ST. LOUIS — Have you ever shook your head at a movie inside ten minutes? Allow me to report on such an issue.
Coupled with bad accents and the kind of zany comedy that only diehard Kristen Wiig fans can understand or appreciate, I can easily say that "Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar" is a film I can easily tell you to pass. Call it a sinister Midwestern twist on a "Fargo" impersonation, but once Wiig and co-star Annie Mumolo start going, they don't stop. You may even laugh. I didn't.
I found only a small amount of fun in Wiig's dual character, the film's antagonist, oddly called Sharon Gordon Fisherman. Something about killer mosquitoes and taking over/killing the world. Blah, blah. Wiig and Mumolo would have been wise to keep the focus of the movie on either the friends, and just cut out the evil yet forgettable subplot. Again, it only induced yawns and slowed the film even further down.
Jamie Dornan shows up and adds his own collection of accents, one that slips in and out of American, Irish, and an Irish-British hybrid tones. It's pleasing at first, but eventually grates. Together with the lead accents, one could say this is a candidate for worst sounds of the year.
A lip-synced tune from Dornan starts fast and burns quick. Damon Wayans Jr. shows up and doesn't add much. Vanessa Bayer is only seen briefly. The ending attempts to go overboard on the psychedelics, tossing in walking on water and shoreline battle cries. I didn't know what I watching half of the time this movie was on, but I finished it, because that's what good critics do.
I don't write about a movie unless I finish it. Much apologies to Ethan Hawke's "Tesla," a film I passed out during, so I wrote about falling asleep during a screening instead of putting a half-baked review on Rotten Tomatoes.
But, much to the greater majority of critics far and wide, including some I really respect, I couldn't get on board with "Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar" at all. You DIDN'T have me at, killer mosquitoes, by the way.
I would watch "Bridesmaids" again instead.
