SYNOPSIS:
Phua
Chu Kang is back and kicking into the big screens! The movie
depicts how Phua Chu Kang has been making a mark for himself
in Malaysia. Ah Ma came to visit but went missing in an instant.
Phua Chu Kang eventually tracks her down in an old folks home
and accidentally got himself a renovation job. All comes to
a screeching halt when he discovers the real reason behind
Ah Ma¡'s strange insistence to help some old folks at
the home who are dropping dead one by one. On the other hand
Rosie is kept busy being the centre of attention for both
Frankie Foo and Mr Lim, the owner of the old folks home. Will
Rosie and Phua Chu Kang be able to weather through this? And
will Phua Chu Kang and Ah Ma be able to find out what is the
real reason behind the deaths at the home or is it simply
they got old?
MOVIE REVIEW:
Resident reviewer John Lui of The Straits Times began his review of PCK The Movie by saying that “it is high time Phua Chu Kang had a construction accident”. This did sound extremely harsh the first time I read it- I mean, we’re talking about the most successful English-language sitcom of all-time making its big-screen leap here- but after watching the catastrophe that is PCK The Movie, this reviewer shares his sentiments wholeheartedly.
Bad doesn’t begin to describe PCK The Movie, which for all intents and purposes, shouldn’t even have been made. There is not one shred of decent humour to be found throughout the entire movie, a sorry excuse to stretch what could most optimistically have been the stuff of one half-hour sitcom into three of that. The worst part about it? Had it been the story of one of the episodes during PCK’s heydays on TV, it probably would have qualified as one of the worst episodes.
Picking up from the last PCK Sdn Bhd spinoff that saw PCK relocate from Singapore to Malaysia (he could actually be more popular over the Causeway than back at home here), screenwriter S M Ong spins a feeble story of how Ah Ma gets lost on the first day she goes to Malaysia to visit Phua Chu Kang. She ends up in an old folks home run by smarmy CEO Lim Lau Pek (Henry Thia) where PCK unwittingly becomes embroiled in a murder mystery involving the mysterious deaths of several of the old folks at the Home.
Is there any surprise who the culprit is? Not at all, so most of the time is spent rehashing PCK and Frankie Foo’s juvenile rivalry (even more puerile than this reviewer recalled watching on TV) or milking some humour from Lim Lau Pek’s attempt to hit on Rosie and PCK’s relationship with his estranged grandfather (also played by Gurmit). Director Boris Boo takes a leaf from the mo-lei-tau comedies, but these attempts at screwball comedy will only have you rolling your eyes.
Throwing a mystery into the regular PCK comedy mix also proves to be disastrous, as the movie lurches unevenly from one to the other. The best (or worst) example of this is the overly long climactic chase when the police come for baddie Lim Lau Pek (really, this is no spoiler) which results in a string of hide-and-seek slapstick sequences that are so clumsily done you’ll end up cringing than laughing. To add insult to injury, that climax comes with some last-minute heavy-handed emotional finale which is so annoying this reviewer had to hit the fast-forward button.
My sympathies go out to Gurmit Singh. The guy is easily Singapore’s number one funnyman, our Jim Carrey if you like it, with his ability to deliver physical comedy in the same exaggerated outrageous fashion. He still gives it all for Phua Chu Kang, but sadly the material he’s been given has been going from bad to worse, hitting a new low with this uninspired mess of a movie. My sympathies too to the character of PCK, once a cultural icon of Singapore, now forever sullied with an inglorious end.
For the sake of those Singaporeans who still harbour fond and good memories of PCK, consider this a desperate and heartfelt appeal to let him retire from the screen (big and small) once and for all. There is hardly any more comedic potential left to be milked from this Ah Beng contractor with a good heart, and PCK The Movie is the nail that seals PCK’s death from comedy land. Avoid this at all costs, if you still can, simply because PCK deserves a better fate than to be in the worst film of the year.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
There is a 20-minute “Making Of” featurette which has the cast justifying why they decided to torment their fans with this horrendous stinker. Oh, if you need a sampling of the kind of thing that passes for humour in the movie, just watch this featurette.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 but the only difference between the two is that you’ll get to hear the annoying soundtrack and the familiar PCK tune in surround. Visuals look washed out and colours aren’t well defined.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Gabriel Chong
Posted on 4 November 2010
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