Starring: Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Ike Barinholtz, Maya Rudolph, James Brolin, Dianne Wiest, John Leguizamo, Bobby Moynihan, John Cena, Rachel Dratch, Samantha Bee, Kate McKinnon, Jon Glaser, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Dan Byrd, Brian D’Arcy James, Jackie Tohn, Heather Matarazzo
Directed By: Jason Moore
It wasn’t quite on the level of Baby Mama, but our little Amy and Tina have grown up a lot since then. Sisters, in some ways is a more adult film than Baby Mama, and deals with a lot of things that only grownups could understand. On the other hand, it feels like Amy and Tina trying to remake Neighbors. It’s a little silly, a lot crude, and only sometimes funny.
Tina and Amy are at the top of my “favorite people” list, but Sisters isn’t packed with jokes. It’s packed with a lot of banter, and a lot of attempts at jokes that just don’t quite land. Often, the film will linger on one joke, as if to say “if we stay here long enough, eventually it’ll be funny”. That doesn’t work. They actually have a character in the film who is annoying because that’s his style of humor. Well, that’s also the style of the movie. A lot of talented people showed up, and a lot of talented people are wasted. Brian D’Arcy James, who just SLAYED in Spotlight, is here. He has no role or dialogue, but he’s at the party. Why? I don’t know. Kate McKinnon was wasted too. One note role. Two jokes.
I also couldn’t get past seeing James Brolin and Dianne Wiest together as parents, just like they are on the mediocre new CBS comedy Life In Pieces. Are these two a duo now? Is this a thing? Are they just going to keep playing parents for the rest of their lives, together?
I appreciated that Amy and Tina tried. They really did. But a lot of the comedy just doesn’t land. Some of it did, and some of it even was worth the wait, and got a big laugh. But, it is a very inconsistent comedy. It reminded me of The Internship, where Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson were reteamed for the first time since Wedding Crashers, and it just didn’t work. Sisters just didn’t work for me, and I had it on my Top 25 films I was looking forward to from the beginning of the year, just based on concept alone. I read “Tina + Amy + Comedy” and I was on board. They deserved a better reunion.
You’ll laugh a little. You’ll check your phone a few times. You’ll be annoyed that the supporting cast is great, but seemingly not doing anything to help (with the exception of Rudolph and Moynihan, virtually everyone else has only one or two things to do). At a time when Star Wars is dominating, I feel that it’s appropriate to say that Sisters is not the Tina/Amy reunion you were looking for.
AND the OUTTAKES weren’t even funny. We get it! Names are hard. You’re beating a dead horse.
FINAL GRADE: B-
