Sisters (2015), R, ★★

Fey and Poehler just wanna have fun. 

There have been a lot of magical comedic duos in the past: Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, Steve Martin and John Candy/Martin Short, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, Seth Rogen and James Franco, etc. But, I would also put Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in that category of those duos because they have a spark in their chemistry and play off each other like clockwork. Their jokes on SNL, the Golden Globes and in the interviews are hilarious when they try to loosen everybody up including themselves. The movie is another collaboration between them after their movie, Baby Mama, however, I felt that their comedic chemistry is so loose that the story becomes tedious and standard, which is a real disappointment.

Maura Ellis (Amy Poehler) is a divorced nurse who is helping out a man, who appears to be homeless but he was really a working man causing her to be embarrassed. Maura has a Skype chat at her home with her parents, Bucky and Deanne (James Brolin and Dianne Wiest). They drop the news that they are planning to sell their childhood home and they ask Maura to break the news her sister, knowing that she will not take it well if they told it to her personally.

Maura's sister, Kate (Tina Fey), works as an in-home stylist who is disorganized and is not getting her life together. She is visited by her daughter, Haley (Madison Davenport), but when she realizes what kind of a mess her mother is in, she decides to stay with a friend. Kate goes down to Florida to meet with Maura and decides to say with her sister until they both get on their feet. When they both go home, they see a "sold" sign in front of their house when they pull up to it. Their parents have cleaned out the entire house, and their parents ask them to clean it out for the new home owners.

The ladies go through their memorabilia, including their old diaries. After feeling let down, Kate says she feels bad for Maura not having their "big night" in their room. Kate wants to throw a party as a last little shindig for their house and even though Maura hesitates initially, she reluctantly accepts to throw a big bash.

The duo buying some hard-core supplies.

With their talents alone, we expect it to become a fantastic comedy farce. However, even when their moments of dialogue that causes bursts of laughter, this story is standard being supported by the two female comedians in their skimpy apparel participating in repetitive and overlong slapstick. Plus, the plot about them throwing their last hurrah in their own childhood home with the subplot of the sisters having a flawed life and trying to redeem themselves has been done before in multiple movies.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are great together and are believable as sisters, knowing they have been friends for a long time in their industry. The problem is there is not enough golden material to support their characters with enough depth. Even with the party scene, it is like The Female Wolf of Wall Street mixed with Project X and Superbad. It is an overlong scene and takes forever to take off. The boyfriend character, James, played by Ike Barinholtz, comes off as a charming character but has no chemistry with one or both of the ladies and the jokes are mixed with different tones that make the scenes awkward. Maya Rudolph, as their nemesis, is quite funny and Bobby Moynihan is flat as the unfunny guy.

I am very surprised that director Jason Moore, from Pitch Perfect fame, and Saturday Night Live screenwriter Paula Pell rely on such cliched material like slapstick, jokes about sex and provocative clothing. Some work and some do not. It's a bit more than misses but that's why the movie was made: to show off Fey's and Poehler's talent a little more to the adult demographic. It's more the physical humor, like them fighting in the mud, and the uninspiring story that made me not care too much about the film. Even though there are moments of comedic gold and a bit of heart, there is too much inconsistency in its screenplay and jokes that makes the movie fall flat.

**