I watched this last night as my wife was wanting to see some "girl power" films (hell they even mention that in this one). By that she's talking groups of women who get on together to overcome some obstacle, she doesn't want man-hating as such but dig's at sexism are her cup of tea. So recently we saw Charlies Angels (2000), Full Throttle, Ocean's 8, and now this.
To be fair Cas's review did mean I knew what was coming!
cas said:
Perhaps 20 years later nobody expected to find it hard to replace Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu, but this latest endeavour proves the opposite.
That is so true. I wouldn't say any of those three names as a big draw but together in the first film they starred in they had an amazing chemistry and sense of joy which was just infectious. I didn't get that at all off the 2019 film.
cas said:
Kristen Stewart's off-the-cuff jokes are funny and fast, and it's almost enough to make you wonder whether the film might have been a whole lot better if they'd found a better duo to team her up with
Personally I thought she utterly stole the movie at the start and her co-stars were never in the running to catch up even at their best (whatever that was). I wouldn't say either of the other two were bad actresses and they had their moments but frankly the nerdy on-training one I would have dearly like jettisoned very early.
That said you have to like some of what she managed. Her largely passive subjection at least audibly to sexism is very important to see someone suffering on screen but whether it clicks in certain people's (mens'!) minds I don't know.
For me though Kirsten Stewart got a bit tiresum and I was enjoying seeing Ella Balinska more by the end... ok, perhaps that was more to do with
seeing.
What wrecked the film for me though, and I didn't enjoy it beyond Ralph being the but of a joke, was a partly Patrick Stewart being a let down to me (looked like he slept walked through it), partly that the twists didn't make sense on every occasion, but really that the tone was so driven towards "woman can do anything men can do" that it went beyond the positive and uplifting and more towards "Bond and other action star men can be callous dicks and so can women". Having seen Charlies Angels (2000) the other day going from that to not giving a care about killing mooks, getting over death really very quickly, killing mooks in contrived grusom ways and then trying to deliver an utterly Bond post mortem line.... well just spoiled the mood.
It's completely not that I don't want women to be brutal in films (I love enough old/new action films with female stars giving out punishment) but perhaps I don't like them making a really bad stab at being heartless male killers in what is largely a comedy!
It was also a bit tiring reading Banks saying if the film bombed (she said it in advance and of course it did bomb) it would be because men didn't go to see women in action films. She was quite specific in what counted as "women in action films" so Superhero films (Wonder Women, Captain Marvel) didn't count and clearly there must have been reasons why Aliens (with Ripley not being a stone cold killer), Nikita (might be a bad example as it was French), Resident Evil and all the rest didn't count either.