Benedict had a successful podcasting career as "Papatak," dishing out witty and sassy advice to broken-hearted people who called in. Despite his perky online persona though, in reality he was strict and critical with people around him. On the very day he planned to propose marriage to his lady love Victoria, she also decided to break up with him because she felt suffocated by his controlling nature.
As he walked the street despondent after the abrupt rejection, a bar called "Turning Point" suddenly appeared (complete with a disembodied Joey Marquez voice-over announcing its name) and he was compelled to enter. The bartender Saro offered him to drink Wishkey -- a potion which could take him back in time to learn lessons and make better decisions to correct his present situation.
The Wishkey brought Benedict into various historical places and events, like the Garden of Eden, the Stone Age, the Battle of Mactan, the Cry of Balintawak with Andres Bonifacio (Jhong Hilario), the Vaudeville era with Dolphy (a luminescent Epy Quizon), and the Japanese occupation. In all of these episodes, he would see himself, Victoria, his rival Humberto, as well as his podcast co-host Hugot Tina, and production crew Jon, Von and Joey playing various wacky characters.
Vhong Navarro was trying too hard to be funny as Benedict. He resorted to spoof comedy, caveman "barok" comedy, toilet humor, slapstick humor, shock comedy, or black comedy, but the humor felt forced and flat that you do not hear much laughs in the movie house. My only favorite scene of his was not even a comedy scene. It was that colorful dance routine Benedict did with Victoria with all the old-fashioned stage props, sort of inspired by a similar scene in "La La Land."
Most of the easier laughs were care of Donna Cariaga (as Hugot Tina). Whenever she showed up on screen or delivered a "hugot" line, it was funny. The one that made me LOL was that scene was during the Katipunero era, when Donna was trying to seduce "Spaniards" with her bared legs, and the guys took a look, turned away saying "Que barbaridad!" Of course, she was always making fun of how she looked, and that was not exactly good news as well.
Aside from Victoria, beauty queen Wynwyn Marquez was made to play several different characters and I thought she pulled them off, especially as Maria (Katipunan era) and Victorina (Japanese era). Joey Marquez (Saro) was basically being himself. Ejay Falcon (Humberto and his various incarnations throughout history) was basically an extended cameo. The trio of Alex Calleja (Jon), Jon Lucas (Von) and Red Ollero (Joey) could have been put to better use. Dimples Romana played Benedict's late mother Virginia in a scene obviously inspired by "Back to the Future."
The plot was actually quite paper-thin: Benedict lost Victoria, and wanted her back. All those time-travelling scenes to various eras were not necessary at all for Benedict to figure out what to do. These were mostly just for a revue of various comedy genres which could not be sustained for a full-length film. They in fact felt like outtakes of various uncompleted comedy shorts edited together. Victoria was always there, yes, but it certainly did not look like Benedict got any insight on how can he get her back.
What those travels to the past did was to teach the selfish, self-centered Benedict how to loosen up and be sensitive to other people around him, that the world is not all about him. I think he could have learned that lesson even without all those elaborate history-hopping (and saved us around an hour and a half worth of time), but then, there would not have been much of a movie left to watch. 4/10.
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