This film is one of Chuck Perez's better movies along with 1989's Ang Pumatay Ng Dahil Sa 'Yo. While in the latter project, he played a Ramboesque character, his role here is that of a priest who ends up entering a dark world of crime and violence.
Kapag Wala Ng Batas is a pretty dark gangster film and indeed tackles some quite risque subject matter. The society depicted in the movie is in a moribund state of moral decline, institutional corruption and systemic collapse. The underbelly of crime syndicates are the only ones dispensing rough street justice to the lawless cretins and thugs while the police themselves are impotent and imbecillique in the face of this rampant crime wave. Our protagonist/antihero is a seminarian whose family is engaged in various criminal enterprises like drug trafficking and gunrunning. In a way, the story resembles the plot of The Godfather; Perez's character Gabriel, is similar to Michael Corleone. Michael pursues a career in the military while Gabriel follows a priestly vocation in order to chart a different path away from their relatives' illegal activities. But a twist of fate will each bring them down back to a dark destiny because of their families' evil heritage (also their names are taken from the monikers of archangels so maybe there's a religious connotation here). The difference between the two characters is that Michael actually embraces the gangster lifestyle while Gabriel shuns it in favor of a simple life with the woman he loves. That, in a nutshell, is the story of the film, how a woman's love redeems a man from a life of depravity and violence.
On the acting front, Perez is quite competent in his performance as well as in his few action scenes in the film. He is very believable as the priest with the murderous rage of a savage brute; he has the height, the hulking physical build and the screen presence to pull this role right off the bat, so not just any actor could play the role. He's like the Filipino Dolph Lundgren because of this combination of muscle and sensitivity. It's just too bad that after this film, he would star in mostly the cinematic equivalent of dog excrement like Bahala Na Vs. Sputnik and Oplan Baleleng.
Going back to the review, the film is decently directed, photographed and produced, with a great supporting cast. It captured the right tone and vibe for its genre. Where the movie falls short is how it handles its climax and final act which suffered from pacing issues. That last stalking, hide and seek scene between antagonist and protagonist was too drawn out and dragged for far too long which made the ending less effective than was intended by the filmmakers. Sure, this type of cat and mouse scene was used to great effect in films such as Michael Mann's Heat, in the sequence where Al Pacino is in hot pursuit of Robert De Niro's character or in Batas Sa Aking Kamay between Eddie Garcia and FPJ but in this movie, it just took too damn long. I also feel that the gunfights in the film could have been more creative in their choreography and execution. Which is why I can only give the film five stars.
To conclude, this movie isn't bad, not bad at all. But could've been a whole lot better.
