Easter Sunday

When I came to learn about this movie, I must admit that I was looking forward to watching it, especially after having heard about Jo Koy's family from his numerous stand-up comedy specials. So did writers Kate Angelo and Ken Cheng deliver? Yeah, they did. However, I had expected that the writing would have been done by Jo Koy himself, but hey, this worked out as well. The storyline was nicely written with lots of good comedy moments and some very colorful characters. The cast ensemble for "Easter Sunday" was quite good, with some very talented Filipino actors and actresses on the cast list. And with the likes of Jo Koy, Lydia Gaston, Tia Carrere and Eugene Cordero then you're in good company. And it was definitely a treat to have Lou Diamond Phillips show up as well. This is a well-rounded comedy with a good story and with a lot of heart. If you enjoy comedy movies, then you definitely should check out "Easter Sunday" from director Jay Chandrasekhar.

3 stars; I guess this film was intended to be the Filipino "Christmas Vacation" movie, even though it was written for Easter. While it didn't measure up to the original 'catastrophic family holiday' movie, it did give a unique and funny insight to the Filipino culture. The humor was more cute than hilarious, but I greatly appreciated that it didn't have to resort to the crude sophomoric humor that seems to be prevalent in today's comedies. I'm not familiar with Jo Koy's Standup Comedy routine, but I'm sure he could have diced up the dialog in this effort. Also, the plot itself was all a little too cliche. I am a Lou Diamond Phillips fan and really was happy to see that he does have a knack for comedy as well. All said and done however, the movie was fast paced fun and enjoyable in a light-hearted sense. I especially loved the positive message.

No one should settle for mediocrity, especially someone like JoKoy who has waved his Fil-Am identity flag throughout his stand-up career. I'll give him this - Easter Sunday was made and it wouldn't have happened without the power of JoKoy. However, it falls in the trap of having representation be the premise of the story, when Eddie Murphy and Coming To America should have taught JoKoy how to utilize representation in a film starring an established comedian. Having the pivotal turn focus on a poorly designed caper does JoKoy and the talented Fil-Am actors a disservice. The opportunity to highlight the heart of each relationship, specifically the "father-son" and "son-love interest" storylines were missed, instead focusing on a deal gone bad that brings a rushed reconciliation of complicated family dynamics. I'm not a fan of portraying Filipinos as a monolith and Easter Sunday does this. For one, Easter Sunday isn't the Super Bowl for my Filipino American family - unsure where that came from. Another is annoyingly saying Filipinos are this or that as if we all should carry the same mannerisms. Shout out to Regina (Elena Juatco) and Tala (Eva Noblezada) for standing out, even though they were severely underutilized. I'm sure he will get funding for the next one and I look forward to a film that takes time to consider all the beats of the story. Hopefully it's a Christmas and New Years movie, which is the true Super Bowl of holidays for not only Filipino American life, but across multiple groups around the world.

Over acting was awful

This is so clearly a bad movie, and the fact that it got good reviews at all as a little astonishing. I’m not saying that aren’t good elements. put the major sub plot it’s just silly and forced

This made me smile. Great cast too

I like the semi-autobiographical angle, and story arc escalates and resolves beautifully. But the jokes are mostly misses and the stakes of this story feel incredibly low at all times. The best part is the ending karaoke scene.

Familiarly structured repeatedly developing cheesy turns and functions closer to a Jo Koy's standup comedy where his fans enthusiastically check out, it's decidedly enjoyable between the comedian's appealing charisma holding down the familial fort of decent laughs with blossoming glimpses of a usual heart, despite not going as far as an actual family affair (doable since Michael Douglas's "It Runs in the Family"). (B)

WAS A FUN MOVIE LOVED IT

Not even remotely funny. Turned it off around half way through. Couldn't take it anymore.