The Unkabogable Praybeyt Benjamin

Plot

Benjamin "Benjie" Santos VIII (Vice Ganda) comes from a long line of warriors and soldiers. His grandfather, Benjamin Santos VI (Eddie Garcia), expects him to be in the army and to be like his ancestors who fought every battle in the country. He lives with his parents and two sisters named Jesamine (Angelie Urquico) and Anjamin (Abby Bautista). His father, Benjamin Santos VII (Jimmy Santos), gave up being a military soldier to be what he wants to be, a scientist and an inventor. Benjie's grandfather did not agree with his decision, so they were forced to leave his grandfather's house and to never come back. They now live in a cramped house, where they started a new life. His father, as expected, followed what makes him happy. He invented gadgets and unique deadly weapons. Some examples are the Fart-gun, or the Utot-gun in Tagalog, a fan that shoots bullets, and a tiara that can kill thousands of people.

A few years later they were invited to his grandfather's 75th birthday by a relative. His grandfather finds out Benjie is gay. They were asked to leave and to never show their faces again for they are a disgrace to the Santos family.

When a civil war in the Philippines breaks out, Benjie is forced to enlist in place of his ailing father, who was said to have high blood pressure and diabetes. After a long time training, Benjie's group was to be dissolved for being not good enough. His group decides to train at night, and show their improvement in the morning. A rival group, incensed with constantly losing to Benjie's group during training, sought to reveal Benjie's sexuality by getting Benjie drunk and filming a sex video of him.

The following morning, the High-General calls Benjie because of the video, and makes him leave the army. When Benjamin was about to leave, his friends joined him saying, "Hindi kami masaya kung wala ka!" ("We are not happy without you!"). They left the army, and while travelling through a wooded area, they heard some trucks and cars moving. They wake up, and followed the cars, resulting in them discovering the location of the enemy base by accident.

They went back to the army, and told the High-General about what they saw, but he wouldn't believe them. They believed the real enemy base was in Tanay, based on the army's gathered information and decided to attack there instead. While the army searched for enemy forces at the Tanay base, they were ambushed by hundreds of terrorists. Meanwhile, Benjie's group returns to the enemy's real base, where they saw the terrorist's trucks with the captured forces, including Benjie's grandfather and Brandon Estolas (Derek Ramsay)—the group's former commander in the army and Benjie's love-interest. They then make plans to rescue their allies by dressing up as girls to trick the enemy guards into letting them inside their base. Once inside, the group kills many people with the tiara, fan, and Fart-gun that Benjie's father invented.

As they enter the base, the group split up in different ways. When one of the terrorists spots what he thought was Benjie hiding in a metal barrel, he then tells Abe Sayyep (named after the Abu Sayyaf), the squadron commander, about what he saw. Abe Sayyep pulls out the wig Benjie put in the barrel, only to find out it was some sort of trickery. Benjie finds his grandfather, Brandon, and the other generals. Benjie's grandfather thanks him and asks for forgiveness for treating him so badly. Benjie is then reunited with his group, where Abe Sayyep appears and shoots Benjie's grandfather. Benjie jumps in front of his grandfather in order to save him.

He sees himself in heaven, and sees his great-grandfathers, who tell him that he did very well and it is not yet the time for him to die. He is soon revived, and the group returns home, where they celebrate their victory with a party.

Main cast

Supporting cast

Special Participation

Release

The television trailer premiered in the talk show Gandang Gabi, Vice! where Vice Ganda is also the host. It was announced in the trailer that the film will premiere on October 12, 2011. However, during the premiere of No Other Woman, it was announced that the delayed premiere will be October 26, 2011.

Rating

It was graded "B" by the Cinema Evaluation Board of the Philippines.

Box Office

The film opened with PHP 23.6 million ticket sales during its first day and continued to break Philippine box-office records after grossing PHP 109 million on its fourth day of screening. After its seventh day on air, it reached the PHP 200 million mark. It broke the records set also by the previous Star Cinema-Viva Films produced film, No Other Woman.

Critical Reaction

Although the film is one of the highest-grossing films in the Philippines of all time, reviews of the film have ranged from mixed to negative with most web critics citing the movies overly simplistic story and outdated slapstick humor. However, many reviewers have noted that the film's saving grace was the sharp comedic timing of Vice Ganda and Nikki Valdez' brilliant comic performance.

Sequel

The sequel was introduced during a mid-credits scene.

On November 2011, ABS-CBN News reports that a sequel of the film, The Amazing Praybeyt Benjamin was already in works and was planned to be released as early as 2013. Vice Ganda is confirmed to be back for the sequel. A later announcement made at It's Showtime revealed that the sequel will likely air in December 25, 2014. The Amazing Praybeyt Benjamin finally premiered on December 25, 2014 as an official entry to the 40th Metro Manila Film Festival.