Sisterakas: Movie Review

"Sisterakas" may not be the ultimate film this year to clearly define what is wrong with the Metro Manila Film Festival as a legitimate event to promote local film and quality but it also doesn't stray too far from it. The elements are there - mind-numbing plot, badly-acted, haphazardly edited and just feels like any other local film you can see every single week of the year. All is not bad though because it does deliver some slapstick humor that works care of Vice Ganda and Ai-Ai Delas Alas.

Totoy (Vice Ganda) & Detty (Ai-Ai Delas Alas) are half siblings. Detty is her father's legitimate child but Totoy isn't. To compensate for Totoy's upbringing, their father decides to let Totoy's mother work as a maid at their home (without his real wife knowing the truth about Totoy). For a time, it works but when the his mother and father are caught by Detty's mother doing the deed, the truth is let out. Forced out shamefully and left for dead, Totoy vows to become rich and trample on Detty's family in the future. Years later, Totoy is now Bernice - a wealthy and successful fashion designer who owns Pony Tale. Detty on the other hand has become poor and might lose her 2 kids as her husband has decided to take their children to Canda if she doesn't find a way to properly support them. When Totoy fires his 347th executive assistant and Detty, in desperation, applies for a job at Pony Tale for the same position, their paths finally meet. Will the siblings fix their scorned past or will this only bring more pain to the mistakes their parents started?

"Sisterakas" will make you laugh but that's the only thing you can get from it. A shallow happiness for almost 2 hours and once the credits end, you will simply forget about it. Does that make it worth your while? It depends. Does the film exude quality or does it wreak of shameful standards? Does it have a simple yet purposeful plot? Does it have leads and supporting casts that do their jobs in that department? Because even though making you laugh is the main and primary goal of a comedy film, it shouldn't be the only goal. Only one or two of those could make "Sisterakas" mightily better but it doesn't. The plot is useless. It is simple and interesting at first but it suddenly jumps from one main point to another without much development. The latter parts and ending is also bizzare - suddenly Kris Aquino and the two other leads are "Sisterakas" even though she has done a very bad thing to them. In the editing department, the film feels rushed with scene quality changing from one scene to another. Even one scene had technical problems in terms of its picture but we coiuldn;t say if it was the theater we were in. Finally, the acting was so-so (but not for Ai-Ai or Vice) bordering bad. One was even laughing during a supposedly heartfelt scene. Kris Aquino was the worst culprit of all. Her performance must be seen to be believed. Are we really not surprised with how "Sisterakas" turned out? The sad fact is we were not. It is a film that doesn't make an effort to be different at all.

Rating: 2 reels

Why you should watch it:
- comedy works and Vice Ganda may have redeemed himself in our book

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- Kris Aquino's acting was horrid. One of the worst we have seen ever.
- The plot feels rushed even with a runtime that's almost 2 hours.
- badly edited just shows how much the filmmakers care for quality work.