Stand up comedian Jo Koy stars in the new DreamWorks Pictures comedy, Easter Sunday, about a Filipino-American man and his family as the reunite for Easter Sunday. Sounds funny, right? What family doesn’t have some sort of comedic adventures with a holiday reunion? With a PG-13 rating, I grabbed the teenager and we attended a special screening of this movie.
About Easter Sunday
Stand-up comedy sensation Jo Koy (Jo Koy: In His Elements, Jo Koy: Comin’ in Hot) stars as a man returning home for an Easter celebration with his riotous, bickering, eating, drinking, laughing, loving family, in this love letter to his Filipino-American community.
Long story short – Joe Valencia(Jo Koy) is a struggling comedian/TV star looking to make it big with a TV show. He was “guilted” into going home for Easter by his mother(Lydia Gaston) and decides to bring his son, Junior(Brandon Wardell). Things go awry from the get-go.
What happens during this reunion is what soap operas are made of. There is SO much going on, and most of the time, I found myself wondering why things were happening. Easter Sunday is more like an entire season of a sitcom, all rolled into a 96 minute movie. There are bad guys, car chases, cops, first love, an ex-wife with a new husband, family, family fighting, and a major holiday. There are probably a few details I am leaving out, but you get the idea.
Cast
Easter Sunday features an all-star comedic cast that includes Jimmy O. Yang (Silicon Valley series), Tia Carrere (True Lies, Wayne’s World films), Brandon Wardell (Curb Your Enthusiasm series), Tony nominee Eva Noblezada (Broadway’s Hadestown), Lydia Gaston (Broadway’s The King and I), Asif Ali (WandaVision), Rodney To (Parks and Recreation series), Eugene Cordero (The Good Place series), Jay Chandrasekhar (I Love You, Man), Tiffany Haddish (Girls Trip) and Lou Diamond Phillips (Courage Under Fire).
Safe for the Family?
Easter Sunday is rated PG-13 for some strong language and suggestive references. There were many language bombs, including a one time use of the f-word. Believe it or not, you can actually say the F-word once in a PG-13 movie, as long as the reference is non-sexual. There were many guns and shooting in this movie. I would not recommend this movie for young children.
What I Thought
Easter Sunday was not terrible. It was a fun, refreshing watch, but would I pay to see it? Unfortunately, that answer would be no. To watch it on Netflix or some other streaming service, absolutely. Easter Sunday was really devoid of a dedicated storyline. It was more of one slapstick event after the other.
What Easter Sunday did well was highlight the Filipino-American community, and show that family ties are strong. One scene I found particularly endearing was between Junior and Ruth(Eva Noblezada). At Easter dinner, the Junior blasts Joe for not being around much and always working. He storms out of dinner. Ruth catches up to him and gives him a lesson on perspective. Ruth told Junior that while his dad may not have been around for things because he was “always working,” he was hustling for him. Ruth’s dad left, and was never around at all for anything. This changed the way Junior saw his dad.
This is one movie I would wait until it hits a streaming service.
Easter Sunday is in theaters now. Will you see Easter Sunday?
Easter Sunday – in theaters August 5
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A Disney blooded, crafty, fun-lovin’ wife/mom/organizer/planner, etc who is obsessed with all things Disney 🙂 Maria grew up with the Magic Kingdom and has loved watching WDW evolve into what it is today. A firm believer in the Power of Pixie Dust, she is the owner of The Disney Driven Life – A Community for Neurotic Disney People & a d.i.y. crafty blog, Carousel of Projects – create~inspire~share.
