Chasing Papi - Lot of Potential, Little Result

Thomas Fuentes (Eduardo Verastegui) is a successful advertising executive who travels a lot between the cities of Miami, Los Angeles and New York City, and in each city he has a girlfriend waiting for him.

There's Cici (Sofia Vergara), the busom babe bartender; Patricia (Jaci Velasquez), the spoiled socialite whose biggest job in life is to dress her dog to match her own outfits; and Lorena (Roselyn Sanchez), the intellectual, stick-in-the-mud lawyer.

To make Thomas aka 'Papi' (a nickname used for men and boys alike, kind of like "baby") a sympathetic character, he doesn't just play around, no, he's genuinely in love with all three of them. (go ahead and groan ... I had to).

The three decide to pay him a surprise visit at his home. Instead of Papi, they find each other and, determined to once and for all clarify whom Papi will chose, they run off to find the money to give to the crooks who waited for the car ... what? You're lost? Yeah well, so's the script.

"When do they chase Papi?" you may ask, and the actual answer would have to be "Not at all. Not really."

Why the film is titled Chasing Papi is a mystery to me since right after the discovery of Papi's cheating ways, he gets kidnapped by the FBI. The three women instead chase a bag of money which was hidden in the car Cici drove to Los Angeles.

If you're looking for the winner of the annual stereotype contest, you just found it: the big-boob bartender is wild, flamboyant, has street smarts, can dance.

The lawyer works for free cause she's fighting for her people, and obviously needs to be dressed like a Dr. Scholl ad to be taken seriously.

And the spoiled brat can't do much of anything once mom cut off the credit cards other than dress and lug around her dog. (I assume it's thanks to Legally Blonde that the dog had to be something other than a Chihuahua which is about the only difference to the famous Reese Whitherspoon character)

However - overall, the film isn't bad - it's your average comedy about three completely different women getting closer to each other as they fight toward a common goal. It's great cinematography and Sofia Vergara is absolutely brilliant as the feisty hot chick.

The adoration for Papi is laid on a bit thick - Verastegui obviously sprang from the same litter as Ricky Martin, Iglesias jr. or Antonio Banderas. If that's your type, you'll be swooning for about 30 or so out of the 84 minutes this film lasts, because Papi spends most of his time in an FBI agent's car away from the action.

The length of this film is another minus. Some scenes are so rushed through that one can only wonder why the filmmakers didn't just ad another 10 or 15 minutes to the film in favor of dialog. There are plenty of opportunities where the film could have raised above its level with some more fleshed-out scenes.

You could consider the stereotyping and lacking length as a charming beginners' mistake was it not for the fact that this film is directed by Forrest Whittaker who should know a little something about stereotypes and filmmaking in general.

My Mexican coworker, although male, didn't care much for the film despite all the jiggling offered in skimpy outfits. A Latino filmmaker I know simply bemoaned the "Latino man with 3 girlfriends" stereotype. My older landlady found the film amusing but lacking in length and being very predictable.

It's still better than the recent Two Weeks Notice, Just Married or How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, though; it has a fun soundtrack and the chaos and hectic among the women is refreshingly alive.

The sad thing is: this film had potential to show that Latino films can be just as entertaining as the mainstream Hollywood productions, and because of that, the film's shortcomings are particularly annoying.