Movie Name: Wine Country
Director: Amy Poehler
Producer: Morgan Sackett and Amy Poehler
Actors: Rachel Dratch, Ana Gasteyer, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Paula Pell, Emily Spivey, Cherry Jones, Maya Erskine, Jason Schwartzman and Tina Fey
Release Date: May 8th, 2019 (Select Theatres and Netflix)
Introduction
I have been seeing Amy Poehler and Rachel Dratch making the rounds promoting this movie. I also saw Paula Pell on the Tonight Show and I really liked what I saw. So on Sunday, my wife and I decided to watch Wine Country to pass the time.
The cast is for the most part are the who's who of female SNL alums. Let us see if it lived up to its potential.
Story / Plot
The story line is a pretty simple one. Rebecca (played by Rachel Dratch) is celebrating her 50th birthday. Since her group of friends know that her dead beat husband would never celebrate, Abby (played by Amy Poehler) organizes a weekend getaway in California's Wine Country to celebrate.
Wine Country Trailer
Bottomline
I will admit right up front that I was quite disappointed. With the cast in this movie and the star power, my expectations were quite high.
I guess we will start with the positives. I really liked Maya Rudolph's performance. She manages to make an average scene better by being part of it. Rachel Dratch as well had her moments.
As for the rest of the movie, there were a few laughs here or there, but in most cases it would seem that the jokes fell flat or received a small chuckle.
For some reason Wine Country seemed to me to be a female version of Grown Ups with Adam Sandler, which was another SNL alumni fest. Five friends that go away for some reason and rediscover the meaning of friendship along the way.
I think that its heart was in the right place but I think it just tried too hard to get a laugh. The movie was too predictable. You could kind of see where the gags were going and predict the next joke.
I assume that the story took the back burner, was the actors tried to let their natural comedy come out in scenes. Although, I am sure on set they all had a nice laugh, that did not translate to the screen.
I am disappointed in yet another Netflix movie that is not great. I understand that they produce more movies now then before and we should expect some disappointments, but there is a reason why a lot of these movies are "straight to video" as no one would pay money to go watch them.
Like Father, Father of the Year, True Memoirs of an International Assassin and anything with Adam Sandler, are just a few of the subpar movies on the platform.
I think that this movie had potential and there were times where you could see that there was potential but in the end, it does not do anything to set itself apart from the rest. If you want something better and more exciting, watch Bridesmaids.
Have you watched it? Did you like it more than me? What made you like it dislike it? Let us know below.
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