December 26, 2021
Superheroes in the Philippines have been disappearing and no one knew where they were. The only superhero left in active duty was Mang Jose (Janno Gibbs), whose power was energy absorption and redirection. However, he was notorious for being for hire, which means he charged a bill for the good deeds that he does for people.
Super-villain King Ina (Manilyn Reynes), whose powers lay in her hallucinogenic saliva, devised a scheme giving away free milk tea which contained a chemical which will enable her to gain control of all other superheroes. Before she was captured, Tina Santos (Bing Loyzaga) was able to tell her son Tope (Mkoy Morales) to call Mang Jose for help.
Janno Gibbs had been having a resurgence in his film career lately thanks to Viva Films. After his comeback in "Sanggano, Sanggago't Sanggwapo" (2019), he had "Pakboys Takusa" (2020), then "69 +1" (2021). Aside from his title role in this film as Mang Jose, he also has a significant supporting role in Viva's current MMFF entry "A Hard Day."
Gibbs already has this laidback style of slapstick comedy that has long been his signature over the years. Being a superhero, the character of Mang Jose had Gibb engaging in several action fight scenes. However, he also also had plenty of dramatic scenes, as there was a complicating situation that connected him to the lives of Tina and Tope.
The comedy was only mildly funny at best. That his manager Charlemagne (Jerald Napoles) charged people they helped for services rendered, or that King Ina's macho minion Lance (Gab Lagman) spoke in gayspeak through his Bane-like mask, got old pretty quickly. Names with vulgar meanings in the vernacular were used, like King Ina, Turborats, Barangay Salsalan or Chikinini Motel.
As the confused young man Tope, Mikoy Morales kept up with Gibbs all the way as the straight man to his wisecracks. Manilyn Reynes was clearly enjoying her villain role, fancy headdress and costume, and those "80s dance moves King Ina was fond of, like "Body Dancer" or "Rico Mambo." Leo Martinez appears as Mang Jose's mad scientist friend Marcelo who helped them figure out the significance of the milk tea.
The casting of Manilyn Reynes and Bing Loyzaga in supporting roles had a lot of Filipino pop culture significance. Janno-Manilyn was one of the most popular love teams in the TV variety show "That's Entertainment" during the 1980s. This marks their reunion in a feature film, albeit on opposite sides of the law. Bing Loyzaga is of course Mrs. Janno Gibbs.
This local superhero comedy film inspired by Parokya ni Edgar's 2005 song, was written by Carl Joseph Papa and directed by Raynier Brizuela. I was thinking that with a little more budget to improve its production design and visual effects, this could have actually been a more commercially viable than most of the entries in the ongoing MMFF. 6/10.
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