KTX: Review of IZLA: Zany Zombies

October 26, 2021

Badong (Paolo Contis) and Entoy (Archie Alemania) were two brothers working odd jobs for tips in a beach resort. They desperately needed more money to pay off major family debts. When Badong learned that his favorite sexy vloggers, the V-Sisters, were scouting for a major prank idea, he suggested that he could take them to Forbidden Island, fabled for being the home of deadly ninjas since the Japanese occupation. When the sisters accepted his offer, they were in for an insane adventure beyond any of their expectations. 

When the opening scene showed barbers telling ludicrous wartime tales about a mysterious island which had laboratories that created so-called "ninjas on call", or "ninja-call" for short (old green joke, groan) you immediately knew that you should not take this movie seriously. Badong and Entoy looking very silly while dancing on a river boat to the tune of "Kapag Tumibok ang Puso," set tone for the absurd. A news report about tourists missing while taking a tour to the forbidden island set the tone for danger. 

The diverse characters within the V-Sisters vlogging group gave director Barry Gonzalez a chance to take little potshots at various female vlogger stereotypes. Veronica (Isabelle Daza) was their serious leader constantly worried about their views and statistics. Valerie (Beauty Gonzales) was the cynical, jaded one. Venus (Ellise Joson) was the charming, bubbly one. Their crew were also as pretty and sexy as them: their producer Gina (Sunshine Garcia), their researcher Lani (Analyn Barro) and their mascot Abby (Aiko Climaco).

Paolo Contis, Archie Alemania and Beauty Gonzales kept the wacky comic energy going throughout. The ever-classy Isabelle Daza felt out of place in these lowbrow shenanigans. In fact, she and Ellise Joson were conspicuously absent in several scenes on the island. Analyn Barro (as the voluptuous and brainy Lani) even had more memorable scenes, with her "shaking the stone" and "reading Japanese" gags. Nino Muhlach was also in the mix as Mayor Aldrin, who knew more about the island than he let on. 

As the sex-obsessed Badong, Paolo Contis delivered most of the little raunchy one-liners, most of them actually worked, like the ones about booby traps or gold / bold. There were also a number of zombie visual gags that were so silly, you can't help but laugh out loud for their stupidity, like the "Chariot of Fire"-inspired racing bit, or that security guard zombie with the keys.  Of course, the ditzy girls were funny just by simply screaming and running around like crazy, as it was in all the zombie horror comedies that came before. 4/10.