Even though actress Goldie Hawn isn’t the main star in the new comedy Snatched, the legendary comedian shares top billing with the funniest film comedian on the big screen right now, Amy Schumer. Like any Hollywood or TV star, Amy has her fans and her detractors. Personally, I find her funny so I went into Snatched with an open mind and, admittedly, low expectations.
I loved Trainwreck (2015) and found it to be one of the funnier comedies of the last several years. However, it suffered from being far too long at over two hours. Amy Schumer stole that movie and it propelled her to the super stardom she is currently experiencing. For Goldie Hawn, it’s been fifteen years since her last feature film, The Banger Sisters (2002), and sadly, she’s almost unrecognizable at times. At 71, it’s no surprise that she may have had plastic surgery in an effort to regain some prominence in Hollywood. Goldie has always had a youthful face, so I’m not sure why she felt the need to go that route, but it can be a little distracting for those of us who remember her from decades past. That aside, Goldie has moments where her comedic talents shine through and it’s obvious that Goldie and Amy got along quite well on and off the set. But does that add up to enough for a full-length movie?
Amy stars as Emily Middleton, a young woman with no goals in life who is dumped by her rising rock star boyfriend at the start of the film. Her relationship with her mother Linda (Goldie Hawn) is strained as Linda is the resident cat lady. However, after Emily can’t find anyone to go with her on a non-refundable trip to Ecuador and she finds old pictures of her mom living a life of adventure, she asks her mother to embark on a new journey together.
It isn’t long before Emily hooks up with a wrong guy and ends up getting both her and her mother kidnapped for a ransom. After escaping, what follows is a rather long and tedious journey through the Columbian jungles in an effort to get to the safety of the American Consulate. Along the way, they encounter various forms of help, from a wannabe Indiana Jones to a doctor seeking the cure for cancer, all the while being chased by their kidnappers.
There are definitely some funny moments, and several laugh-out loud situations. However, there just isn’t enough here to flesh out a 90-minute movie. Wanda Sykes and Joan Cusack provide some funny moments as American tourists who are there to help while Amy’s brother has some comedic banter with a Government agent. Amy even decides to bare her right breast for an admittedly funny if not forced moment. And that’s really what this movie is…forced. At times funny but more often than not, it felt like it was going through the motions.
Amy has certainly been funnier and so has Goldie. Sometimes, pairing up two great comedians results in cinematic gold but, more often than not, the results are mixed at best. That said, Snatched is a rather forgettable comedy. It isn’t a horrible film and it is worthy of a matinee on a rainy day when nothing else is playing. Hopefully, Goldie stays away from the plastic surgeons and she gets a chance to stretch her comedy muscles again. And hopefully Amy gets some slightly better material for her next film.
