Koy’s humor gets muted in feature ‘Easter Sunday’

Above : Tia Carrere and Jo Koy star in “Easter Sunday.” (Photo/Universal Pictures)

The reviews have finally arrived for the Jo Koy family comedy “Easter Sunday” – and the news isn’t particularly good.

The film is receiving less than sterling reviews . Even the positive reactions are muted.

Lisa Kennedy wrote this in Variety: “Jo Koy can be hilarious, riotously so at times. He has no trouble filling auditoriums with his spot-on stand-up act. Much of what makes him so funny are his observations about his Filipino American family: his aunts, his uncles, his cousins, his sisters and, most of all, his mom.”

That all sounds good enough. But then Kennedy adds, “Koy’s gift for deft comedy is too easily forgotten watching the well-intentioned but underwhelming ‘Easter Sunday,’ his first starring vehicle.”

One of the most complimentary reviews comes from Concepción de León for the New York Times: “The film features mostly Filipino actors, with wonderful, culturally specific jokes and a cast of characters that fit into stereotypical, but no less true, immigrant archetypes.”

And Pat Padua of the Washington Post seems to be trying to find something, anything, nice to say: “Even if you don’t get all the ethnic jokes, there’s plenty of family drama that anybody will recognize, no matter their background.”

I for one find Koy funny, just as I do other stand-up comics who specialize in ethnic-based humor, such as Margaret Cho, Jimmy O. Yang and Ronny Chieng. So I’m willing to give him a chance.

Anyway, that’s the week’s lineup. So go, see a movie. And enjoy.