Thomas Fuentes (Eduardo Verástegui) has been adored by women all his life. He's in Los Angeles with girlfriends stashed around the country. Lorena Morales (Roselyn Sanchez) is a bespectacled high-powered Chicago lawyer. Cici (Sofía Vergara) is a possessive cocktail waitress in Miami. Patricia Sofia Ordonez Coronado del Pescador (Jaci Velasquez) is a high maintenance debutante from the New York area. Thomas is feeling the relationship pressures and is passing out. The girls all decide to travel to surprise him in L.A. They are shocked to find each other at his house. FBI agent Carmen Rivera (Lisa Vidal) has followed Cici who is driving a car for her friend's boyfriend.
It's a broad jiggle-fest latino screwball comedy. It fails to deliver any compelling characters. The actresses are top level latina hotties but they come off as one-dimensional soap opera characters. The guy is even worst. He's a hunky dud. He's pretty to look at but empty inside. If the intention is a T&A B-movie, this can be excused. It's supposed to be a comedy and that's not going to work. The characters are annoying. The situations are silly. There is nothing funny or fun. It's a sad waste of talent and too tiresome to watch.
Chasing Papi
2003
Comedy / Romance
Chasing Papi
2003
Comedy / Romance
Keywords: woman director
Plot summary
The successful and handsome wolf executive of the cosmetic industry Thomas Fuentes has three sexy Latin girlfriends: in Miami, the waitress Cici; in Chicago, the intellectual lawyer Lorena; and in New York, the "daddy's girl" Patricia. When the three women decide to visit him in Los Angeles, Thomas is in a big trouble.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
jiggle fest screwball comedy
A female version of The Three Stooges that is light hearted and a lot of fun!
I just love an old style slap stick silly comedy and have never seen it done quite so well by a strong (and I must say most beautiful) female Latino group of actors. The last good foreign produced slap stick comedy that I greatly enjoyed was the 2009 India film titled "3 Idiots". I am a bit surprised at the below par average of 4.8 provided by the current 3,392 IMDb raters who viewed the film. I can only surmise that many of my fellow IMDb critics may have taken some offence to the three leading ladies namely Sofia Vergara (TV star of the very successful Emmy winning series Modern Family),Roselyn Sanchez (star of TV's Devious Maids),and recording artist Jaci Velasquez as being perceived/used as eye candy only. Sorry fellow viewers but maybe you need to watch the film a few more times to see how good the physical comedy is in this film. Just the varied humorous arguments and facial expressions by the four leading actors are worth the price of admission alone.
I for one felt that Sofia Vergara's role as Cici the hot waitress who is one of the three lovely ladies being wooed by handsome hunk and jet setter Thomas Fuentes (played by the only male star Eduardo Verastegui) was silly enough to make it believable that she would fall into the trap of the male gigolo Thomas Fuentes. It was no surprise to me that Ms. Vergara's stardom has continued to rise as does most men's blood pressure when they see her. My summary statement above that the film Chasing Papi is a female version of the great Three Stooges (Curly, Larry and Moe) also assisted the producers in selecting Ms. Vergara to star in the 2012 comedy remake of The Three Stooges.
Singing artist Jaci Velasquez most likely agreed to join the cast as the spoiled Patricia, the rich kid daughter of wealthy parents who also falls for Thomas, just to use her acting role to expand her audience and assist in boosting her record sales. She did an admirable job but her limited acting roles subsequent to making Chasing Papi would indicate to me she preferred to focus her attention on her singing career.
Eduardo Verastegui who plays the playboy Thomas Fuentes does an admirable job in keeping his audience's attention that maybe there is a redeemable reason why he chose to date three hot Latino ladies in three different cities simultaneously. The psychiatrist that Thomas goes to see can't quite put his finger on why Thomas chooses to date three hotties simultaneously so he does what any good American doctor would do
.he prescribes tranquilizers for Thomas to take. Thomas is then pursued by an attractive FBI agent named Carmen (played by Lisa Vidal) who is actually chasing some criminals and a bag of cash. To our surprise as Carmen continues to holds Thomas captive in her car while giving chase to his three lovely ladies she is able to quickly diagnose why Thomas is dating the three ladies concurrently. I don't want to have to add a spoiler alert so watch the movie and find out what has driven Thomas to date Cici, Patricia and Lorena all at the same time. Hey, I believed Carmen's diagnosis so why shouldn't you?
Last but not least I must comment on the silly and playful role by the most beautiful Roselyn Sanchez as Lorena, who is a bespectacled lawyer who also falls for our playboy Thomas. Through the many misadventures experienced by the three Latino lovelies I felt Roselyn's role was the most revealing of both her acting chops and her natural beauty. Her many facial and physical expressions are so natural it is easy to see how she can transfer between dramatic and comedic roles so easily. If I had to pick one star who shone through it would have to be that or Roselyn's role as the bespectacled lawyer who is also smitten by the gigolo Thomas.
In summary, the film Chasing Papi makes for very light viewing, with some good musical and dance numbers thrown in for good measure. But make no mistake; there is a decent enough plot and sub plot to this film that should keep most couples entertained throughout. I especially liked the ending because there were no losers. Everybody wins. Certainly there are no Academy Award winning performances here to speak about but I did enjoy the film and would recommend it to friends and family. It is probably not worth a higher rating than a 6 but I will give it an 8 to help counter some of the lower than expected scores this decent film was awarded by others.
8/10
Silly and contrived, but lots of fun
The movie was obviously attempting to be like one of the classic screwball romantic comedies. It succeeds in the style, but not exactly the comedy. Don't get me wrong, there are laughs, but it could've been a lot funnier. I blame part of the failed comic attempts on the writing and part on the actors. They should've just filmed the movie in Spanish. Some of the Hispanic actors really seemed to struggle with the English dialogue. In comedy, it's all about timing, so the expression of the dialogue must be on target. I give the actors points for effort, but all that hard work could've been spared if they spoke in their native language.
I think what mainly makes the film work for me is the fast pace. Despite how silly each situation is, the pace is fast enough to prevent you from dwelling on the silliness. Plus, seeing three beautiful Latina women strut their stuff throughout doesn't hurt either. I saw Sofia Vergara before in "Big Trouble," but she looks different in the movie and I might not have remembered from that previous film because well...I'm trying not to remember it period. It was one of the worst comedies I've ever seen! "Chasing Papi" gives her a much better outlet for her talent. She has got to be THE most beautiful women I've ever seen! Whenever I see her on screen, I feel like Jim Carrey in "The Mask" when he was watching Cameron Diaz do that musical number. If my jaw could literally drop like his character, that would be my exact reaction. I mean, she makes Roselyn Sanchez pale in comparison, and saying a hell of a lot.
All I can say is the film is a lot of fun. I'm surprised by the extremely low rating. And by the way, Paul Rodriguez has a funny cameo, playing similar to the Michael Caine role in "Miss Congeniality."
My score: 7 (out of 10)