Now, the vision that can pump some energy into local films is too often overlooked. For a long time now, outstanding filmmakers have been getting attention abroad, but their films haven’t been released to commercial audiences in their own country. Blame politics, money, all that biz. Any way you look at it, it’s safe to say that there are better local films out there than what’s being released commercially. Independent local films have a lot of great ideas, but just not enough support. By the time they come out and people hear about them, they’ve most likely been pulled from the theaters, if they made it to the theaters at all.

This brings us to Big Time, an independently-produced film that was part of the Cinemalaya Film Festival. Directed by Mario Cornejo and written by Cornejo and Monster Jimenez, Big Time is a unique and refreshing big screen experience from local filmmakers. Thanks to its being an independent flick, it gives the filmmakers free reign to express their offbeat and intriguing ideas.

Big Time tells of Danny and Jonas (Winston Elizalde and Nor Domingo), a couple of small-time crooks who’ve got plans of hitting it big in the crime scene. The pair are played perfectly by the actors, giving you two likable guys who, despite being crooks, you can’t help but like. There’s a lot of time when the movie settles in and allows the two--along with other characters--to banter, and, for the most part, it works well, fleshing out characters and letting us into their heads.

Their grand plan: kidnapping. Start off small, they think, and everything else will follow. Their target is Melody (Joanne Miller), who dreams of getting into showbiz, but is often caught with a blank stare. And into the mix comes Wilson (Jamie Wilson), a stuck-up rich kid who happens to be the son of big-time crime boss Don Manolo (Michael de Mesa).

As goes with most crime comedies, things go awry as plans are made and altered, and our characters wind up on a downward spiral of events. What makes this movie a fun watch is that there’s a big element of play involved. While we’ve got the crime set-up, there’s a lot of talk that doesn’t have to do with the crime, and still manages to be greatly entertaining. There are a lot of laughs to be gotten from the jokes that poke fun at local showbiz, culture, and even just Danny’s goofiness.

There are moments, though, when the movie starts to drag. It starts off with a frenetic cross-cutting of sequences that introduce the main characters. This features time-jumps and it all works to great effect. But then some of the scenes are replayed and it’s irritating to have to sit through the same scene again, as if we needed to be walked through it. Then there are long sequences after the kidnapping at the safehouse where one starts to think, "Come on, come on, get on with it." Along with the problem of moments that drag are some performances that could have been better. And, at times, the movie’s self-awareness works against it, as some scenes see the trick going overboard.

Despite these blemishes, Big Time is a fun time in the theaters. It takes a look at the criminal underworld, something that has so much potential and yet something that few films care to explore. And it does it in a humorous and unorthodox manner, taking lightly such a topic as kidnapping. It doesn’t have us horrified that we can laugh at it, rather it draws the line of moral ambiguity that allows us to laugh with and care about the characters. Big Time is a clear sign that there’s hope for local films. Smart and witty, with enough self-awareness to let it poke fun at almost anything, Big Time will deliver laughs and entertain movie-goers.