is a 2019 Filipino musical fantasy comedy film directed by Barry Gonzales and starring Vice Ganda and Anne Curtis.
[3] The Mall, The Merrier marks the first on-screen collaboration between Anne Curtis and Vice Ganda, both of whom are regular hosts on the noontime variety show It's Showtime.
Years later, Moira manages the mall, while Morisette works as the editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine in Australia, alongside Mola.
Ignoring a microphone linked to a public announcement system, he reads a spell that animates mannequins, toys, and pictures in the mall.
Moira and Morisette manage to escape from Moody's wrath and come across their old hut, which surprisingly remains intact despite the construction of the mall.
Morissette, who is preparing to leave for Australia after witnessing the positive reception of Moira at the mall, returns to retrieve her forgotten passport.
Oggs Cruz of Rappler lamented what he saw as a wasted opportunity, stating it is "more of the same – and messier" and "while the settings change or the genre it spoofs shift, the elements remain the same.
The comedies are all anchored on mean-spirited hilarity, all utilizing a broad moral lesson to make its abject crassness palatable to the families it caters to," comparing it unfavorably to George A. Romero's seminal zombie film Dawn of the Dead whose department store setting was used to satirize consumerism.
[11] Conversely, Jocelyn Valle of PEP.ph gave the film a more positive review, praising the cast, special effects and pop culture references, particularly the feud between the Baretto sisters and the network rivalry between ABS-CBN and GMA Network, a scene where Vice's character Moises and a parodic depiction of the living doll Annabelle from The Conjuring, played by Ruffa Gutierrez, get into a hair-pulling fight and wind up in the premises of the GMA-7 broadcast facility.
[12] The film premiered on KBO from May 1–6, 2020[13] at the time ABS-CBN Channel 2 and its broadcast stations went off air on May 5, 2020, due to the "cease and desist order" given by the National Telecommunications Commission due to expired franchise, and KBO was not affected in this "cease and desist order" (due to the channel is on a digital station that is owned by AMCARA, which has its own franchise and where ABS-CBN had a blocktime agreement with the said station) until June 30, 2020 in Metro Manila and July 1, 2020 nationwide.