Easter Sunday

Felt sloshing around in the first half. Too many stories going on. I kinda didn't know what the movie was about. Second half and third act were better. The movie is about bringing family together and people finding themselves. It succeeded and will bring tears of joy to your eyes.

Someone mentioned it's an hour and a half sitcom, and it probably is but it provided a steady stream of chuckles, laughs, cringes, "hmmm???", "whaaattt???" and a window into a different culture as well as the west coast point of view (I'm East Coast). Plus it finishes off nicely. It's a good night out that will leave you with a smile on your face after you've left. Enjoy.

I love Jo Koy. His stand up is very funny. His storytelling is great. His tales of family and growing up and achieving success as a Filipino-American are very endearing. This movie contains many of the best elements of his storytelling and it is fun to see him playing a version of himself. His family is very memorable if you have seen his stand up. This film's stand up moments are the best. The Church scene is best part of the movie. The weakness is that the movie has been sanitized for family viewing. It is the Filipino version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Heartfelt. Warm and funny. Not the best but good.

So I am not filipino, but my wife is from the Philippines. So when she seen the trailer for this movie we decided we would rent it when it came out to stream/rent. What a mistake. The only partially funny stuff is in the trailer. The rest of the movie is beyond boring and all over the place.

Most of the jokes feel forced and make you cringe. The humor is pretty shallow and really seems to make fun of filipino culture and paint it in a bad light rather then show how great filipino culture can be.

Everyone in the movie (even non-filipinos) seem to act like nasty idiots to everyone. It felt like the lead actor (who I read is a comedian) basically took his jokes and tried to make them into a movie. It just doesn't work. This feels more like something you may see on TV instead. I can see why ticket sales were low.

While they movie had one amazing cameo, even this persons cameo felt forced and boring. I regret renting the movie for free. Couldn't pay me to watch it again. To note it was so slow we stopped watching after 45 minutes. Again, if my filipino wife finds it boring... you know its bad.

I did check out the actors comedy online and I'd say his comedy is at least funny, where as this movie is not. Not to mention the movie has endless swearing in it. This whole movie is just an insult to filipino culture and makes everyone look shallow and nuts.

I'm a HUGE Jo Koy fan and was really looking forward to his first feature film, but unfortunately it wasn't great. If you've never seen Jo's stand up act, you will likely enjoy this film a bit more since many of the jokes in the movie are recycled from his shows. The supporting cast was good, with a great cameo by Lou Diamond Phillips, but I only really chuckled a few times. The script was predictable, the story forced, and some of the jokes felt like they were added at the last minute to fill in time. 4 stars for the supporting cast and the few giggles, but I wanted at least one big belly laugh like I get watching Jo Koy perform his stand up.

I wish I liked this more.