Momzillas Movie Review

We took our mother-in-law to the movies recently.  It's the first showing day for the film Momzillas.  Our outing was impulsively planned and hurriedly implemented.  But it was fun -- the trip, the company and the movie!

Photo credit: Star Cinema

We went after lunch, praying that we won't get stuck in traffic.  We multi-tasked when we arrived at the  mall, with the husband finding some parking space while we girls (mom-in-law, sister-in-law and second-cousin-in-law (I know!)) rushed at the elevator to buy the tickets, popcorn and drinks.  We were rushing because we were 10 minutes away from the start of the movie when we arrived.  Thankfully, we got there just in time.

Momzillas is a Star Cinema film offering about two mothers (Maricel Soriano and Eugene Domingo) whose children (Billy Crawford and Andi Eigenmann, respectively) have fallen in love and are about to get married.  Unfortunately the two mothers have a bitter history involving one man, and they have been at odds since then.  When they met again at their children's "pamamanhikan" or betrothal, mayhem ensued.

To reconcile the two warring mothers, their children and friends conspired to throw them together in a yacht party, which turned into a disaster when the yacht was shipwrecked.  Then followed the adventures of the two combative moms  as they struggled to survive a hostile island and each other.   Their ensuing efforts to live through and escape the perils of the unknown environment were hilarious.

Eventually they became friends in the island and were rescued back to civilization, only to find that their children are now the ones having problems in their relationship. The momzillas now have to use their brains, wits and resources to get their children to reconcile, again with comedic results.

So how did we find Momzillas?

Visually it was very entertaining.  The characters looked great, individually and together.  It was good to see THE Maricel Soriano once again on the big screen.  She is still stunning despite the signs of age and body flab in some places, not to mention the strange way her lips seem to be fixed or paralyzed when she talks.  Eugene Domingo also looks good with her apparent weight loss. Her morena complexion is a perfect counter-foil to Maricel's blindingly white skin.  The two other lead stars -- Andi Eigenmann and Billy Crawford -- were able to hold their own in the eye-candy department.

Plus, the characters were well-dressed and very fashionable in this movie.  I love Maricel's, Uge's and Andi's shoes, dresses and accessories.  Some of Uge's outfits were outrageous, but she carried it off with panache. Kudos to the film's stylists, I was able to get some tips and ideas from the characters' fashion ensemble.  But the thing that really and mostly stood out for me in this movie was that Maricel looked incredibly classy in red, even when the gown she wore got torn and dirty.

Next, the plot.  The storyline was entertaining, not too deep, but not too "not there" either.  Efforts were made to establish the characters' personalities and motives early on, so that the audience would understand the ensuing dysfunction.  Momzillas did drag on after a while, and the whole film looked "episodic."  First was the "pamamanhinkan" conflict, then the "stranded-in-the-island" episode, then the "bring-the-children-back-together" part.  It's not such a bad thing, because each episode created hilarity at every chance, so I'm not complaining.

It was mostly the actors' delivery that seem to be the low point of Momzillas.  One word:  hysterical.  It was screaming and arguing in a loud voice all the time, with barely any let up.  The acting energy and noise decibel emanating from Maricel Soriano and Eugene Domingo combined threatened to give me a headache.  So much so that I welcomed with profound relief every rare dramatic moment in the movie, such as when they finally made peace with each other in the middle of the isolated island in the deep of night.  It's the only part of the movie when I caught a glimpse of the award-winning actresses in Maricel Soriano and Eugene Domingo, when their eyes and facial expressions conveyed more depth and emotion than lines of dialogue.

The comedic moments were plenty in this movie.  Some hit the right buttons, but some fell through the seams and didn't do it for me.  The location of the "island" where they were stranded was a big, fat laugh for the audience.

The ending?  Well, I welcomed the end of the movie if only for the relief that it is finally over.  It's the "all's well that ends well" formula, but I pity the two children for what's in store for them, given the nature of their momzillas.

Overall, Momzillas is well worth the money and time spent watching it.  If the yardstick is pure unadulterated fun and entertainment, then this one hits the mark.