Mr. Suavé hoy! hoy! hoy! hoy!
Hoy! Hoy! Hoy!
I thought nothing could beat the intro to this movie: directors and actors getting killed, random (what I believe is) Tagalog shouted through a megaphone, bad scene designs out of an Ed Wood movie, and “Now Showing” becoming “No Showing,” but surprisingly the anti-piracy advertisement was not the only good thing about this movie: it has a Mr. Suavé music video attached.
Apparently there is a stereotypical ladies man in every culture, even way out in the film boonies of the Philippines. Rico Suavé (Vhong Navarro, the self-proclaimed Filipino Jim Carrey), chick magnet extraordinaire, spends his time selling shrimp to desperate women, dating women, and giving tips to his friends on the Suavé style so that they can get women. His world seems perfect to the F-poor (his friends, we can assume we know what the F means), but deep down he hides a dark secret… he’s a virgin. He freezes up, literally, every time he starts making out. That does not deter him from trying however.
It’s as good a setup for any cheesy movie and Vhong makes good use of it. The courting scene in particular was poignant as he explained a man needed to court an entire family, not just the woman, and then proceeded to court everyone from the parents to the dog. His dress style, somewhere along the lines of a Latin cowboy with a ‘stache, really works for the character. Of course the best part of the movie is really the Suavé music video which can only truly be grasped by seeing, but involves a lot of girls and a color-coordinated bedroom. It’s even got a catchy tune!
There is a romantic lead and once she is fully introduced as the lovely prostitute Miss Venus, the movie pretty much goes downhill from there. There are a few cute scenes and a few odd ones from that point on. The cute scenes were along the lines of Mr. Suavé trying to save Venus and accidentally punching her. The weird ones were along the lines of meeting the grandparents: 4 feet tall and high-pitched voices. However, the movie spirals towards a lugubrious romance story and neither the cute nor the weird scenes overcome this complication.
Overall I would still recommend this movie to friends, but only when they’re in a particularly Filipino and Zoolanderish mood. And only with the warning: FIRST HALF BETTER THAN SECOND. Nonetheless, Vhong’s motions, timing, and mustache give him a trans-cultural cheesy appeal, and I found a lot of hilarious, sometimes over-the-top, moments in the movie. Oh, and definitely try to find what is really the funniest music video ever.
