Can a female lead comedy deliver at box office? Well, the casting is pretty stellar, so expectations would be high. But can Amy recreate her Trainwreck magic, or was it beginners luck? Can Goldie Hawn still deliver the goofball comedies she's known for? That's already a lot of pressure for any movie to handle. And as far as this movie goes, the wonderful cast and talented director Jonathan Levine do their best to deliver you as good product as possible.
Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn, playing daughter & mother, who go on a vacation to Ecuador, where they end up getting "snatched", and there adventure begins through the jungles of Amazon. That does sound like a sellable & interesting premise, with such sellable & interesting cast as well. However, that's where the problem begins. With such team, you expect a lot. And unfortunately, you may not get as much as you want. But you do get a lot!
The film opens with a hilarious tone, where Amy plays your most annoying customer at a clothing store, who turns out to be a salesgirl (yes, that scene is very Amy, and very funny!). After getting dumped by her boyfriend, she has no one else to go her non-refundable vacation to Ecuador. So she guilts and forces her mom, played by Goldie Hawn, to join her. The mom is super annoyed at every opportunity she gets, and just wants to stay at the hotel. The daughter wants to go out & explore. She meets this handsome & charming British man, who takes her to places under the radar, the real Ecuador. Next day she pulls her mom with her, and they end up getting kidnapped, thrown in a cell with a scorpion, and blood on the walls (after all, it's South America!).
This is where the real adventure starts. They try to escape, where Amy's killing spree starts, which of course annoys her mom more. They meet a small town store-manager turned explorer/adventure (played marvelously by Christopher Meloni), who's trying to help them escape. One the other hand, her super annoying and man-child brother is stalking the state department to coerce them into finding his mama & sister. This whole bit is definitely funny. And so is the scene where a doctor tries to pull out a tapeworm out of Amy, the "old school way". The adventure continues, of course leading them to discover who they are, and find a new love & admiration for their mom/daughter.
I have to say that film is beautifully shot. Almost too beautifully for a comedy like this. Amazon jungle looks lovely, and Ecuador looks inviting (if we keep the kidnappings aside).
That leads to some of the problems in the film. It's filled with stereotypes (gun toting, long haired Colombians). Even though Amy and Goldie do there best to split you up (Amy's scene of trying to "clean herself up" in the bathroom, to get ready for a possible "get together" with James, is joint point blank hilarious AF), there's just several times that the premise is not supporting those jokes. So... Too many cliches & stereotypes? Yes. Does it get boring or annoying? Yes. But is it also funny? Yes, yes. At several places. So should you watch it? That's up to you.
It is Mother's Day weekend, so if you have nothing better planned. Amy & Goldie say, you should go watch SNATCHED. ;)
Production companies: Chernin Entertainment, Feigco Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox
Distributor: Fox
Cast: Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawn, Joan Cusack, Ike Barinholtz, Wanda Sykes, Christopher Meloni, Tom Bateman, Oscar Jaenada, Randall Park, Bashir Salahuddin, Al Madrigal, Kevin Kane
Director: Jonathan Levine
Writer: Katie Dippold
Producers: Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Paul Feig, Jesse Henderson
Executive producers: Kim Caramele, Tonia Davis
Production designer: Mark Ricker
Director of photography: Florian Ballhaus
Music: Chris Bacon, Theodore Shapiro
Editors: Zene Baker, Melissa Bretherton
Rated R, 91 minutes