Chasing Papi

This would-be farce casts handsome Eduardo Verastegui as a West Coast advertising executive with a girlfriend in each of the cities--New York, Chicago, and Miami--that he regularly visits. Trouble arises when all three women--a bookish lawyer, a sultry cocktail waitress, and an upper-class princess (Roselyn Sanchez, Sofia Vergara, and Jaci Velasquez)--descend on L.A. simultaneously to surprise him. Before long, the trio discover the truth and begin hauling the two-timing fellow, unconscious, through a series of supposedly wacky adventures while being chased by some bumbling gangsters and shadowed by the FBI. Chasing Papi is obviously intended to be a Latino-themed variant of a 1940s-style screwball comedy, but the picture is relentlessly frantic, loud, and garish. Even worse, after demeaning the women for seventy minutes or so, the film spends the final five trying to convince us that acting like morons has somehow been an empowering experience for them. The cast is attractive, but the women come across as screeching airheads, and though Verastegui has chiseled good looks, he's so wooden one would swear he's carved out of oak. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include both widescreen and full screen versions, audio commentary (by director Linda Mendoza, costars Eduardo Verastegui, Roselyn Sanchez, and Sofia Vergara, and cinematographer Xavier Perez Grobet--with English subtitles when the commentators use Spanish), a 21-minute “Todo ‘Everything' Papi” making-of featurette, four minutes of bloopers/outtakes, the music video “Chasing Papi” by Huey Dunbar featuring Fat Joe, a soundtrack spot, and a trailer. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a fluffy throwaway film.] (F. Swietek)