MMFF: Girl Boy Bakla Tomboy

Time to review some mainstream fare.

Vice Ganda has been making waves in the Philippines recently as a certified audience grabber. This film, where he plays all the titular guy, girl, gay and tomboy siblings, is admittedly not bad at all.

It's held down by a bit of weirdly timed melodrama and the film could have finished a bit earlier, but I don't mind it ending where they should. The product placements are few and far between and not as intrusive as other fims out there, and the jokes vary from corny to genuinely funny. What I found marvelous was the way all four Vice Gandas are seamlessly combined in one shot, most impressively in one sequence where they play a little game of Trip to Jerusalem. The combination of editing, CGI and doubles really works, and you really will believe that there are four people there despite all of them being portrayed by the same actor.

Maricel Soriano remains an actress of immense talent, effortlessly transitioning from one emotion to another. Joey Marquez is a bit underused but still works well in the setting. The kids who play the adoptive siblings are adorable for the most part. As for that kid who had blackface? Well, let's just say we can't market this movie in a few places.

As for Vice himself, his portrayals are not bad, with the straight laced cool guy, the airheaded girl, the shy tomboy and the gay, who is probably the most normal out of the four.

I've held some sort of belief that mainstream MMFF movies are crap. With this film, I see it's not always the case, and there is still hope.