Snatched – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

Snatched isn’t as bad as it may seem to some, but it certainly doesn’t redeem Amy Schumer after The Leather Special.

Characters & Storyline

After Emily (Amy Schumer) loses her job, due to incompetence, loses her boyfriend, because of her stagnant life, she finds herself at a low point. Luckily, she has saved for who knows how long, on a retail salary, to fly to Ecuador. However, with her boyfriend gone, the question becomes: Who will take the 2^nd ticket? Some of her friends can’t go because of prior commitments, others because of kids, and then some because they just plain hate her. So, then there is Linda (Goldie Hawn).

Linda is Emily’s mom and, seemingly, since Emily’s father left her, she has become a recluse. She raised her kids as a single parent, became a cat lady, and takes some solace in life that Jeffrey (Ike Barinholtz), her adult son, has agoraphobia [note] Fear of places and situations that might cause panic, helplessness, or embarrassment.[/note]. Yet, after discovering how fun her mom used to be, Emily forces Linda to come with her and it starts off well until they get kidnapped. Thus setting in motion a mother/daughter adventure which helps them strengthen their bond as they try to survive.

Highlights

It Is Actually Funny At Times

While almost every actor in this movie tries too hard to deliver a funny line, sometimes they do succeed, even Schumer. However, most of the funny moments come curtesy of a State Department Agent Morgan Russel (Bashir Salahuddin) having to deal with Jeffrey. Well, rather, him trying to not deal with Jeffrey or get in too deep with his family’s problems.

Criticism

The Film Is So Bad It Is Damn Near Campy

I feel it should be noted that Amy Schumer did not write this so you can’t really blame her for how bad it is. However, the person who did write this, Katie Dippold, is the person who wrote last year’s Ghostbusters. So that probably tells you of how bad this all is.

To begin, the villain Morgado (Óscar Jaenada) is talked about as if he is some big name in Colombia as if one area of it pretty much belongs to him. Yet, somehow, two white women, with no real special skills at all, are able to fool his men and put him in a life or death situation. It gets worse from there.

Wanda Sykes, who plays a woman named Ruth, and Joan Cusack, who plays her partner Barb, are the type of characters who you wish so badly were cut out of the movie. Sykes especially since, outside of perhaps Pootie Tang and Blackish, there has never been a role of hers that made her anything but a liability. This one can be added to the long list. Then, when it comes to Cusack, Barb is former special Ops and while it is comical learning Ruth wasn’t lying when she was saying that, at times you are just left wondering if how absurd her character is should be funny or not?

But oh, the thing which will make you want to pull and eventually rip your ears off is Ike Barinholtz as Jeffrey. The new Rob Schneider, or Chris Kattan, whose friendship with better comedians keeps them working, is as irritating as listening to some slob behind you eat popcorn with their mouth open. I’m talking listening to every single chew, hearing the saliva form to break down the popcorn and hearing their lips smack annoying. Especially the way he says “Momma” for it is like that scene out of Family guy where Stewie keeps saying Lois’ name then goes to saying every version of the word mom. Which, who knows, maybe someone may find funny, but I felt like Morgan Russel for most of the movie and wanted so badly to see him get knocked the hell out.

On The Fence

Linda Tries To Redeem This Movie

While Schumer plays up her shtick of being a self-deprecating woman with no sort of poise, who is also a slacker and highly immature, Goldie Hawn’s character tries to balance her out. She tries to make this movie about mother/ daughter relationships, bring it some depth, and perhaps even playoff Schumer to make some funny moments. Which she does, especially as they are escaping their kidnappers.

However, with Schumer written to be at her worse for so long in the movie, it kills what Hawn tries to do. For with Dippold solely focusing on the weakest and most annoying aspects of Schumer’s shtick, and not delivering the talent we saw in Trainwreck, it is like she didn’t write this with Schumer in mind at all. That, or, she was forced to adapt it for her and decided to lampoon her in the process.

Overall: Negative (Skip It)

Despite laughing about 18 times, they were the kind of laughs that you couldn’t enjoy because as soon as something funny happened, something killed the moment. Then, while Hawn tries to give this film some sort of emotional depth by bringing in the perspective of a mom who just wanted to spend time with her child, no one else is dedicated to really going there with her. Emily, while she loves her mom, isn’t trying to make this film about acknowledging she doesn’t appreciate her, how hard she must have had it after their dad left or being a single mom. This is a comedy that Hawn, almost in a very weird way, tries to make something serious, fails, and then gives up on the idea.

Hence the Negative label for while it kind of is funny, the few gems are buried under so much mierda that it is barely worth sitting through.