Geek Review: Snatched

Last week saw the premier of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, which gave a good role to Kurt Russell as the father to goofy fellow Chris Pratt.

This week we see Russell’s longtime romantic partner Goldie Hawn onscreen for the first time in fifteen years to play the mother of goofy lady Amy Schumer in Snatched.

The movie opens with directionless partygirl Emily (Schumer) getting dumped by her musician boyfriend just before she is set to take a nonrefundable trip for two to Ecuador.  After exhausting all her other options, she asks her homebody mom Linda (Hawn) to go with her.  The two are as different as night and day as Emily is irresponsible and immature and Linda doesn’t seem to want to do anything that seems exciting ever.  Heck, Linda says you need two years to plan a vacation right, and she’d rather stay at home with her two cats and agoraphobic son Jeffrey (Ike Barinholtz).  But Linda is convinced, the two fly down to the resort, and then after Emily thinks she’s getting somewhere with a hot guy, the two women are kidnapped by a notorious crime lord who wants to hold the pair for ransom.

Truth be told, there isn’t much of a plot here.  Like many modern comedies with an R-rating, the movie seems to exist as a means of putting together funny set pieces and does introduce some fun and funny characters, including super-nerd Jeffrey, who may be more immature than his sister, and a pair of vacationing friends, the talkative Ruth (Wanda Sykes as a typical Wanda Sykes character) and the silent, ex-special forces soldier Barb (Joan Cusack, who I didn’t recognize until the credits ran).  Schumer isn’t bad, and if you liked her in Trainwreck, you’ll probably like her here, but Hawn owns this movie.  She and Schumer have a good onscreen relationship, but she’s an old pro, and considering she’s 71 years old right now, she can probably teach the rest of the cast a thing or two.  But aside from some funny scenes, I just don’t think there’s much of a movie here.

Seven and a half disappointed Barbs out of ten.