Chasing Papi ~ 3 Chicas and a Latin Romeo

On one of our recent movie renting marathons (we sometimes grab 6 at a time and watch them all at once), Azure picked up Chasing Papi. It looked kinda so-so to me but what the hey, it was about having a decadent day with my daughter so we popped it in first. What a pleasant surprise!

This is a latin movie about a guy called Papi who is the epitome of the Latin Lover. He's got a gal in 3 three different cities..and they all decide to drop in on him unannounced in L.A. at the same time. Ooh la la!

Now that would have been cute, but this doesn't just go with that premise. Oh no, it takes you on a wild bunch of sub-plots and Papi ends up just being kind of a uniting factor but not the main part of the action. There's a bag full of money, the FBI, an inadvertant entry into a Latin Beauty Pageant, and jumping on stage to dance at some big outdoor festival (Cinqo De Mayo perhaps?). It's great fun at any rate.

The three chicas are played by Sofía Vergara (Big Trouble, 24th Day), Roselyn Sanchez (Boat Trip, Rush Hour 2) and popular Christian singer Jaci Velasquez. The girls all did a fantastic job in this. Velasquez was a bit forced in places but this is her first film so I have to give her a bit of leeway on that. It was pretty gutsy for someone with a Christian following to risk doing a film which pretty much centered around making woman as sexy as possible.

Vergara had a blast as Cici and let it all pretty much hang out. There's no blatant boobie shots here but pretty durn close. I think the amount of cleavage and short skirts in this film would make even jacksommersby happy. heh.

There's also enough eye candy for us gals in the personage of Eduardo Verástegui as Papi himself. This is his first film after 4 Latin TV series and he did a great job! He's gorgeous, smooth, and gets the most comical facial expressions. I hope he does more films.

Linda Mendoza directed this with a very light hand. She's used to comedies having been the director of TV's Chris Rock Show. She let the cast have fun and that always shows and usually ends with great results. Some of the devices she used were split screens and a bit of fun animation in between scenes in different cities. She dresses the girls colorfully, which adds to the feel of the whole over-the-top thing.

The music throughout is upbeat latino fair and will have you tapping your foot quite a bit. You come out of this one feeling good for some reason.

Rated PG for mild sensuality and language. Well, I personally see no reason not to let kids about 11 and up watch this. There isn't a whole lot of language and that rating is mostly about the cleavage.

I do recommend this one for when you are in the mood for light-hearted irreverent fun. It's one that you can just enjoy and not have to keep track of the plot overly much. Just a brainless good time.