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Jo Koy as Joe Valencia in Easter Sunday<\/em>.<\/figcaption>photo: Universal Pictures<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\nIt’s a rare thing these days for a studio comedy to get a theatrical release without a blockbuster intellectual property to back them up. that makes Easter Sunday<\/em> feel like an event in some respects\u2014certainly as a landmark of Filipino representation in mainstream American culture, but especially right now as a title that Universal Pictures thought was better suited for the communal theatrical experience than the couch-bound comfort of a streaming service. All that’s needed to make the experience complete is for the movie to be funny.<\/p>\nEaster Sunday<\/em><\/span> is not very funny.<\/p>\nTo be fair, the premise has promise. Comedian Jo Koy plays Joe Valencia, a fictionalized version of himself who’s trying to make his way from stand-up to sitcom acting. After an audition goes awry when the casting director asks him to perform with an accent, Joe enlists his agent (director and Broken Lizard alum Jay Chandrasekhar) to try and salvage his chances of getting the role. However, their constant contact quickly becomes an obstacle between Joe and his teenage son Junior (Brandon Wardell), and eventually a major complication as he joins his extended family’s Easter Sunday celebration.<\/p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n
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DIRECTOR<\/h2>\n Jay Chandrasekhar<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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SYNOPSIS<\/h2>\n Set around a family gathering to celebrate Easter Sunday, the comedy is based on Jo Koy’s life experiences and stand-up comedy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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To be fair, Joe’s professional life is far from the first priority for the rest of his family, whose members mostly try to navigate around a longstanding conflict between his mother (Lydia Gaston) and Theresa (Tia Carrere), his Tita. Neither Joe’s sister (Elena Juatco) nor his titos or titas (including Melody Butiu, Joey Guila, and Rodney To) know how or why their fight began, but the tension is ripe for comedy\u2014at least in theory. But aside from knowing winks about the apparent universality of Filipino family in-fighting, there aren’t many actual jokes.<\/p>\n
Instead, the film invests screen time in an increasingly absurd subplot involving Joe’s cousin Eugene (Eugene Cordero), who invested start-up funds from Joe into what Eugene calls a \u201chype truck,\u201d rather than the taco truck that the two of them agreed upon. Faster than you can say \u201cunnecessary crime subplot,\u201d Joe finds himself roped into a scheme involving a disgruntled \u201cluxury goods dealer\u201d named Tony Daytona (Asif Ali), the stolen boxing gloves of Manny Pacquiao, and a quest to fence them for cash . The bizarre situation exemplifies the film’s over-reliance on comedy emerging out of extreme scenarios instead of heightening the stakes of Joe and his family members’ plight with laugh lines or even sight gags.<\/p>\n