''The Amazing Praybeyt Benjamin'' is a 2014 Philippine

action comedy The action comedy is a film genre that applies to action films where humor plays a much more central role. While early films feature stuntwork and humor, academic Cynthia King wrote that the genre only came into its own as a mainstay of the America ...

parody film A parody film or spoof film is a subgenre of comedy film that lampoons other film genres or films as pastiches, works created by imitation of the style of many different films reassembled together. Although the subgenre is often overlooked by cri ...

written and directed by Wenn V. Deramas. It is the sequel to the 2011 film ''

The Unkabogable Praybeyt Benjamin ''The Unkabogable Praybeyt Benjamin'' (also known as ''Praybeyt Benjamin'') is a 2011 Filipino action comedy parody film directed by Wenn V. Deramas. It stars Vice Ganda in the title role, alongside Eddie Garcia, Nikki Valdez, Vandolph Quizon, D ...

''. The film is one of the official entries to the

40th Metro Manila Film Festival The 40th Metro Manila Film Festival was the edition of the annual film festival that is held in Metro Manila, Philippines and is organized by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA). During the film festival, no foreign films are show ...

Vice Ganda Jose Marie Borja Viceral (born March 31, 1976), known professionally as Vice Ganda (), is a Filipino comedian, actor, host, singer and television personality. He is considered one of the most successful entertainers in Philippine show business ...

reprised his role as Colonel Benjamin "Benjie" Santos VIII together with a supporting cast

Richard Yap Richard Edison Uy Yap (born May 18, 1967) is a Filipino actor and recording artist. He is best known for portraying Richard "Sir Chief" Lim in '' Be Careful with My Heart'' and "Papa Chen" in '' My Binondo Girl''. And from 2022 to 2024, he por ...

Tom Rodriguez Bartolome Alberto Mott (born October 1, 1987), known professionally as Tom Rodriguez (), is a Filipino actor who started and rose his career after leaving the reality TV show '' Pinoy Big Brother: Double Up''. As of 2025, he is currently an excl ...

, Bimby Yap and introducing

Alex Gonzaga Catherine "Alex" Cruz Gonzaga-Morada (; born January 16, 1988) is a Filipino media personality, host, comedian, actress, businesswoman, singer and vlogger. She played the lead role of Diane Santos on the Philippine television drama series '' P ...

with the special participation of

Eddie Garcia Eduardo "Eddie" Verchez Garcia (; May 2, 1929 – June 21, 2019), colloquially known as Manoy, was a Filipino actor, television personality, and filmmaker. Widely regarded as the greatest Filipino actor of all time, Garcia appeared in nearly ...

Plot

In a mission in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, Praybeyt Benjamin and his platoon defeat a horde of zombies, parodying

Plants vs. Zombies ''Plants vs. Zombies'' is a video game Media franchise, franchise developed by PopCap Games, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts (EA). The series follows the affiliates of David "Crazy Dave" Blazing as they use his plants to defend against a zombi ...

, leading to his promotion to Colonel. Benjamin is assigned to a new general, Wilson Chua, to prepare him better. However, Benjamin messes up a subsequent mission against terrorists led by Jan Jaranjan and is rescued by his grandfather, who sacrifices himself to save him. Benjamin is about to be dismissed from service when Gen. Chua saves him by giving him a mission – to guard his bratty son Bimbee, who holds a clue to the location of the terrorists' next three bomb attacks. As he watches over Bimbee, Benjamin clashes with Misty, General Chua's daughter, and the meddlesome housemaid Gundina while trying to gain information from a recalcitrant Bimby. However, as he gets to know Bimbee more, he learns that Bimbee is a kid deprived of familial love – something he has ignored in his quest to be on top again. The first bomb explodes harmlessly while the second is found and defused by Benjamin, who is fired after his arrogance causes an error. While relearning his humility with his family, the terrorists abduct Bimby and take him to their last target, a shopping mall. Benjamin is reinstated into the army, rescues Bimby, and defuses the bomb, after which he flies off with Bimby on an umbrella resembling ''

Mary Poppins Mary Poppins may refer to: * Mary Poppins (character), a nanny with magical powers * Mary Poppins (franchise), based on the fictional nanny ** Mary Poppins (book series), ''Mary Poppins'' (book series), the original 1934–1988 children's fanta ...

''. Upon mid-credits, Benjie celebrated his birthday with his family and friends. Wilson heard about Benjie not going back to the service. Benjie says he wants to take a break and spend more time with his family. However, Wilson says they need him and assigns a juvenile delinquent who wishes to be a soldier. There, Wilson introduced James Anred to Benjie. Because of James's good looks, Benjie accepts Wilson's offer.

Cast of characters

Main cast

as Col. Benjamin "Benjie" Santos VIII

Supporting cast

as Commanding General Officer Wilson Chua *

as Jan Jaranjan * Bimby Aquino Yap as Bimbee Pineda Chua *

as Gundina Galamiton *

Al Tantay Alfredo Tantay (born March 15, 1957), professionally known as Al Tantay, is a Filipino actor, comedian, writer, and director. He was discovered by Joey Gosiengfiao and was launched through the Regal Films movie, ''Iskandalo'', starring Lorna To ...

as Benjamin "Ben" Santos VII *

† as Gen. Benjamin "Bino" Santos VI * Vandolph Quizon as Buhawi Manay *

Nikki Valdez Ma. Alinica "Nikki" Valdez-Garcia (born January 25, 1979) is a Filipino people, Filipino actress and singer. Career In the Philippine music scene she was known for a ballad titled "Meron Ba?", composed for the soundtrack of ''G-Mik the Movie' ...

as Lucresia Alcantara *

Kean Cipriano Kean Edward Uson Cipriano (born June 11, 1987) is a Filipino singer, songwriter, actor, music video director, and musician. He is well known as the vocalist of pop-rock band Callallily, and the founder of his own record label O/C Records. Ea ...

as Emerson Ecleo *

Anja Aguilar Angellie G. Urquico, better known by her stage name Anja Aguilar, is a Filipino actress and recording artist. She was the grand winner of the second season of ''Little Big Star'' in 2006. She is a former member of the group Pop Girls from VI ...

as Jesamine Santos *

DJ Durano Thaddeus Cabiluna Durano Jr. (born August 17, 1974), known professionally as DJ Durano, is a Filipino actor, television personality, singer, recording artist, and politician. His career in entertainment started as part of '' That's Entertainm ...

as Dominador "Dondi" Rosales * Ricky Rivero† as Big Boy Carnate *

Dennis Padilla Dennis Esteban Dominguez Baldivia (born February 9, 1962), popularly known as Dennis Padilla (), is a Filipino comedian, TV host, radio broadcaster and actor. He is the son of the late Dencio Padilla, and the father of actress Julia Barretto. ...

as Bentot Santos *

Malou de Guzman Malou de Guzman (born July 18, 1957) is a Filipina stage, television and film actress. Personal life De Guzman has a daughter Luchie, with former actor Ross Rival. She graduated from the University of the Philippines-Diliman with a degree in ...

as Lilibeth Santos *Abby Bautista as Anjemin Santos *Tess Antonio as Lisa Santos * Rhed Bustamante as Misty Chua *Gerard Garcia as Inspector Bautista *Kurt Ong as Inspector Realado * David Licauco as Terrorist * Rubi Rubi as Captain Tenille *Atak Araña as Zak Apron

Cameo

Angel Locsin Angelica Locsin Colmenares (born April 23, 1985) is a Filipino actress and humanitarian. She is known for her dramatic roles and portrayals of heroines and mythological characters in film and television. She is a recipient of various accolad ...

as young Lilibeth Santos *

Kris Aquino Kristina Bernadette Cojuangco Aquino (; born February 14, 1971) is a Filipino retired television presenter, actress, talent manager and film producer. She notably appeared as Princess Intan in the acclaimed '' Crazy Rich Asians'' and is a rec ...

as Krissy *Darla Sauler as Darla *

Luis Manzano Luis Philippe Santos Manzano (; born April 21, 1981), also known by his nickname Lucky, is a Filipino actor, comedian and television host. He is the son of actors Edu Manzano and Vilma Santos. He is best known for as the presenter of several A ...

as young Benjamin "Ben" Santos VII * James Reid as James Anred *

Donnalyn Bartolome Donnalyn Bartolome (born July 9, 1994) is a Filipino singer-songwriter, rapper, model, vlogger, and actress. Personal life Bartolome was born in Manila, Philippines to Tonylyn "Alex" Jereos, a businesswoman and adopted by Reynaldo Mulawin, a ...

as herself

Reception

Box office

MMDA Chairman

Francis Tolentino Francis Ng Tolentino (, born January 2, 1960) is a Filipino politician and lawyer serving as a senator since 2019. He has been the Senate Majority Leader since 2024 and was formerly the chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee from 2022 t ...

, revealed that ''The Amazing Praybeyt Benjamin'' topped the box office record of the

'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. 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.

Critical response

Despite being a high-grossing film at the

, reception for ''The Amazing Praybeyt Benjamin'' generally received negative reviews. 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. 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".

Planned sequel

After the Leap Day 2016 passing of Deramas, a third film was announced as an entry to the 46th Metro Manila Film Festival.

was expected to reprise his role. Filming for the ''Praybeyt Benjamin'' sequel was delayed due to logistics issues caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and uncertainties caused by the non-renewal of ABS-CBN's broadcast franchise. As a script-based submission to the film festival, ''Praybeyt Benjamin'' would have to be produced by November 30, 2020.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Amazing Praybeyt Benjamin, The 2014 films Philippine Christmas films 2010s fantasy comedy films Philippine fantasy comedy films Philippine sequel films Star Cinema films Viva Films films Films set in Metro Manila Films directed by Wenn V. Deramas Philippine parody films 2010s Christmas films 2010s parody films Films about terrorism in Asia Zombie comedy films Philippine LGBTQ-related films 2014 LGBTQ-related films