer named Ozzie (Enzo Pineda) who she finds to be the man of her dreams. Unfortunately, Ozzie is in a relationship. But when their friendship unexpectedly matures and Apol finds out that Ozzie's girlfriend is cheating on him, she must decide if telling the truth is actually the right thing to do.

"Time & Again" had us hoping that its time-bending concept would bring a totally legit new experience for us. But our fears came true instead that it was actually used to save on production cost by having the same set, the same costumes, and just changing the script to alter the scene. But worse, they totally set up the film for failure with lackluster writing. It's pretty basic as you can get and we're being very polite here. In fact, it just wasn't even working at a very basic level. We're pretty sure you're familiar with the tale of Goldilocks and the porridge being "just right". The film had extreme versions of its story - hot and cold - but it did not put in a "just right" scenario and conclusion. Maybe they wanted to save on production cost again and did not want a third version for their script to shoot. But seriously, how they concluded the whole film was simply unsatisfying and completely ridiculous. If they only gave another half hour for its story to further mature then the film could have turned out to be so much better than its current form - not that it will be perfect but at least acceptable. The acting was just okay. We barely felt any chemistry between Enzo Pineda and Winwyn Marquez but we're not sure if it's their acting or its the fault of the very limited script that was given to them. Pretty much the highlight for the film for us wasn't even the lead actors ironically. Most of the fun we had was with Adrienne Vergara who plays the cousin of Apol. Her very exuberant comedic style was not only funny but very infectious as well. Sadly, "Time & Again" didn't aspire to be more than generic and in the process made itself a whole lot worse than just being average.

Rating: 1 and a half reels





Why you should watch it:
- Adrienne Vergara's funny take made this somewhat watchable but not acceptable

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- the writing lacked any proper conclusion