Easter Sunday

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.

Wanted so bad for this movie to be great. I typically love Comedies about Family. This was so bad! I was surprised, I expected more. There were a couple of small chuckles..no real belly laughs. The movie is more about Jo Koy's character than the Family. I also thought they would have more Lou Diamond Phillips in it. However,he had a small part. Tiffany Hadish has a small part in it and she was pretty funny..but could have been in it longer. It was great to see Tia Carrere, she did well with the few lines that she had. All in all a total miss. Which is ashamed because I have always like Jo Koy and thought he would bring it. Maybe next time, because he is talented.

I've known of Koy for about a decade, so when I saw him starring in a film loosely based on his life, I knew I had to check it out. Boy, this was just flat for me because it didn't make me laugh much at all. I love Eugene from Tacoma FD and Yang from Silicon Valley. I thought there'd be jokes a minute but no the exact opposite. I also didn't care for the fact they made Eugene's character so foolish. No one in real life would ever give that man a large sum of money. I thought the bad guys weren't that threatening excluding the firearms they possessed and seemed out of place in this movie. I guess I just expected a different film from the one we were given. Everyone was enjoyable hopefully any future projects will be better.

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.