I was excited to see this offering on Netflix thinking that it could potentially be the Philippines' answer to the drag queen movie genre of the past such as "to Wong Foo" and "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert". Both of these movies, while not considered the greatest films ever made, excelled in story-telling, were well-acted, entertaining and funny, yet explored the more complex and deeper sides of the drag queen subculture. Sure, some of the plot twists were bizarre but yet they did not take away from the realism and authenticity in the characters being played.
The Panti Sisters actually started out with a great background plot. Three flamboyantly gay sons with a penchant for wearing make up and gender-bending outfits were called upon by their insanely-rich ailing father in his mansion. The challenge they were given was to produce an heir in exchange for their inheritance. The rest of the movie follows multiple plot twists by the three sons as they attempt and commit failures in meeting the challenge.
Unfortunately, the movie relied too much on gay, lesbian, and "gay ally" stereotypes for cheap laughs at the expense of elevating the background story to a deeper understanding and acceptance of the realities of openly flamboyant gay men in the Philippines beyond that of traveling circus clowns and court jesters. All it did is to solidify the all too common "gay character" in Philippine cinema (typically played by straight actors) as caricatures for comic relief lacking in substance or character development enough to make them uninteresting.
The three main actors could definitely act, there's no question about that. To their detriment, the scenes they were asked to portray did not seem genuinely real-life scenarios and were ingeniously exaggerated to create hilarity for the sake of being outrageous. It made the characters one dimensional including the ones in the supporting roles who mostly seemed capable of doing better acting. It left an unsatisfying void of a movie that can surely make an audience laugh out loud yet fail to leave a lasting impression.
