When Enteng met Cardo (and Yaya Dub)

Film review: Jack Em Popoy, The Puliscredibles

MANILA, Philippines — Let’s face it: Vic Sotto will be a Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) mainstay until the day he dies. Prolific — and very successful at the MMFF box-office — with the Enteng Kabisote franchise, Vic’s movies have all things for all people: Comedy (of course), romance, drama, action, with a generous sprinkling of product endorsements. It is a formula that has given his career so much for so little for so long.

Jack Em Popoy, The Puliscredibles has all of the above, and in spades, except mercifully for the product placements, but the introduction of Coco Martin into the equation has given the recipe a different flavor.

For the most part, the fun comes from the fact that Coco reprises his role as Cardo Dalisay in the phenomenal ABS-CBN series FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano. But this time, while he again plays a crusading cop, the context is strange: He plays opposite GMA 7’s biggest star, Vic, with the said station’s biggest recent discovery Maine Mendoza (a.k.a. Yaya Dub) as his love interest. And his sidekicks are Vic’s co-hosts and dabarkads in Eat, Bulaga. That GMA 7 is Coco’s home station’s archrival for TV supremacy makes the entire set-up surreal. This is not lost on the scriptwriter, when he makes Coco’s Chief Inspector Jack Halimuyak a contestant in Eat, Bulaga’s Poging Pulis competition. When Coco’s character initially shows incredulity, Vic’s SPO3 Fernandez intones in deadpan, “Nanonood ka pala ng Eat, Bulaga?” highlighting the absurdity of the situation.

The plot is nothing but a reworking of the police buddy movie: SPO3 Fernandez is an aging cop due for retirement; because of his advanced years, everyone calls him “Pops” (Pops Fernandez, get it?). His partner (played by action legend Lito Lapid in a cameo) having been killed in a drug bust gone south, headquarters sends him Halimuyak. Now, Pops’ adoptive daughter Emily (Maine), is also in the police force, and together with Halimuyak, they form a trio that bucks and bends the rules of the force in going after the bad guys, since they suspect that their chief, Senior Superintendent Arturo Punongbayan (played by Tirso Cruz III) is in cahoots with the drug lords, portrayed by the venerable Ronaldo Valdez as Antonio Montenegro) and his two children, Andrew and Andrea (Arjo Atayde and Ryza Cenon).

The film’s execution is run-of-the-mill. Indeed, one can even say it is a throwback to the Fernando Poe Jr. and Erap Estrada action flicks of yore. Whether this is due to lack of imagination, fossilization or part of the film’s aspirations as an unabashed parody of every identifiable action movie trope, I am hard-pressed to tell. All I am prepared to say is that every plot point can be seen coming a mile away, even that which I suppose was designed to have been a surprise twist regarding Halimuyak’s paternity.

But then again, Jack Em Popoy does not pretend to be other than an escapist action-comedy-romance movie, and as long as one does not over-analyze it, it has its enjoyable moments. Easily the highlight of the film is a confrontation scene between Coco and Vic, which would have been a passable heavily dramatic moment, except for the fact that while the two were doing it, they were both in drag as part of the plot. One does not the know whether to be taken in by the genuine emotions of the scene, or guffaw at the sheer ludicrousness of the two male leads trading profoundly emotive lines in full female make-up and sequined gowns! The real achievement there, methinks, is how the two protagonists were able to keep a straight face through it all. 

The gags also come in fast. Maine is a sight to behold as an overly-melodramatic, hyper-active policewoman; indeed, she is a natural as a comedienne, and her efforts at executing her action scenes clearly show. The perceptive will notice that her scene with Coco on a motorcycle is a spoof of that of JaDine in Never Not Love You. And did I mention that she looked cute as hell, very appealing in a non-movie star manner? Vic, to be sure, is in his usual form — as a bumbling, ordinary everyman displaying superhuman skills when the need arises; it is a part he plays so well he could do it in his sleep. Coco, for his part, plays Cardo as only he can personate it, but with a bemused subtext that probably comes from knowing that, unlike in Ang Probinsyano, his police officer role here is naught but tongue-in-cheek. Lastly on this score, Ryza portrays the yummiest villainess I have ever seen in recent memory.

Also quite hilarious is that, in the movie, Coco has three gay stepfathers named FPJ, Erap and Binoe, who try to hide their homosexuality by acting all macho around him. And action movie fans will recognize the send-ups of iconic scenes from many local action movies. It was also a delight to see Coco acting out with gusto the part of being a contestant in an Eat, Bulaga contest, dancing and rapping his heart out in a cheeky number that was surprisingly authentic.

On the whole, Jack Em Popoy works on the level of “it’s so bad that it’s good.” If you come into the movie house in the spirit of watching a movie for the sake of pure entertainment, the laughs will come easy and frequently from its utter pulis-ness (foolishness).

(Jack Em Popoy is directed by Michael Tuviera and produced by APT Entertainment, CCM Films and M-Zet Productions.)