You Again (PG) **Directed by: Andy Fickman
Starring: Kristen Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver
Disney is running out of starlets: with Lindsay Lohan off-limits and Demi Lovato out of action, You Again provides a showcase for Kristen Bell, the brittle blonde whose TV work (Veronica Mars, Party Down) remains preferable to her movie choices (When in Rome, Couples Retreat). Here, Bell’s PR hotshot Marni is less than happy to discover her brother is poised to wed the cheerleader (Odette Yustman) who made her high-school years hell; the potential social nightmare is only redoubled by the fact the happy couple’s respective mothers (Curtis, Weaver) themselves have unfinished business from prom night.
The weird, 80s-worshipping times may mean we’re in for a rash of these extended family-values sitcoms, and this one’s sitcommier than most, with bits for ex-Golden Girl Betty White as a horny grandma, hugs and healing crowding out actual laughs, and notionally comic dance-offs – to Britney’s “Toxic” and (inevitably) “We Are Family” – that prove as cringeworthy as anything witnessed at any real-life reception. All soft furnishings and gleaming teeth, it’s an inoffensive proposition, made for in-flight viewing – but anybody expecting another Freaky Friday or Mean Girls will be sorely disappointed by the lack of fizz and bite.
No comments:
Post a Comment