One final big party for the two sisters of the title before their family home is sold. Do you feel like partying on with them while watching their shenanigans though?
Who:
Director: Jason Moore
Starring: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Dianne Wiest, James Brolin, John Leguizamo
What:
Comedy
Why:
To reunite two of SNL's most popular comedians for their second movie outing.
When:
Released 2015
Where:
Some part of middle class America (specifically Orlando)
The Case For:
Both Tina Fey & Amy Poehler have had much success on the small screen. Firstly with Saturday Night Live and then with their own individual shows 30 Rock and Parks & Recreation respectively.
Their first foray onto the big screen as headliners of their own film Baby Mama was a moderate success both commercially and critically in 2008.
Since then 30 Rock went from strength to strength and Parks & Recreation came into being and also garnered a loyal following. Both leading ladies are close friends away from the limelight so it comes as no surprise that they would want to try giving another movie together a go.
Sisters is the story of two siblings whose family home where they grew up is being sold by their parents who are downgrading now they are retired. Neither daughter is happy about this so they decide to throw the mother of all parties instead of clearing out the accumulated junk that most parents still have hanging around long after their offspring have left the nest.
So they get together all the old acquaintances from the neighbourhood for this one last shindig before the new owners take up residence. Hilarity then ensues, or at least that was the idea.
To be fair both Fey & Poehler are decent in their performances and they bounce off one another well. Neither one can really go wrong when the material they have to work with isn't really stretching anyone's acting abilities. Some of the supporting characters are also quite reasonable too. Dianne Wiest and James Brolin cash easy cheques as the put upon parents, again not being overly challenged by the roles they have been given.
In other minor parts are John Leguizamo and John Cena who play the unsavoury characters that have the illicit substances that will help kick start the party. They do okay with the stereotypes that have been dealt to them.
The one scene that did raise a chuckle was when the siblings were trying on clothes for their party and the indifference shown from the sales clerk. You have these two thirty something ladies choosing frocks aimed at people of a far younger generation and it becomes obvious they don't know exactly how to where the dresses chosen. That was slightly amusing.
So that just about sums up what I found enjoyable in this film, i.e. not much.
The Case Against:
I have watched both of these comedians in their respective TV shows and while 30 Rock I thought was reasonable, Parks & Recreation I quite enjoyed. I have never been a fan of Saturday Night Live, I might occasionally find something amusing but overall I find the show to be vastly overrated. So my hopes for this film weren't high to begin with and I was looking forward to being pleasantly surprised. Having recently seen Vacation and expecting that to be a complete travesty; but finding more laughs than expected I was hoping for similar here.
Oh how wrong could I be?
Paula Pell is a longstanding writer for Saturday Night Live and she is responsible for this sorry mess of a script. It feels like a sketch; or series of sketches dragged out to a two hour plus running time. How is this premise a 120 minutes plus, at best it should be a 90 minute fun ride. There seems to be a fair chunk of adlibbing thrown into the mix; particularly when the SNL alumni are bouncing off one another but none of it seems to hit home. Scenes appear to have had an outline and then the actors told to run with it and see what comedy they can mine from the situation.
In recent times Hollywood studios have been churning out comedies with gross out humour thanks in large to the success of films like Bridesmaids. Sisters tries for similar themes of toilet humour too and again misses the mark completely. Having a guy with a music box stuck up his rectum is not comedy gold. In the same way that Family Guy will milk a joke for all its worth, this scene is stretched out to a cringe worthy length to allow you the time to finally give in and chuckle at the person's misfortune.
Give the audience some credit, if a situation is funny people will get the joke right away, there is no point in lingering any longer than necessary to try and force a viewer into finding something amusing. This is one example from many occasions where this film tries to win laughs from scenes that go on for far too long when they should be focussing on trying to hit you with another joke. If one misses then don't worry the next laugh should be coming up straight away.
Whilst Fey & Poehler are fine with what they have, their actual characters aren't sympathetic at all. At no point was I sat there hoping things worked out for them. They are completely self-infatuated with hardly any reason to root for them at all. They are women-child's who have grown up being spoilt and who have failed at fending for themselves. It is a point reiterated with Fey being a single mother who can't hold down a job or a place of residence. In addition there is the mention on more than one occasion that Poehler is recently divorced, so why is there so much focus on her having sex and it is done in a way that suggests she is still a virgin?
They are stereotypes in the worse possible way because by the end of the movie they may have their moment of redemption but really they haven't grown at all. That point fully hits home with the final scene of them synchronised dancing at their parents new home; still kids at heart but now with a bit more responsibility.
And the stereotypes, my God this film is chock-full of them. We have John Leguizamo as the Hispanic petty criminal and John Cena as the tattooed drug dealing thug. As already mentioned they are both okay in their portrayals but typecast due to ethnicity or physique.
There are half a dozen Asian girls who of course speak in broken English but look hot as hell, because isn't that what every Asian girl looks like in film? According to Sisters it is. This then leads to the obligatory racist scene where one of the sisters has trouble understanding one of the Asian girls, which in turn leads to even more racist comments due to the misinterpretation. How often does this scenario play out for laughs in movies? Surely we are at a stage in our evolution that using a person's heritage or colour for amusement should be way down the list of cheap jokes.
We also get the nerdy looking couple who reveal that they have a kinky sex life because all nerds do. Maya Rudolph plays the nemesis from high school of Tina Fey's character (I can't even remember the names of who each person was playing they are that forgettable). Rudolph of course has hardly any friends and has to be portrayed as a loser, whose focus has gone into looking successful but is still traumatised because she was never invited to the sister's parties.
Boohoo for her, but wait of course she is in luck because lo and behold what is the main premise of the film but a party that Rudolph will crash and lay all her pent up frustrations on the table. By this stage though she is as repulsive as the two sisters so who cares how much counselling she needed and whether they will become friends again by the end (spoiler: of course they will).
There is the (good looking?) neighbour who is destined to become the love interest of one of the siblings in the form of Ike Barinholtz. He is your typical good old, clean cut American boy next door type who only wants to do what is right. If that means plastering up some holes that you created when falling through the ceiling IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PARTY then so be it. Who on earth would actually do that? But it shows us what a good guy he is and why Poehler should snap him up so hoorah!
Finally we have Bobby Moynihan as the overweight acquaintance that nobody liked when they were younger and nobody likes now because everyone hates the fat kid right. He is the person who always tries too hard to get everyone to be his friend but fails miserably. I wanted to punch this guy in the face and if that was a proper party and he behaved like that then someone would have!
Another example of a scene being dragged out for far more than what it was worth was Moynihan doing Scarface for a game of charades. I was praying someone would introduce him to their little friend. It has been a long time since I have been angered by a character in a film as much as I was by this one. If that was the point of having him there then mission accomplished.
We can't have a middle class party happen either without resorting to illegal drug consumption from some of the partygoers. Moynihan has to also mistake some of the drugs for an innocent substance and inhale enough to make him even crazier with a capital "C" than what he was to begin with. It is baffling that drug taking is shown so often as being part of having a good time without considering the consequences of this cliché. It frustrates me no end that the ramifications of what they are portraying for a wider public viewing won't have an influence on early adolescent behaviour. Maybe I am expecting too much of a moral compass from a film which features anal penetration from a music box.
By the time the party winds down our leading ladies have had the formulaic disagreement and fight, so we have to see them kiss and make up too. There must have been some sort of rite of passage that they went through to get to this stage in their relationship of understanding and compassion. If there was I missed it due to not giving a damn what happened to them by the time we reached this end point.
Last but not least I always like a film having a blooper reel playing over the credits. Quite often these little vignettes can provide more laughs than the scenes that ended up in the movie. Sadly that isn't the case here as these bloopers don't have enough going for them to raise a smile.
Verdict:
I think these two sisters deserve to hang in a Gibbet for the next seven years. Hopefully within that time they can come up with something that doesn't follow so many bad conventions or can at least raise a few chuckles.
I don't hold out much hope though!
Evidence:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisters_(2015_film)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1850457/
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