Hello Universe Movie Review: Second Chances and Slapstick Comedy in Xian Lim’s ‘Fantastica

Hello Universe Movie Review: “Hello, Universe” is a movie from the Philippines that was released in January 2023. The film’s content rating has not yet been decided. As of now, not much is known about the movie’s plot or cast, but movie fans in the Philippines and around the world are looking forward to it. Stay tuned for more news about this exciting release from the world of Filipino cinema.

Hello Universe Movie Review

Ariel Dasalan (Janno Gibbs) worked as an inspector for the Destino fertilizer company, and his wife Jennifer (Maui Taylor) was a receptionist at the Ohanawave beach resort. They live in poor conditions with his mother Osna (Ube Lola) and daughter Faith (Madelaine Red), but their family is happy. Ariel coached a local basketball team with his best friend Rocky (Anjo Yllana), but the team didn’t win any games, no matter how hard they tried.

Ariel said that all of his bad luck started when he was a teenager and missed a key basket that could have won the championship game for his team. He still thinks that if he had made that basket and won the game, his whole life would have been a lot better. Ariel was very sad on his birthday because he thought his family had forgotten about it. A mysterious man named Jessie (Benjie Paras) showed up all of a sudden.

In the past, movies like “Big” (1988) and “It’s a Wonderful Life” were about getting what you want and getting a second chance (1946). This new one, which A-list actor Xian Lim wrote and directed, is another fantasy movie with a slapstick comedy style. Lim’s second full-length movie, which he wrote and directed, was very different from his first movie, “Tabon,” which was a crime drama and was darker and more serious in tone.

Lim’s idea that Ariel could choose which reality he wanted to live in when he was given the chance to do so was a good one. In the second reality, he still thought as he did in the first, which made it hard for him to get along with other people. There, Ariel was already married to Lauren (Sunshine Guimary), but he still loved Jennifer, who had married someone else. But Lim didn’t stop Jennifer from talking to Ariel about it, which was a brave move.

The technical parts were very sloppy and not up to the high standards that Viva is known for. The opening credits were awful and loud. A lot of the scenes had very strange lighting, especially the last basketball game. Lim tries to be funny with some trick shots, like the walking scene on the pier, but the editing isn’t very good.

Janno Gibb’s style of slapstick comedy was a lot like Dolphy’s, especially in the way he grimaced and said his lines. I’m not sure if this style was copied on purpose, but in one scene where Anjo Yllana was trying to fight like action star, Dolphy’s name came up. Not enough was said about Benjie Paras’s character. It would have been better if he had given us a little background on Jessie so we could figure out what kind of supernatural being he was.

Click if you want to know about

• Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody Review: The Challenge of Portraying Whitney Houston on Screen!
• Empire of Light Movie Review: The Romance between Hilary and Stephen!

Lim tried all kinds of funny tricks, some of which worked and some of which didn’t. Even though Lola Ube’s comedic timing is off, she was great in that scene with Bobby, played by Joe Vargas. Mark “Big Mak” Andaya and Darwin “Hap Rice” Tolentino work well together as a comedy duo. Allan Caidic, Jerry Codinera, and EJ Feihl, who are all big stars in the PBA, all cameoed in one game. Lim himself had an unplanned cameo where he fell into the water, which was actually pretty funny.

If there was any doubt that the moral lesson of the whole movie wasn’t clear, Lim added a short scene to explain it before the end credits. In this scene, Kat “One-Armed Mamba” Tan showed us how good she was at shooting a basketball and gave an inspiring speech about being happy with what you have and not being sad about what you don’t have.

Final Words

Xian Lim’s “Hello, Universe” is a fantasy movie about getting what you want and getting a second chance, with a slapstick comedy style. The technical parts of Viva were sloppy and not up to the high standards of the movie, and the editing was poor. Janno Gibb’s slapstick comedy was copied from Dolphy’s, but not enough was said about Benjie Paras’s character.