Overtime

There are a lot of things going for Overtime — Wincy Aquino Ong's 'big pharma is bad'-commentary slapstick-actioner — although a lot of things also aren't. Firstly, it is genre-bending; rarely is it that we see an awkward tech-whiz (whom we meet no earlier than halfway through the film) not only get to emerge as hero, but also get the Final Girl. Bearwin Meily — who ably portrays the role of the unlikely hero (and apparently avid Greenhills shopper) — is a pivotal element to the eccentric conceits of the film. But to weigh in crank in the film is a moot task, given Ong's previous effort San Lazaro, a film about fanaticism and the occult, can only handle so much cray from the respective roles of Bianca King and Ramon Bautista. With this, we are left with a social commentary that does not engross beyond its extremest potential and principal characters that are essentially underwritten cut-outs: from a dumbed-down graveyard-shift worker (Lauren Young) to a handsome neurotic (Richard Gutierrez, turning in a performance reminiscent to Aga Muhlach in Rory B. Quintos' Sa Aking Mga Kamay). Ultimately, it is Ong's pursuit to bring mainstream leagues something fresh that elevates his film; and what he has arrived here with — at best — is a fine, admission-worthy consumable pulp.