SNATCHED

(director: Jonathan Levine; screenwriter: Katie Dippold; cinematographer: Florian Balhaus; editors: Zene Baker/Melissa Bretherton; music: Chris Bacon/Ted Shapiro; cast: Amy Schumer (Emily Middhedon). Goldie Horn (Linda Middleton), Joan Cusack (Barb), Ike Barinholtz (Jeffrey Middleton), Wanda Sykes (Ruth), Christopher Meloni (Roger Simmons), Tom Bateman (James), Oscar Jaenada (Morgado), Randall Park (Michael), Bashir Salahuddin (Morgan Russell), Al Madrigal (Embassy Official), Kevin Kane, (Hot Guy); Runtime: 90; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Paul Feig, Jesse Henderson; 20th Century Fox; 2017)

“It will hopefully play better on cable, as the screenplay is TV-lite.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

A disposable raunchy comedy weakly helmed by the so-so filmmaker Jonathan Levine (“The Night Before”/”Warm Bodies”), who has no ability to direct comedies. It’s also not helped by being so poorly scripted by TV writer Katie Dippold.

Linda Middleton (Goldie Hawn, her first film in 15 years) and Emily Middleton (Amy Schumer) play mom and daughter. Emily just lost her retail clerk job and has been dumped by her egotistical rock musician boyfriend (Randall Park). Stuck with two non-refundable vacation tickets to Ecuador, Emily reluctantly calls her divorced mom to vacation with her. Mom lives with her cats and with her agoraphobic son (Ike Barinholtz) in the serene suburbs, and decides to take up the offer because her daughter can’t get someone else and mom buys into her plea to “put the ‘fun’ in nonrefundable”.

At her posh resort, the foul-mouthed Emily hooks up with a Brit hunk (Tom Bateman) and takes a ride with him and mom off-the-beaten-path. Mom and daughter are snatched by a van carrying the gangster (Oscar Jaenada) and his thugs, and are taken to a dungeon. This leads to fleeing for safety through the jungles of the Amazon.

The slight comedy satisfies only because Goldie and Amy so adeptly play off each other. Other wise, it lacks an edge and its silliness is just not that funny. It will hopefully play better on cable, as the screenplay is TV-lite.

Be warned: we must endure lines such as  ‘Never have more drinks than you have breasts.’

REVIEWED ON 5/13/2017       GRADE: C+