Movie review: ‘Boy Golden’ is half action, half goofy camp, and all fun

"Boy Golden" is kitschy, absurd, over the top, at times tasteless, often tacky, and almost devoid of any self-awareness. Through those characteristics, it becomes a wonderful piece of camp to be enjoyed. It aims to entertain with its kitchen sink approach, and while it’s far from a great piece of work, it accomplishes its goals to entertain and provide a fun time at the movies.

Jeorge Estregan (a.k.a. ER Ejercito among other variations of his screen name) has been doing some good business the last few years at the MMFF by attempting to make genre action movies. Eschewing the artsiness of "Manila Kingpin" and the attempts at historical revisionism of "El Presidente", we get a straight-up action movie here that hearkens back to gangland Manila.

What’s interesting in the film’s treatment is that it goes for period film, but it also feels like so much of it isn’t an emulation of the time period per se, but how we perceive films would have portrayed characters in that time period. I know that’s a bit conceptual, but it makes things interesting.

There isn’t anything here that is necessarily anachronistic, but it also doesn’t feel like it’s attempting for authenticity that a straight period piece might. Rather this feels like a film that’s drawing from film tradition more than it is from actual history.

And in execution, it gets all of those things that are wonderfully funny and wonderfully bad from old action movies and makes them prominent and fun here.

This movie structures itself as a revenge flick. Boy Golden, once Boy Anino and head of the Bahala na Gang, is back to take revenge against John Estrada’s Razon. Boy Golden runs into KC Concepcion’s Marla Dee, and they join forces to get their revenge.

The thing though is that this movie sprawls. It’s got that Boy Golden story, and it seems pretty committed to it, especially with the opening shootout sequence which is fun and wacky and brilliant. But then it starts branching off into a lot of other things, and sometimes even diversions. In all honesty, some of the diversions and side stories are more interesting than Boy Golden’s main revenge story.

The strongest story is Marla Dee’s, with Concepcion showing amazing skill here. Not only does she have some great acting moments, but she also shows real prowess in the action scenes. I felt like this was two different movies, a straight-up action movie starring Concepcion, and then the funny, goofy, camp thing whenever Estregan showed himself onscreen. I am hoping that this movie paves the way for at least one (and I’m hoping many) action movies where Concepcion plays the lead.

Almost all of the characters here operate on the level of caricature more than actual human characters. All of your villains are mustache-twirling villains, even when they are clean-shaven. They laugh big evil laughs and conspire with ominous tones playing in the background. The shootouts are crazy. The cops are incompetent. And possibly one of the greatest moments is instead of the firefight in one scene, we’re treated to a barbershop quartet rendition of an Elvis Presley classic.

This movie lacks focus. It doesn’t develop any characters and move them realistically through conflicts and emotions. But what it lacks in focus it makes up for in entertainment value. Sure, we don’t get realistic characters, but we do get people who are running around and doing things that hold our attention.

One of the ways that the movie stays interesting is that it makes sure that so much happens. Events don’t move smoothly from one thing to the next, or from specific objectives or anything like that. Rather, it’s big set pieces and connecting scenes. Some of those connecting scenes that attempt at emotion come off as cringe-worthy because they don’t work. These usually don’t work either because Estregan lacks the acting chops to sell the lines, or the lines themselves are too trite and expected. But then when you get past those scenes and get back to the action and the movement and the big sequences, you’re alright.

Which makes me think that this movie is like one of those loud parties where everyone’s drunk and having a good time. You want to tell the biggest stories and go for the biggest laughs. There isn’t much nuance, or much in the way of introspection or character development. But heck, things are entertaining and fun. I wouldn’t think this is the kind of thing I’d make an effort to go out and watch if it weren’t MMFF season. But as far as available flicks go, this is a fun way to spend a couple hours and a couple hundred bucks. — BM, GMA News 

"Boy Golden" is now showing in cinemas.

The views expressed in this review are the author's own.