‘Kusina Kings’ had few things to say. So few, that the attempt is practically confined within the efforts to make its audience burst into laughter. The fashion through which is delivered, is similarly limited, largely driven by Empoy Marquez‘s signature comedic style; it massively works. The humor’s effect is like being tickled when one is in utmost need of a good laugh.
Victor Villanueva, the director, barely duplicated the method he employed to his 2016 dark comedy, ‘Patay Na Si Hesus’. This time, the script is practically embracing shallowness.
Usual comedy tropes populate his narrative, and frankly, there may have been too few choices available for him to make it work. He still does, amidst the scarcity, wisely shifting his focus to utilizing his better assets–his actors’ artistic skills, that is–instead.
The film has the friendship of two unlikely men, at its center. Chef restaurateur, Benjie (Marquez) has been friends with Ronnie (Zanjoe Marudo) since high school. The stark difference between the two is immediately established in the first few moments of the film. With Benjie, who constantly reminding the naive Ronnie on how inferior he is compared to him. But that’s the thing about Zanjoe‘s character. He is eminently dumb that almost every choice he made, is no short of chuckle-worthy entertainment to the audience. And to Marudo’s credit, he was able to pull it off with genuine empathy, getting it easily sold.
But then Empoy’s ‘broken English’-style of comedy, never gets outdated. Not much of his comic efforts strike uniqueness, to be fair. But the solid commitment just gets them done, with ease. In some contexts, the genuine intent may slide off track, but if it is to be seen as a mere exhibit of gags and spoofs, then that’s the time the narrative starts to do the real work.
The choice to remain within the realm of conventional comedy is not surprising. It strained the story and inevitably failed the film from getting to more exciting places in its plot. But then again, the small but genuine moments of craziness did compensate for where the film did lack. The sheer amount of absurdity more than enough to keep the film’s inherent charm, from getting wasted.
Amidst this absurdity, it is hard not to dismiss the more relevant themes that the narrative managed to get across: friendship, family, acceptance. That’s quite a conventional mix, to be frank, but it provided a pretty decent weight to give this presentation of gags and spoofs, some balance.
5 – Excellent
4 – Very Good
3 – Good
2 – Tolerable
1 – Terrible
‘Kusina Kings’ is now showing nationwide
