I HAVE A CONFESSION to make. I fell asleep on the fisrt few minutes of ‘Beauty and the Bestie’ so me reviewing the movie might not do it any justice.

Or maybe I am wrong. I would be doing my readers a disservice if I don’t write anything about it.

The truth is, even if viewers sleep from time to time while the movie is playing, they would still understand the film. It’s predictable. Its premise is not new. It’s very Wenn Deramas.

The comedy bar jokes are the movie’s strengh as they are also its weakness. Vice Ganda’s ‘Beauty’ and his friends poking fun at each other’s physical appearance from time to time is funny but doing it the entire film is plain wrong. At first, I bursted into laughters. The second time, I laughed still. But the third time is a big joke. You’d surely question your sanity if you’d still laugh for the repetitive, shallow jokes about pimples, and wigs.

While the movie tries to venture into a wide range of genres — from action to drama to comedy to romance centered on beauty contests and kidnapping, and the likes, it failed terribly on its supposed focus: make people laugh, and touch their hearts. To borrow the famous line in the world of pageantry today, it is never “a comedy, with a heart.”

‘Beauty and the Bestie’ simply lacks heart. It lacks focus. It failed to make people have a grasp on its being a movie in the first place.

The film might have successfully infused ‘kilig’ by having the beautiful couple, James Reid and Nadine Lustre in it, but it didn’t help the film either. Their scenes are cute, yes, but they can only do so much. They should have given Jadine more scenes, if their spark and prettiness are to be considered, but no, this should be different from ‘On The Wings of Love’ TV series, right?

I am a self-confessed Coco Martin fan, and I loved his being ‘Ang Probinsyano’ but his being ‘Ang Probinsyano’ put in this film is a total mistake.

Overall, ‘Beauty and the Bestie’ is nothing but chopsuey: a little of each character’s TV series.

Could we expect better from Deramas, and Vice Ganda moving forward? We hope so.

Verdict: Watch at your own risk
Rating: 3/10 stars