Reviewed by Libby Drake, Thursday 11th May 2017
Have you wondered "whatever happened to Goldie Hawn?", the star who shone so brightly in films such as First Wives Club, Death Becomes Her, Overboard, and Foul Play. After a 15 year break from the movies she is back in Snatched. But fans of Goldie needn't get too excited. This film is disappointing, with a capital D.
Goldie Hawn and Amy Schumer play mother and daughter, Linda and Emily Middleton. Emily has booked a non-refundable honeymoon in Ecuador with her fiancé. When he dumps her, she doesn't want to waste the holiday and, as none of her friends want to go with her, she takes her mother. While they are at the resort they meet Ruth (Wanda Skyes) and the extremely irritating character, Barb (Joan Cusack), who warn them of the dangers outside the resort. Linda is very cautious but Emily takes no heed and hooks up with a man (Tom Bateman) whom she meets in a bar. When the three of them take a day trip into the countryside, surprise, surprise, their car is rammed and the two women are kidnapped and held to ransom. Then they make a break for it they try to find their way back to civilisation while Emily's brother Jeffrey (Ike Barinholtz) tries to get the US government to rescue them.
The screenplay is inane, to put it mildly. Hawn doesn't get to show what she is capable of and is wasted on this project. Audience members will either love or hate Schumer's performance, which is extremely animated. Some of her delivery is good but much of what she has to say is not funny or just plain crude.
Although Snatched is at times annoying, vacuous, and even tedious it's not actually boring. The trailer makes this film look a lot of fun, but the best bits are on the trailer and none of the inane dialogue is shown. Having said that, the film is not without its funny moments and there are some laughs along the way.
Snatched was written by Katie Dippold, who was on the writing team of the 2016 female version of Ghostbusters, a film that went down pretty much like a lead balloon. Director Jonathan Levine was given a rather awful script but he didn't manage to recover it in any way.
Unless you are a massive fan of Amy Schumer, it's probably better that you go and see something else.
Snatched is currently screening at Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas.
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