SUNSHINE Guimary is being launched as a sex-comedy actress in Viva’s “Kaka”. She’s the fourth Sunshine in local showbiz after Dizon, Cruz and Garcia. “Kaka” is directed by GB Sampedro with Jerald Napoles and Ion Perez as her leading men. This will start showing on Vivamax starting May 28.

Sunshine was born on 18 June 1994 in China and she started as a swimsuit and lingerie model. Based in Cebu, she has her own vlog where she became known as the Braless Goddess for vlogging while in her microbikinis and her nighties. Because of huge following, Viva signed her up as a contract star and she’s happy that she’s now given her launching movie in “Kaka”.

Sunshine plays the title role of Kaka whose full name in the film is Katherine Bataan. She is a disc jockey-sex therapist known as DJ Kaka, who gives valuable sex advice to her listeners as a sex warrior, but she herself has yet to experience complete sexual satisfaction in bed. This is because the women in her family have all been cursed that they will not achieve full climax with a man.

Playing her mother in the story is Rosanna Roces as Mama Kam, while her grandma named Lola Kiri is Gina Pareno. Her best friend is Jerald as Jorge, who is secretly in love with her, while the man she thinks is the one who will lift the curse in her family is Ion as Levi, who turned out to be very religious.

Maui Taylor plays Sunshine’s friend named Babette. Playing the barkada of Sunshine in the movie are Jackie Gonzaga, Debbie Garcia and Juliana Segovia. Also part of the big powerhouse cast are Andrea del Rosario, Giselle Sanchez, Sheree Vidal Bautista, Lander Vera Perez, Josef Elizalde, Pio Balbuena, Billy Villeta, Yuki Sakamoto, Minnie Nato and with the special participations of singers Janine Tenoso, Marion Aunor and Ronnie Liang.

So what’s her experience in shooting her very first movie? “Mahirap kasi baguhan lang ako. Ni hindi ko alam ‘yung mga terms sa shooting like blocking. Nagpapasalamat ako kay Direk GB kasi napakabait niya at pasensiyoso sa akin. Salamat din sa lahat ng co-stars ko, like sina Tita Gina Pareno, Tita Rosanna Roces, si Jerald Napoles, and the rest. Ang babait nila sa akin, magaan kasama. Inalalayan nila ako at naging masaya ang experience ko sa lock in set namin sa Tagaytay at sa Batangas.”

She has sexy scenes with both Jerald and Ion, and also by herself. So how is it? “Mahirap ‘yung daring scenes for me, mabigat. Direk GB had to explain in detail kung anong gagawin ko. But I’m happy na nagawa ko naman sila nang maayos. Kaya ko pala. Later on, I want to show I can do other roles. Gusto ko i-try maging kontrabida naman.”

She’s being compared with Ivana Alawi since they both got famous for their sexy videos online. How does she feel about it? “Masaya ako being compared with Ivana, pero ayoko ng competition. Basta kung anong kaya kong gawin, paghihirapan ko ‘yun on my own. I’m just thankful to Viva for giving me the chance to do my launching movie.”

What can she say to the scuttlebutt that she is actually a transgender? “Wala. Natatawa lang ako. It’s not an issue for me at all kasi alam ko namang tunay na babae ako. Panoorin na lang nila ang ‘Kaka’ on May 28, para makita nilang mali ang tsismis at tunay na babae nga ako.”

Review of two Olga Kurylenko action films: ‘The Courier’ and ‘Sentinelle’

OLGA Kurylenko is a Ukrainian model who moved to Paris and found success as an actress, first in the action film “Hitman” in 2007 with Timothy Olyphant then in 2008, opposite Daniel Craig in the 007 movie “Quantum of Solace”. She got to do more films in Hollywood, including “Johnny English” with Mr. Bean and “Oblivion” with Tom Cruise in 2013. She’s still around but she now does mostly B movies.

We just saw three of them, two action flicks “The Courier” and “Sentinelle”, and a horror film, “Mara”. We’ll review the first two films here. In “The Courier”, she plays the title role, an unnamed woman who acts as a delivery girl on a motorcycle (but we don’t know if it’s Lalamove or Grab). When asked about her identity, she replies: “No names. I’m just the courier.”

She is tasked to deliver a package to a building, not knowing it’s for the witness, Nick (Amit Shah), who will testify online in London against a notorious crime lord in New York, Ezekiel Mannings (Gary Oldman.) On her way to the room where the witness is, she discovers that several assassins were sent to execute him. Even the Interpol enforcers assigned to protect him are in cahoots.

So what’s a poor courier supposed to do but act on her conscience, kill them and rescue the witness? The two of them then try to escape from the assassins, but as they’re running away, they are trapped in the building’s basement parking. The major part of the movie happens in there while the courier and her ward are being attacked by a crew of big, muscled henchmen with high-powered weapons.

Olga has to use all her wits and expertise as a former special operative in Syria to fight their aggressors. The film works as the stunts and action sequences are all excitingly executed and Olga is believable as a fearless, go-for-broke action hero.

Gary Oldman just won an Oscar for “Darkest Hour” when he did this B movie and it’s obvious he did it only for his paycheck as his role as the bad guy imprisoned in his own Manhattan penthouse doesn’t require anything substantial from him except his usual bad guy acting.

In “Sentinelle”, a French production, Olga once again plays a soldier in Syria, Klara, who sees a young terrorist boy blowing himself up with explosives hidden in his body. This gives her post traumatic stress disorder, so she goes home to her mother and sister in Nice, France. One night, she goes with her sister Tania to a club. She hooks up with a pretty woman and they have a lesbian love scene.

The next morning, she’s notified that Tania was raped and severely mauled and is now in coma in the hospital. Klara takes matter into her own hands, does her own sleuthing and learns that the culprit is Yvan, the son of a Russian magnate, Leonid. He’s now hiding in his dad’s villa and they are untouchable.

But it turns out that Yvan is gay and it’s actually his dad who raped Tania. Of course, this leads to a final showdown after Leonid also tried to kill Tania while she’s still in the hospital.

As we might expect, Klara massacres all of Leonid’s bodyguards. He survives, but Klara still tracks him down and confronts him later in his hotel room in Dubai for their last confrontation.

“Sentinelle” succeeds as a revenge thriller with Olga excelling in the action scenes as a ferocious badass avenger with some deep-seated trauma she has yet to fully confront. It’s quick and to the point when it comes to violence, cracking skulls with relish that will surely scratch the itch of all action lovers. The execution of some scenes can be uninspired and dull but overall, Olga’s intensity and enthusiasm more than just redeem the generic fight sequences.