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Philippines · 2013
2h 0m
Director Erik Matti
Starring Piolo Pascual, Gerald Anderson, Angel Aquino, Shaina Magdayao
Genre Action, Crime
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On The Job is about the ambitions and passions of four men trying to make a living, for themselves and their families. It shows the parallels between two prison inmates who are contract killers, and the two agents of the law investigating the murders. As they get caught in a web of machination of corrupt government officials, their jobs lead them on a head-on collision against each other with their loved ones as collateral damage.
Matti and Yamamoto aren't reinventing any wheels here, and many of the dialogue scenes operate on a functionally prosaic level. On the Job takes off into a different stratosphere, however, when the emphasis is on visuals and movement.
Slant Magazine by Andrew Schenker
A nose-to-the-ground crime thriller that also doubles as a wide-ranging portrait of official corruption in the Philippines, On the Job has little trouble delivering the genre goods.
The workmanlike precision of On the Job carries through to its action scenes, none of which are shot with any flash or style, but are edited with a propulsive pace and performed by a watchable cast enough to make them engaging.
The A.V. Club by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
It’s a provocative premise, and one that manages to go beyond the usual themes of the crime genre. Too bad, then, it’s forced to share screen time with a humdrum and occasionally heavy-handed police procedural.
Los Angeles Times by Inkoo Kang
The film is as heartbreaking as it is heart-stopping.
The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis
Even at its most incomprehensible, the propulsive thriller On the Job is never less than arresting.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey
On the Job feels marinated in hardscrabble reality. Action scenes throughout are unnervingly frenetic, with the tension amplified by the sheer density of the crowds.
San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle
A sturdy and sophisticated crime drama from the Philippines that takes a pretty gruesome situation and enriches its presentation with lots of human detail.
Village Voice by Pete Vonder Haar
Matti sets a brisk pace, utilizing the squalor and desperation of Manila's slums and prisons as well as powerful, against-type performances by Torre and Pascual to give us a familiar yet engaging thriller (with more than a few surprises).
Matti’s primary order of business is regularly serving up tense, stylish action sequences, and he proves more adept choreographing those than sorting out the convolutions of his parallel plotlines.
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