Eddie Rodriguez's movie is obviously Robin Padilla's most balanced action film, not only because it combines an entertaining yarn about tough guys teaming up to protect the Chinese community but also to the uninhibited use of blood effects and the wacky humor.
Padilla plays "Carding Sungkit", an ex-convict who just got out of the joint. Carding is the leader of a gang comprised of a voyeur/peeping tom (played by Dennis Padilla), a diarrhea prone lad (essayed by Daniel Fernando), an asthmatic junkie (played by Jun Hidalgo) and an illiterate (played by Rommel Padilla). While these characters are little more than caricatures, the writer of the script, Humilde Roxas added just a dash of realism, to put a little dimension and depth to these roles. Padilla's own character in the film is that of a white knight, goody two shoes; the hoodlum with a heart of gold.
Although the moniker of the gang is taken from the supposed rival of Tondo's Canary Brothers in the 1950s, Carding's posse is a totally different group and entirely fictional (not sure though if the Grease Gun Gang depicted in Leonardo Pascual's film is also completely made up or if there is a semblance of truth that the Canary siblings actually fought against a group with that name). The movie belongs to a style of local action film narrating the lives of post World War II era Filipino mafiosos; this means there are lots of scenes of guys with suspenders and frequent playing of old songs; thankfully, the latter doesn't happen a lot in the film and the only scene where old music is played is in the ballroom sequence.
What Rodriguez got right in his film is the pacing. The pace of the film is not too fast or too slow; it's just right for the narrative. Jimmy Fabregas and Nonong Buencamino's music is pretty great and perfectly captures the vibe of each scene. The screenplay by Roxas is noteworthy for its mixture of gross/naughty humor and serious drama. The action sequences are quite good, especially the fight scene between Carding and Roy Vinzon's Julio as well as the shootout in an abandoned factory finale. The car chase in a narrow alleyway was masterfully staged and Padilla's stunt (more likely done by a stunt double) which involved getting hit by a car, is pretty neat.
Rodriguez's movie does fall back a bit in its depiction of local Chinese in the 1950s. The stilted manner in which these Chinese characters speak tagalog borders on parody; Michael De Mesa and Ruben Rustia positively sound like Joey De Leon's Starzan and this kind of takes away from the film's dramatic weight. Also, what's up with the use of Yoyoy Villame's novelty song which was recorded in the early 70s but somehow surfaced in the 1950s (the song itself is a farcical take on Dee Dee Sharp's "Baby Cakes", published in vinyl format in 1962)? Though it's obvious that the use of the song was deliberate, to show that the film doesn't take itself too seriously and that the movie was made purely with tongue in cheek.
To conclude, Rodriguez's film is a hard action ouvre. It's one of Padilla's last hurrahs as his handlers and manager milked his popularity for all it's worth by having him star in various unexceptional action romcom films.
