Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino | AWOL is the kind of action film you'd enjoy on a drunken night with friends

After a successful mission to kill the terrorist Al Sajid (complete with misspelled subtitles that look like "aloha snackbar"), super duper ultra expert sniper Lt. Ibarra (Gerald Anderson) celebrates his team's victory with some lechon. Lechon of DEATH, that is. Now on the run from unknown enemies, Ibarra goes AWOL to find out who wants him dead and why... and kill dozens of people in the process.

AWOL is the kind of movie my father used to rent on VHS back when VHS was a thing: a trashy bloodbath fueled by testosterone-laden machismo. If you don't really think of any moral implications while you're watching the film, there are parts of AWOL that are actually quite enjoyable. This is because Ibarra dispatches his enemies with the gusto of a five cent Death Wish Charles Bronson, though not quite as brutal. 

The film justifies the killing by painting the bad guys as drug lords, which is the go-to thing to do to vilify someone these days, I guess. Then again, the characterizations of these people are mostly black and white. The gunplay was decently executed in parts, and those particular scenes made me feel like I was playing Call of Duty or Counterstrike.* This all leads to a fearsome confrontation with the mastermind behind the whole thing. This confrontation turns into a contest where Ibarra and that character both try to be the guy who says "putangina mo" to the other guy with the most verve.

AWOL isn't a good film by any means, but I found it hard to hate on the film. It's the kind of film that you'd watch (and forget) while on a provincial bus or a ferry. It's the kind of film that you'd enjoy while smashed-out-of-your-mind drunk with friends. I'd say I enjoyed this film more than last week's Double Barrel. But to be perfectly honest, once you think about the film, not only is it morally dubious, it all falls apart quite easily.

*(The graphics and reload animations were nice and there was little to no lag; 10/10 -IGN)

***

Accompanying AWOL is the short film Rosa Forgets, starring Mimi Juareza of Quick Change fame. It's about a transgender woman who has developed dementia and has forgotten the fact that she has transitioned. After explaining the premise through dialogue, the movie just ends, albeit on a tender note. While nice, the core ideas could have been expanded a little further, even as a short film.