When was the last good comedy this year? I had to go back and the only good true comedy was The LEGO Batman Movie because of its style and its laughs but it was not as revolutionary as The LEGO Movie. I was craving for a good comedy and I was hoping, even though I am divided on Amy Schumer's brand of humor because her comedy seems to be relatable but it gets repetitive, then it gets tiresome. But, the only positive expectation going into this movie that her last movie, Trainwreck, was surprisingly good despite its running time. With a talented director and a legendary comedic actress at Schumer's side with her next movie, this movie adds to the list of movies this year that will get lost in a vacuum once you finish the film.
Emily Middleton (Amy Schumer) gets fired from her clothing store retail job for slacking off and goofing off too much. Also, her boyfriend, Michael (Randall Parks, in a hilarious scene) meets up with Emily and breaks up with her because of an opportunity with his band and "other things". Because of her bad luck, Emily goes to her mom's, Linda's (Goldie Hawn), home, who lives with her cats and her agoraphobic son, Jeffrey (Ike Barinholtz) to find room for comfort. Emily has no luck finding a friend to join her on her trip to Ecuador. As both Linda and Emily goes through Linda's scrapbook of photos of her in her youth going on numerous trips, Emily is inspired to tell Linda to go on the trip with her. Linda reluctantly agrees to Emily's offer.
As they arrive in Ecuador and stay at a king's suite (because Emily was supposed to go with her boyfriend), Emily and Linda relax and enjoy themselves in their own ways. Emily goes to a bar where she meets a stranger named James (Tom Bateman). They both have a conversation and have drinks. The next morning, James offers to take both Emily and Linda to go on a trip. As Linda notices a van next to them and the two men put on their masks, the van hits their car moments later. Emily and Linda wake up in a cell and they give up the PIN number and also the home phone number which they both have to rely on Jeffrey to save them. He's their only hope.
This movie is a bad version of Trainwreck, however it is not close or equivalent to Adam Sandler's horrific vacation movies. (Well, ok, guilty pleasure on Just Go with It.) But, my problem is that this movie is a mess and there a lot of characteristic tropes from other comedies that are trying too hard and either succeed or fail to make me laugh, mostly, the latter. Also, the intentional laughs that deal with unintentionally killing family members just pushed the envelope for me and I did not think that mixing comedy with unintentionally killing somebody's family earns for laughs and becomes ludicrous.
Many people are going into this movie to see the chemistry between Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn. I think Schumer is fine in her role but her jokes start funny and fresh in the first 15-20 minutes and then it gets lost in the shuffle with the kidnapping plot. However, her character is very similar to her character in Trainwreck, where they both have to get their priorities straight, so her arc becomes very predictable. Hawn has not been in a movie in 15 years and I felt like even should does what she can in her role, it is a mismatch for Schumer's character. I felt like she was too caring and did not go into that territory of snottiness and I wanted her to be a bit more angry. However, I did like Christopher Meloni's performance as a man helping out Emily and Linda. And, also, the subplot with Barinholtz speaking with both the gangster boss and also a federal officer was hilarious. Also, Wanda Sykes and Joan Cusack were hilarious but look like they were going into another movie.
Director Jonathan Levine has made a very good movie (50/50), a decent Christmas comedy (The Night Before) and an overrated zombie romance (Warm Bodies) so he had some momentum. I did not understand what he saw with this script of a mother and daughter being kidnapped and lost for most of the movie. He wanted to put his emotional touch on the mother-daughter chemistry and it is noticeable in the last third of the movie but it was too little, too late. The movie starts out decently, then becomes a hodgepodge of tropes and lazy humor that becomes not unbearable, but a bland portrait of what a mother-daughter comedy is presented to be.
**
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