If we judge "The Panti Sisters" on comedy alone then the film brought enough laugh out loud moments to be an overall good experience. But we cannot discount the fact that the film had problems with its narrative and character developments as it was supremely limited by abrupt shifts in tones and story-telling.
Gabbi (Palo Ballesteros), Daniel (Martin del Rosario), and Samuel Panti (Christian Bables) are three siblings who are heirs to Don Emilio Panti's (John Arcilla) vast wealth. But the three are disappointments to their strict and masochistic father due to them turning out to be gays. Gabbi and Daniel were booted out of their homes earlier in their lives while Samuel is actually an illegitimate son who has never seen his father. The three are suddenly called back by Don Emilio to find out that he has cancer and has only around one year left to live. He plans to leave behind an amount of P300 million pesos upon his death but with one condition - his three gay sons must give him a grandchild before he dies. Given the huge amount of money at stake, the three Panti sisters agrees to the challenge but how will they actually accomplish the feat?
The first impression we have with "The Panti Sisters" was that it was as basic as it could get. It certainly provided enough to make it acceptable as a brainless time-waster and it's not the worst Filipino comedy film narratively-speaking but it definitely lacks any depth or even semblance to justify its existence. At the crux of this issue was that "The Panti Sisters" showed a particular lack of effort and polish on its part. The story was actually silly but quite normal for a comedy film. At least it was a great set-up to create crazy situations for our main characters to find themselves in. But the film was just disconnected and disjointed from scene to scene. It was as if each scene had their own bubbles and the important conversations and smaller scenes to tie them up were mostly missing. This had an impact on major and minor characters so much so that we didn't have an emotional investment with most of them. Characters will come and go and we found ourselves not impacted by their fates - even those that led to deaths. The strongest point for the film would be its script. While some of the jokes were heavy-handed, we found more jokes hitting the mark than missing the target completely. Overall, there are certainly better LGBT-themed comedies that are more substantial or emotionally impactful than "The Panti Sisters" - some even starring the same actors. It was not the worst Filipino comedy you can find out in the wild and if you temper your expectations, its major faults can be forgettable and forgivable.
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