In hindsight, we’d just like to say that many folks were really surprised when they learned that GMA Films is launching the Julielmo love team in a full length movie. “Naku, wala pa silang pruweba,” one skeptical writer said. But another writer declared: “Pero ang dami nilang fans sa Party Pilipinas at sa mall shows.”
It’s now obvious that the mere presence of thousands of fans screaming and shrieking in a mall show or inside a studio is no guarantee for a star or a love team to already have enough power to attract millions of viewers who will fill up a movie theatre.
We remember Director Mac Alejandre even said Julielmo reminded him of the Richard Gutierrez-Angel Locsin tandem who he successfully launched in “Let the Love Begin” (a real blockbuster). But the Julielmo team cannot be compared to Richard-Angel who already had a hit primetime show then, “Mulawin”. And both Richard and Angel have already done many other shows and movies. In other words, they already paid their dues, unlike the half-baked Julielmo na wala pang napapatunayan other than their fans in “Party Pilipinas”.
Add to this the fact that the title of the movie is “Just One Summer” and yet it’s released at a time when we’re already in the midst of the rainy season and so many of our people had just suffered from the damaging monsoon rains and floods when it was shown. Talk about bad timing.
As for the movie itself, Elmo should not have been given a role that is beyond his limited acting range. He wasn’t able to be truly persuasive in his dramatic scenes and even appeared so “antipatiko” as the son who’s is so rude to his very own father. At one point, he even punched his dad (Joel Torre) on the face. That’s very off-putting. We wish this movie will help GMA Films executives in making better decisions for future film projects they wish to bankroll.
