I had low expectations. I don't give movie reviews, ever. But reading all the other bad reviews, I just lost it. So here goes. First, most of the fight scenes are amazing and I have NEVER SEEN before in a Filipino action film. Most of them, at least. Some were flawless, some were just too choreographed. The acting, well, thanks to Ronnie Lazaro and Freddie Webb, it wasn't all that bad. I wish Christine Reyes just didn't speak English at all. But her facial expressions and overall acting, fight scenes, and stunts were incredible compared to her previous roles. The gunfights were great and to those saying they were bad, oh please, it's because you're comparing it to Hollywood movies. Stop. This isn't a Hollywood caliber one but it was entertaining. A few more polishes, a more in-depth storyline and screenplay and better acting would've made it much, much better. Kudos. This is tge start, please keep it up.
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vannygragasin4 February 2020
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Uriah4318 April 2020This film begins with an assassin named "Maria" (Christine Reyes) stealthily sneaking onto the inner courtyard of a heavily-guarded mansion. Not long afterward a fierce gun battle breaks out and she ends up killing all of her intended targets. The scene then shifts to seven years later where that same woman now has a husband by the name of "Bert" (Buji Lorenzana) and a young daughter named "Min-Min" (Johanna Rish Tongcua) and is quite content with her new life. Unfortunately, this changes when her former boss named "Kaleb" (Germaine De Leon) happens to see her and it's then disclosed that he has a score to settle with her which complicates things for all involved. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this turned out to be a pretty good action film all things considered. I especially liked the confrontation between Maria and her replacement "Miru" (Jennifer Lee) which I thought was well played. Admittedly, while not in the same class as any of the "John Wick" films, this one managed to hold its own and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.
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In the USA, they have John Wick, Jack Reacher, Jason Bourne, Frank Castle, Christian Wolff, Robert McCall, Bryan Mills, ... as a non exhaustive list ... Now, in the Philippines, they have Maria. She might be considered as Beatrix Kiddo's little sister, with a karambit instead of a katana, and Kaleb instead of Bill. They are both a retired female assassin. They are both widowed and mourn the loss of their only child. They both seek for revenge, no matter what.
Pros: 1) A fast 'n furious rhythm. 2) Effective and perfectly choreographed combat scenes.
Cons: 1) A torture scene as showy as useless, just for the 'fun'. 2) An excess of characters so pathetically ridiculous that they become hilarious, especially Kaleb and Victor. 3) An inordinate internationalization with manifold unexpected and inappropriate American dialogues distorting the Philippine spirit.
As a synthesis, the movie is violent as one pleases and moderately successful. It's worth a try, with low expectations. -
shortecrx18 May 2019It takes a lot for me to quit a movie. AND even more for me to write any kind of review. This one did it. I guess I made it about a quarter to a third through it. The dialog was atrocious, the torture scenes were pointless and overly gruesome. And why do they mix languages non-stop? Like in the same sentence! You've been warned.
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gregerp17 May 2019Do not get fooled by the high ratings. It´s a below-average action film with below-average actors. A very well known, no surprise one-dimensional storyline about revenge. No surprises at all.
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jamiedarlow-3751010 April 2020In this revenge thriller, we follow Maria (Cristine Reyes) a woman with a troubled past as an assassin who has now retired and started a family. When her old partners discover she is still alive, they murder her husband and daughter in cold blood and she vows revenge. For the most part, it does drag quite a bit and I think that's due to a really poor script. The bad guys say typical bad guys things which completely detracts from the authenticity and just feels very last minute. The acting is not too bad at all; particularly from Reyes who brings a good lead performance and Ronnie Lazaro is also fun as Sir Greg. There are a couple of really well choreographed fight scenes with a keen focus on martial arts and take a lot of inspiration from recent action hits such as John Wick. It's biggest saving grace is the soundtrack with awesome pounding rock songs by Mr Bones & The Boneyard Circus which went straight onto my playlist! I'd recommend the soundtrack and Maria's incentive for vengeance is justified propelled by a disturbing sequence half way through. Not for the faint hearted but also retreading old ground and not bringing much new to the table
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lacrez21 May 2022Finally another action movie that actually has a budget to make one in the Philippines lol. I love the pictures the effects The characters are amazing and the music. It's a must watch movie. This is one of the best for me in PI. And must also watch Hard Day starring Ding dong Dantes.
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Just a wanna be "John Wick" movie. The story is correct for the genre. An ex-assassin and her gang killing each other. However, the acting is just not quite there. It's just super bland, especially the gun fight and the fighting. The actors and actresses are not showing strong emotions. Just LOL at the blood splashes from the bullets. Super cheap FX right there. Good for a Youtube entertainment action short film. Just like I said in my title, if you're doing a party and need to play a movie as background for your drunk friends, they'll be entertained I guess. If not, pass your way, you won't miss on anything.
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claudio_carvalho10 May 2020"Maria" is a typical revenge film, full of clichés, but highly entertaining. The language is a complete mess, probably because Cristine Reyes does not speak English. But she is gorgeous and sexy, with great choreography of martial arts and remembers Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill". In the end, "Maria" is a good entertainment for fans of the genre. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "A Vingança de Maria" ("The Revenge of Maria") -
saptesh7869 July 2019Netflix movie, kick-ass fights, uncompleted story, must be sequel or possibility of prequel too. There are many fight sequences but none is impressive, I feel something is missing in actions. What is that? Perhaps did not do well work. A former assassin living normal life But gang found her and kills her daughter and hubby. Then she took revenge in usual style. Here movie has nothing new. Even fight sequences will not impress you. Story looks similar to 'Peppermint'. Acting side is just okay. I wonder why Netflix presenting such wasted movies. Overall it is average movie. No twists no surprises and end is vividly open. Watch only on your own.
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seanroger-8296331 December 2020I enjoyed watching this movie and recommend it. The action was exciting. The script was good, not the greatest but everything else made the movie successful.
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A_Different_Drummer22 February 2020As a reviewer old enough to remember when these films were made only one place on the planet -- Hong Kong -- I consider this a solid effort with above average fight scenes. The problem could be that, in an effort to make English viewers feel more comfortable, the actors had to read some of their lines in English as if they were slang phrases -- something common in Japanese movies but which seemed awkward and stilted here. So ignore that. And the obligatory husband and child both seemed whiny and annoying so it was almost a relief when they were removed from the story. The rest of the movie is fine.
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SpiritMechanic15 August 2020The cinematography was great. The writing was the worst thing about this movie. Try's way too hard to beAmerican cliche but ruins the whole move. The 'boss' is totally ridiculous and in no way to be taken serious or threatening. I know fight scenes are never realistic but we watch them anyway for fun, but this, totally ridiculous even though the choreography was done well. The special effects were very poor and way to much blood spray in every scene. This effect has been way over used in many films and does not look realistic at all. I felt nothing for the main character as i should have but there was no character development except for when they kill her family. Even then, it was too rushed. Had high hopes for this but it failed. I would recommend Buy Bust with Ann Curtis for a better movie all together.
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luxuspeter2 January 2020The screenwriter and the director and the producer should be severally be punished for making this movie and banned from this planet. They promote senseless violence ... I mean literally senseless. After 30 minutes you just considered it as time stolen from your life. I really hope they will become bankrupt and never again work in this business.
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peter0723 May 2019I don't mind that action thrillers can have bad acting and bad plots but this was really, REALLY bad. The action just occurs too fast and we don't get insight into what happened before to the protagonist (as in how the hell she became an assassin). The fights got boring after a while and gosh, to think that the ending hinted at a sequel -- PLEASE SPARE US! Please do not waste 90 minutes of your life watching this turkey.
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She's still alive. Who's she? Lily. Lily's still alive!
John Wick had a good reason to make things difficult for his former boss. They liquidated his cute dog and stole his car. In the movie "Polar", Duncan Vizla's retirement savings were compromised. In this Filipino revenge film, Maria (Christine Reyes) leaves a trail of death and destruction because her former employee has murdered her family. You'd start a killing spree for less. What does she have in common with Wick and Vizla? She's also a retired assassin who has turned her back on the violent life she led. So expect action-rich and extremely violent scenes that are performed according to an excellent choreography.
Maria (or Lilly in her previous life) didn't just simply retire. She went off the grid in a devious way when she had a crisis of conscience at her last job and refused to butcher an innocent woman and her daughter. Instead, she shot Kaleb (Germaine de Leon), her lover back then, through his kneecap and disappeared forever. That is until the same Kaleb notices her when they are making preparations to kill some governor. From then on the hunt for her is opened. The result of this manhunt is the death of her current husband and her lovely little daughter.
Well, "Maria" isn't really innovative. Countless revenge films have been made recent years (such as "I spit on your grave", "Revenge", "The Equalizer" and of course "John Wick"). Don't expect a complicated and well-thought-out story in this Philippine action film. The film is actually fairly straightforward. And in the end, it's only the tough confrontations what's important in such action films. In "Maria" however, they tried to fill the voids with irrelevant sordid stuff. Every once in a while cheaters and inconvenient witnesses are tortured and massacred. So, the most positive thing you can say about this film is that the fight scenes look slick. The rest, on the other hand, was sometimes too bad for words.
Let's start with the part that annoyed me immensely. I didn't mind it to be a Filipino film. Even though I didn't understand a thing. And those who know me a little bit, know that I hate reading subtitles constantly. I've made peace with that. But why did these Filipino conversations have to be alternated with an English sentence? It was as if they had taken the dubbing into their own hands. And it wasn't just this bilingual nonsense that was annoying. The sound of pronunciation was also toe-curling. It was as if all those Philippines suddenly sounded like Andy Kaufman from "Taxi". Next, let's talk about the male actors. Some of them are guilty of theatrical overacting (especially KC Montero masters in this). And I don't know if this is a tradition among Filipino gangs, but I thought it was fairly bizarre that the male protagonists had female furies to do the dirty work. Although I have to admit those ladies could stand their ground without any problems.
Furthermore, "Maria" is again filled with well-known clichés that are used over and over again in action flicks. The hard rock music. Again stupid gangsters rushing forward like sheep to the slaughter. Of course, a nightclub scene had to be included. Whistling blades. Cracking bones. And the sound effects of hard fist-punches reminded me nostalgically of the better Terence Hill & Bud Spencer films. It was like a Filipino "John Wick" persiflage. Only the charisma and the natural coolness of Keanu Reeves were missing. And finally, I found some scenes were overly stretched (such as the flashbacks).
All in all, "Maria" is no more than a B-film with a simplistic storyline and moderate acting. Are you a fan of solid fists and footwork then you will certainly enjoy yourself here. And for those who appreciate exotic women, these exotic beauties look really pretty and are certainly no kittens to tackle without gloves. Why they have to walk around all the time in a kind of aerobic outfit is a mystery to me. And Maria's posing like a model in the rain after the ultimate fight, I found hilarious. Fortunately, Denzel Washington didn't do something similar in "The Equalizer". That would look rather ridiculous!
More reviews here: movie-freak.be -
A female-assassin-revenge type film? Yes. There are a LOT of those out there in recent years but what is the icing on the cake? the cherry on top? It's the FMA.
The BEST display and modern use of FMA (Filipino-Martial-Arts) to date!...also with with the action scenes shot cleaner than most with a similar genre. The story is obviously dense but not complex enough that it is hard to follow. -
JoeytheBrit28 June 2020A terrible Filipino action movie in which the actors seem to be competing to see who can give the worst performance. Ivan Padilla wins hands down as the son of a gangster from whom the titular heroine (Cristine Reyes) escaped when she tired of life as an assassin. Reyes just about passes muster, but the fights are uninspired and the sadistic violence is so relentless that it quickly grows boring.
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paul_haakonsen27 March 2020When I sat down to watch this 2019 Tagalog movie, I can't really claim that my expectation were particularly high. Why? Well, the track record of the movies I have seen from the Filipino cinema haven't exactly been all that impressive. Mostly it has been so dubious romantic comedy, where once you've seen one, you've essentially seen them all.
But writer and director Pedring Lopez actually managed to surprise with this movie, as it was quite enjoyable and entertaining. And it was such a massive step up for the Tagalog cinema. I will say that this is actually one of the better Tagalog movies that I've had the fortune of watching. There's been a couple of other action movies from the Tagalog cinema that were good as well, so this is nice addition to that.
The storyline is pretty straight forward; a scorned former assassin hellbent on revenge. Yeah, that was essentially it, but the movie is loaded with enough action that the lack of a more in-depth storyline actually doesn't matter all that much.
The movie has a good cast ensemble to perform the various roles on the screen, and they do so quite well.
My rating of "Maria" is a six out of ten stars. This one is definitely watchable and enjoyable, if you should ever have the chance to sit down and watch it. -
JerichoGX17 July 2019This is one of those films that you just cant wait to end - and you already know the ending before it mercifully comes. The film is a John Wick rip-off with a paper thin "plot" - the writing is terrible, the acting is questionable and the pronunciation of basic words is hard to sit through. The action scenes come in two flavors - painfully long and boring or clearly a stunt double with 13 camera cuts per kick - it makes you dizzy to watch. If you are looking for a film like this with a female lead then try "Salt" - avoid this.
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mk5721 August 2019For an industry in its infancy, this action, adventure, revenge film by the Filipino film studios is fun from start to finish. The storyline is simple, ex assassin gets discovered, her family are attacked and she returns to being the killing machine she once was. The mix between English and Filipino languages is quaint rather than annoying and I ended up hoping there is a MARIA 2. Ignore the moaners who feel too superior to give this film a decent chance, sit back and enjoy the roller coaster ride!
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timtousley10 July 2023My wife loves screen violence, but despises when I point that out to her. As an example, she really despises 'superhuman' movies, but when I introduced her to the first Deadpool she basically sat through the whole movie holding her legs while chittering noises borne of brain shock. :)
This movie isn't all it could be -- acting could be better in a few places, however I urge action fans to look beyond because It's decent, and I've never seen it's equal from that corner of our globe. Everyone won't share my opinion on this, but as a produced feature I sincerely enjoyed it as a production even more than Hard Boiled, which I still celebrate to this day.
Ms Rayes was unfamiliar to me before I saw Maria, and I was an instant fan. Some of the mob level acting was cookie cutter and over-exaggerated (Shatner would surely nod approval) but overall I very much enjoyed it. Storyline fundamentals are good... actually even believable.
I will celebrate it like another (which I infrequently rewatch)... "Way of the Gun"... note that it is *not* a western, regardless of the name. Like Maria... decently harsh and gritty.
**recommend** -
My 4/10 might even be generous, but there were one or two Ok fight scenes.
This movie is incredibly poorly written and poorly acted. This is really the kind of thing we'd see on a direct-to-DVD release if that's even still a thing. It's like someone watched every bad action movie made in the last 10 or 20 years and just used all those same clichés.
I could forgive that if there were a lot of great action and the badly acted dramatic parts were brief. Unfortunately that's not really the case. There is surprisingly little action in this film, and most of it is actually involving guns. I think this is being marketed as more of a martial arts flick in the vein of The Raid, but that's not really representative of what we get here. Like I said there are literally one or two decent fight scenes but even some of the fight choreography in the other scenes is not very convincing. This might have passed muster 30 years ago but especially with what has happened in the martial arts genre in the last 10 years or so, the bar is much higher now for realism and brutality. Most of the stuff in this film just feels weak by comparison.
The best thing I can say about this film is that Christine Reyes is incredibly hot. But that's not enough reason to watch what is otherwise an unfortunately bad movie. I literally found myself just skipping all the dialog sections for the last half of the movie because it was so cringe-worthy. I'm sorry, I hate giving bad reviews but with this one I feel compelled to. -
adaptor28 January 2021This film is the average of films in every dimension. It is generic and completely forgettable. There are worse ways to spend the time it takes to watch it, but there are equally many better ways.
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Leofwine_draca18 May 2019MARIA is the latest THE RAID/JOHN WICK-inspired martial arts movie from the Philippines, following the enjoyable BUY BUST. This one's lower budgeted but manages to be generally watchable, despite predictable plotting and some less-than-impressive technical aspects. The story is about a female assassin who puts her old life behind her, only for it to soon catch up in a nihilistic way. The acting is adequate and the main actress both beautiful and athletic in her plentiful fight sequences. As for the action, it's generally quick and vicious, with acceptable choreography and a high body count. While overall MARIA is something of a forgettable movie, at least it's never boring.