The Amazing Praybeyt Benjamin

The Amazing Praybeyt Benjamin is a 2014 comedy film written and directed by Wenn V. Deramas. It is the sequel to The Unkabogable Praybeyt Benjamin. The film is one of the official entries to the 40th Metro Manila Film Festival. Vice Ganda reprised his role as Colonel Benjamin "Benjie" Santos VIII with Richard Yap, Tom Rodriguez, Bimby Yap and introducing Alex Gonzaga with the special participation of Eddie Garcia.

The Amazing Praybeyt Benjamin
Theatrical release poster
Directed byWenn V. Deramas
Produced by
Written by
  • Keiko A. Aquino
  • Danno Kristoper C. Mariquit
  • Wenn V. Deramas
Starring
Music byVincent de Jesus
CinematographyElmer Despa
Edited byMarya Ignacio
Production
company
Distributed by
Release date
  • December 25, 2014 (2014-12-25)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryPhilippines
Language
  • Filipino
  • English
Box office₱455 million[1] (US$9 million)

Plot

After defeating the terrorists led by Billy Aladdin, the once humble Private Benjamin (Vice Ganda) has become the Philippines' unkabogable soldier and a worldwide sensation. One day in the military headquarters, the zombies came to attack the terrorist and Benjamin must face them using vegetable attack (ala PVZ). Inevitably, he rises from the ranks and in no time becomes the incredible, unbeatable, and unreachable soldier and promoted to Colonel. To prepare him better, Benjamin is assigned under a new general, Wilson Chua (Richard Yap). However, Private Benjamin committed a big mistake. Benjamin is about to be dismissed from service when Gen. Wilson Chua saves him by giving him a mission – to be the private security of a brat kid Bimbee (Bimby Yap). As he watches over Bimbee, Benjamin finds himself clashing with Misty (Rhed Bustamante), General Chua's daughter, and the meddlesome housemaid Gundina (Alex Gonzaga). However, as he gets to know Bimbee more, he learns that Bimbee is a kid deprived of love from family – something that he has ignored in his quest to be on top again. Will he succeed in his new mission?

Terrorists led by Jan Jaranjan (Tom Rodriguez) threaten the government to detonate the bomb hidden in a mall. How would Benjamin and Wilson deal with it?

In most action scenes in the sequel, they are referencing various video games and mobile app games such as Plants VS Zombies when Benjie and his friends are fighting against the zombies in Paris using gardening weapons, Just Dance when Benjie and his friends as well as General Wilson Chua and company does performing the moves in order to stop the bomb from detonating, Crisis Zone where Benjie and his friends fought Jan Janranjan and his men using machine guns used in the arcade games and the Street Fighter series when Benjie defeats Jan Jaranjan using a parody version of Ryu's Tatsumaki Sempukyaku in three hits.

Cast of characters

Main cast

Supporting cast

Cameo

Reception

Box office

MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino, revealed that The Amazing Praybeyt Benjamin topped the box office record of the 40th Metro Manila Film Festival's opening day on December 25, 2014 in a radio interview in DZMM. Praybeyt Benjamin was ahead of fellow entrants, My Big Bossing's Adventures and Feng Shui 2 ranked second and third respectively in terms of box office record on the opening day of the film festival. Tolentino did not state the official figures of the sales on the opening day of the film festival during the said interview.[2]

During her stint at The Buzz where is she is one of the hosts, Kris Aquino said that The Amazing Praybeyt Benjamin recorded P172 million worth of box office receipts as of 3:00 pm PST December 28, 2014.[3]

In the January 15, 2015 episode of Vice Ganda's variety show, It's Showtime, he announced that the movie closed the day before with P435 million earnings, surpassing the film Starting Over Again in terms of domestic earnings. He now hold the distinction of starring in 7 of the 20 highest-grossing films in the Philippines of all time.

Critical response

Despite being a high-grossing film at the 40th Metro Manila Film Festival, reception for The Amazing Praybeyt Benjamin has received mixed to negative reviews.[4]

Zig Marasigan of Rappler, described the film in his movie review as "a brainless, hyper-stylized and utterly ridiculous family comedy". Marasigan criticized Praybeyt Benjamin for "unashamedly made for profit". He also described the film as "cheap, tacky and absolutely nonsensical. But say what you might about the film's level of intellectualism (or lack thereof), it is at least honest about its intentions". Marasigan however acknowledged that the film fulfilled its purpose, to primarily entertain its target audience.[5]

Bubbles Salvador at the Philippine Entertainment Portal, has a more positive review for the film. While Salvador took note of one loophole in the plot of the film - namely the lack of resolution between Bimbee and his father, with the former feeling unloved by the latter, Salvador described Praybeyt Benjamin 2 as "worth of one's couple of hours at the cinema this holiday season, if one is not looking for a lesson in history, a love story, or a good scare, and would settle for a light and funny action comedy".[6]

Planned sequel

A third film was announced as it is officially part of the 46th Metro Manila Film Festival. Vice Ganda was expected to reprise his role. Its entry in the film festival was based on its script.[7]Filming for the Praybeyt Benjamin sequel has yet to take place as of October 2020 due to logistics issue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as uncertainties caused by the non-renewal of ABS-CBN's broadcast franchise.[8][9] As a script-based submission, the Praybeyt Benjamin film would have to be produced by November 30, 2020.[9] The film was not among the final ten official entries of the film festival announced in November 2020.

References
  1. "ABS-CBN 1Q 2016 Investor's Briefing Presentation Materials" (PDF). ABS-CBN Corporation. 12 May 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  2. Corales, Nestor (26 December 2014). "'Praybeyt Benjamin' tops MMFF opening day". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  3. "'Praybeyt Benjamin,' 'Feng Shui' earn P260M in 4 days". ABS-CBN News. 29 December 2014. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  4. Balbin, Sherwin Allan (29 December 2014). "The Amazing Praybeyt Benjamin Tops MMFF 2014 & Earns P172 Million In 4 Days!". Philippine Edition. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  5. Marasigan, Zig (27 December 2014). "[MMFF 2014] 'Praybeyt Benjamin 2' Review: Show me the money". Rappler. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  6. Salvador, Bubbles (28 December 2014). "MMFF 2014 Review: The Amazing Praybeyt Benjamin". Philippine Entertainment Portal. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  7. News, ABS-CBN. "MMFF names first 4 official entries for 2020; 'Praybeyt Benjamin 3' confirmed". ABS-CBN News. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
  8. Policarpio, Allan (July 28, 2020). "Fear, uncertainty take a toll on Vice Ganda's performance". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  9. Gabinete, Jojo (October 28, 2020). "Praybeyt Benjamin 3, hindi aabot sa MMFF 2020? KimJe movie, makapasok kaya sa MMFF?" [Praybeyt Benjamin 3, could not make it in time for MMFF 2020? KimJe movie, could be included in MMFF?] (in Tagalog and English). Philippine Entertainment Portal. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
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