Rico owns the struggling coffee shop Kape Barako. The shop only has one regular customer, an agin fashion designer who drools over Rico and a lady who orders nothing but ice water and leeches off their Internet connection. Rico is struggling to pay off his mortgage and now needs to pay off 120,000 pesos to keep the bank from foreclosing on the property in 15 days. He feels off his car but is still far away. He even thinks of selling himself to the fashion designer customer but when he asks for "special services", he freaks to and backs off. Luckily, one of his baristas Jek accidentally stumbles on a solution to the shop’s problems. A prank goes wrong and a special ingredient ends up making their coffee a real hit among a certain section of their clientele. (I won't give the spoiler). The customer line grows exponentially and Rico hires an ex-gay stripper and a bouncer just to keep serving his customers. The bank's end date is coming near and finally he decides to give in to the fashion designer's demand, but the stripper comes up with an idea of doing a one night strip show with all the hot baristas. As expected the show is a hit and Rico manages to save enough money to save his shop.
There are only two ways you can react to the movie: either laugh your heart out (like I did) or be disgusted. I hope people don't take the film too seriously and just enjoy for what it is: Silly and entertaining. You will notice that even though Rico is straight, he treats his employees with respect and dignity and never fails to recognize and appreciate their hard work and efforts to save his coffee shop. He wants to do right for everyone and succeeds in it. Th two main baristas, the straight Jek who finds the secret ingredient or the agin queen secretly crushing over the store owner bring in their own story to the total mix. The film never gets confusing and the target audience is clearly the gay men. The plot will feel too contrived and sad for straight people. Acting, as you can expect, in these kind of comedies have to be slightly over the top, but it works somehow. You see all kinds of characters. The film is also not unnecessarily stretched for no reasons. They have a plot in mind and go directly for it. No time in wasted in any side plots and I do appreciate. That fact.
The film is no great shakes and is not here to change your world. But the fact hat it can hopefully make you laugh with its silliness is something I would happily take in today's stressful times. (6/10)
Comments