Film Review : I Love You To Death

My notes on I Love You To Death:

1. As soon as Janice de Belen showed up on screen as Kiray Celis' mother, all I could think of was the popular 80's catchphrase ("Oh my god! Ang anak ni Janice!!") that was used in the trailer of Regal Films' cult classic Tiyanak and spawned the flop sequel Anak ni Janice.
Whether this was intentional or not, the movie's best moments involved the running joke of her character's brutal honesty towards her daughter's physical appearance. She was the type of mom that would scream "Wag mo nga akong ginugulat anak!" upon seeing Kiray's I-woke-up-like-this face or would recommend to fix her daughter's bridal look by covering her face with a veil.


2. This brand of comedy harkens back to the early 90's Rene Requiestas Pido Dida/Cheeta-eh era that I wasn't surprised when his lookalike actually showed up. It made me miss this type of humor, especially in this day and age of political correctness. One simple punchline in his movies (say Michael and Madonna) would be Rene smiling and showing his missing teeth and it would be okay for people to laugh ("Ay bungi! Hahaha!"). If you'd do that now, a group of keyboard warriors would demand for respect to dentally-challenged people while a group of activists burn effigies of the President protesting the lack of funds for dentures and the proliferation of lowbrow comedy in local cinema. How times have changed.

3. The biggest problem of this movie was that there really wasn't a lot going for it aside from making fun of Kiray's looks. It shouldn't be a surprise given that the movie's supposed highlight extensively used in promotions was the kissing scene between her and Enchong Dee (wait, was it supposed to be icky because of her looks or because of his...never mind).

This reminded so much of Joe Dante's Burying the Ex, another awful dark comedy about a spurned lover that rose from the dead to seek revenge. Even with torn limbs and blood spurting onscreen, it didn't have much of a story either.

4. I didn't bother taking note of the young supporting cast's names because I hadn't seen this much bad acting since the last season of Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Edition. I had so much fun seeing them get killed one by one because it would just mean one less irritating person to watch. Besides, I wasn't even sure why Kiray was friends with them when they would openly mock her appearance and blatantly wish for her character's harm (was it because she only owned one orange Prada bag that she used every single time, regardless if it clashed with her outfit?).

5. Burning questions:
• What bowling alley would allow kids to wear Jimmy Choo heels?
• What was up with Enchong's hair? His short bangs reminded me of that scene in Dumb and Dumber when Jim Carrey placed a bowl over his head before getting a haircut.
• Why did these kids never grieve for their dead friends? After one of them got murdered in school, the next scene showed the gang in a salon. I guess the best way to really move on would be to get a Brazilian blowout and a mani-pedi. Yet in another scene, they were shown mourning...in a club.

6. Speaking of club, this was a Regal movie so I wasn't surprised that there was an extended dance-off sequence. I should just be thankful that it wasn't at a beach.

7. I never really understood the "mukha kang pantasa" joke, especially when the woman looked more like an eraser. And that ‪#‎deathbypencil‬ scene reeked too much of Zoolander 2.

8. Two obvious signs that their wedding was doomed: 1) she had her engagement ring on her middle finger, 2) her wedding gown had a sheer skirt that showed her boy shorts underneath.

9. In one scene, Kiray was kidnapped by her friends and had a sack thrown over her head. After it was removed, there were rice grains stuck on her face that made her complain, "Di nyo man lang tinanggal ang bigas sa sako!". It was one of the few effortlessly funny gags that worked in this movie.

I wish there were so much more because after this and Love is Blind, Kiray definitely deserved much better.



Movie Rate : ★★☆☆☆
Movie Review by : Jason Javier