Okay, the only reason I made it to this one was because my house was having a forced power outage overnight and I needed to kill a couple hours before sleeping, and this was the movie that was showing when I needed it. That and Spider-Man, which I’ll be honest, I did debate on seeing a fourth time. Another movie for which I’m clearly not the target audience, but one I laughed at a bit more than the Little Hours. It’s funny, and in a direct comparison with Rough Night, a recent movie with which it shares a lot of parallels, it’s easily the victor. If only that were enough to make it great.
Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith and Tiffany Haddish star as four friends having a girls trip weekend in New Orleans mainly for plot reasons. The relationships between the four are well-drawn, and the chemistry amongst the actresses is solid. I can buy them as friends, and I can buy the climactic drama because it felt true to the characters and the story. Hall is the central figure, the most grounded, and easily the best actress of the bunch. While the others, mostly Haddish, get the showier moments (Haddish has a couple scenes that are both pee-your-pants hilarious and demonstrably cringeworthy), Hall’s Ryan Pierce is the only one that feels like a real person that existed before the movie.
The plot ticks all the boxes you think it will, and while the trailer promised the tip of the iceberg for humor, I didn’t find there was a whole lot more to the movie than what was there. It was a fine effort, some good work, a few laughs, but again, just not the movie for me. But still a lot better than Rough Night.
My Grade – C+
excellent awkward 