Common Sense Media Review
By Brian Costello
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Crass comedy has bathroom humor, swearing, sex jokes.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
The Entitled
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In THE ENTITLED, Belinda (Alex Gonzaga) is a young woman growing up in a rural and unsophisticated part of the Philippines. Upon learning that the father she never met is a wealthy hotel mogul, she's taken to her father Enrico's (Johnny Revilla) mansion, accompanied by the family attorney Jacob (JC De Vera). She meets her bratty tween sister Caitlyn and her suspiciously over-friendly stepmother Matilda. Enrico gives the charming Jacob and the bumbling maid Monina the unenviable task of teaching Belinda lessons on hygiene and proper etiquette in the hopes that Belinda will one day take over the family business. While Belinda has much to learn and makes mistakes at every step of the journey, she resolves to do her best, and gradually begins to show signs of grace and maturity. However, Matilda has other plans, and when Belinda learns the real reason why she was reunited with her father, she must learn to accept who she is and where she's from.
Is It Any Good?
This is a crass comedy that gives new meaning to the word "sophomoric." The Entitled is a Filipino rags-to-riches/romcom that combines elements of, say, The Princess Diaries with more recent comedies that revel in gross-out humor and sex jokes. Bodily functions, fluids, and hair feature prominently, and it doesn't take long for these attempts at humor to become stale. For instance, the recurring joke of Belinda -- our slovenly and unsophisticated bumpkin from the sticks who must learn how the well-to-do use salad forks and sit for Brazilian wax sessions -- gets a literal stomach-churning anxiety when faced with stressful situations. When bathroom humor doesn't work, it's just gross, and gross is what happens, time and time again.
The best that can be said is that there's a strong supporting cast, but none of that matters when the story is nothing that hasn't been done before in so many different ways. There are no real laughs to be had, and furthermore, after spending most of the movie finding humor in people from "the sticks," there's some attempt to communicate a message of "acceptance" near the end, when Belinda goes back to her hometown and where everyone is poor but at least they're honest. None of it works in the end.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about crass comedies like The Entitled. What are some other examples of movies that mine humor out of obnoxious behavior?
How is this similar to and different from other movies that tell "rags to riches" stories?
Over the course of the movie, despite her faults and mistakes, Belinda starts to become a better person. How does Belinda learn about acceptance, and how does that message come through?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : July 29, 2022
- Cast : Alex Gonzaga , JC De Vera , Johnny Revilla
- Director : Theodore Boborol
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Comedy
- Run time : 90 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : August 1, 2022
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