You can tell we’re living in a pandemic judging by the positive reviews the mediocre comedy “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar” has been getting from critics. Ignore that. Unless you find Midwestern culotte culture amusing this ridiculous comedy, co-written by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, plays like a “Saturday Night Live” sketch stretched out into ten times the normal length.
I know current times are tough, but having to spend almost two hours with divorced and widowed Barb (Mumolo) and Star (Wiig), BFF Nebraska furniture saleswomen, inseparably joined at the hip, is not the antidote needed to brush off these lockdown blues. The gals do everything together, annoyingly riffing off of each other in every scene, but after losing their “dream jobs” at the furniture store, they meet a fellow culloted friend (Wendy McClendon-Covey) who raves about how she just visited Vista del Mar, a serene little resort town in Florida. Suffice to say, Barb & Star have gots to go.
And so begins the intrigue, if you want to call it that, which includes a silly supervillain subplot involving Sharon, a ghostly white antagonist (also played by Wiig), who hates VIsta Del Mar, and concocts a plan to destroy it with the help of HER infatuated sideman, Edgar Pagét (Jamie Dornan). He’s sent over to the same resort our main ladies are staying at. Too bad he falls head over heels for Star and Sharon’s plan starts to fall astray. Damon Wayans, miscast, gets thrown into the mix as the second agent sent to assist Edgar whose gone loco in love with Star.
Dornanis, far gone from his ‘50 Shades’ persona, is actually a delight in the role of hunky evil spy, He even has a singing and dancing number that is so over-the-top in its ‘80s chic music videoness that I’m almost tempted to recommend ‘Barb and Star’ just for that lone highlight. But I won’t. You’ll eventually be able to find a clip of it on YouTube.
Wiig can be hilarious, but not in this movie, and Mumolo is just not that good of a comedic actress to pull off this kind of low-leveled shtick. It’s all directed with a knack for blandness by Josh Greenbaum, a first-time feature filmmaker mostly known for helming episodes of network TV sitcom “New Girl.” Welcome to movie hell.
SCORE: D
Here's a small scoop for Sunday night. Nothing too exciting, since it concerns the once-promising Ben Wheatley, a filmmaker who broke out with the cult-horror gut-punch of "Kill List" and "A Field in England.”