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USD $1 ₱ 56.28 0.0000 March 27, 2024
March 26, 2024
3D Lotto 2PM
602
₱ 4,500.00
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‘Tandem’ is Solid, but it Could Have Gone Deeper

The film dips its toes into political machinations and larger themes that require more exploration.

Tandem cannot entirely avoid comparisons to On the Job. It is, after, playing with many of the same tools. It operates in a world of crime that is tolerated and at times even encouraged by those in power. Tandem just happens to operate on a much lower level, never really trying to look into the systemic problems that led to this kind of situation. It keeps a narrow focus, every element dedicated to tightening the noose around its main characters. But even within this limited scope, it does feel like the film could have done more. Tandem is a thrilling piece of genre entertainment that just fails to go that extra step.

Roman (Nico Antonio) is a career criminal who has already seen the inside of a prison cell. He works with his younger brother Rex (JM de Guzman), riding in tandem on a motorcycle while snatching valuables from unsuspecting marks. The action kicks off when a heist goes terribly wrong. What was supposed to be a big payday turns into a real complicated situation. In order to avoid getting the heat on them, the brothers are forced to do the bidding of a couple of corrupt cops in danger of losing everything.

The movie largely functions on sturdy genre building blocks. This is a story of two brothers at its core, the older already weary and looking forward to having his first child, the younger hungry for action and bigger scores. It is this dynamic that ultimately fuels this film, even as it spirals out into a bigger picture that involves police corruption. Whatever else happens in this film, it mainly gains tension from how the brothers affect one another, how their relationship evolves as they fall deeper into this web of crime and corruption.

And that works fine, but it isn’t really enough. The film dips its toes into political machinations and larger themes that require more exploration. By the very end, the film is making some really big declarations about the cyclical nature of crime, how hard it is to escape from this life. But the events leading up to the conclusion don’t really bear out that theme. The film is really short, and it feels like there could have been an extra ten to fifteen minutes of story that could have gone deeper into some of these ideas. The movie might have benefitted, for example, from spending a little more time with the female characters. They feel like pawns in this story, and with the intimate narrative it feels like a real disservice.

But taken purely as a genre exercise, the film really does shine. There is a thrilling sense of escalation, the movie methodically backing its characters into a dark corner. Production values are solid, and are greatly helped out by an excellent score. Performances are okay. Nico Antonio reveals some limitations in the back half of the picture, the actor not quite able to sell all the big emotions of the climax. JM de Guzman plays his role with winning intensity. Allan Paule and Paolo O’Hara play their corrupt policemen a little broadly, but it works well enough in the context of this picture.

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Tandem is solid, but it’s just a little too simple. It might be trying a little too hard to avoid the big systemic problems that are hinted at through this story. This is the rare film that feels like it should have gone longer. The film certainly doesn’t like for craft, and one is left wondering what that craft might have been able to achieve if the film just went a little further. It didn’t have to dissect the entirety of the system, but it could have just gone deeper into these characters. Still, it is something for a film to leave someone wanting more of it. It’s a testament to how solidly this film is already put together.

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Movie Info

Tandem
Action, Drama
User Rating
3.6/5
7 users
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