Through numerous trials and egregious errors, Falcone/McCarthy team finally got one right. Granted, those trials and errors have set the bar pretty low, but hey, they cleared it. They’ve actually made a fairly decent comedy. Sure, it seems to have gathered mainly negative critical reviews and sure, like all its predecessors it’s strategically lowbrow, but it’s pretty funny as in you’ll laugh. And then laugh. And then laugh some more.
Getting here wasn’t easy. The one before that was a sh*tbrick of dumb ironically titled Superintelligence. So they grabbed a love interest from that one (the ever effusive Canavale), rebranded him as the evil guy and created scenario where superpowered evildoers referred to here as miscreants roam free or as free as Canavale’s The King (don’t forget the article) guidance will allow them. And there’s no one to match their fighting powers. Until…two middle aged overweight ladies stand up. Ok, to be fair, the ladies are supercharged. The genius of the team, Octavia Spencer’s Emily character has dedicated her life to developing superpowers (because the miscreants killed her parents, classic origin story) and finally succeeded. She didn’t plan on sharing them with her childhood mess of a friend Lydia, a fairly typical McCarthy character, a fun slob, but sometimes things don’t go to plan and are all the more interesting for it. Now Lydia’s got superstrength and toughness and Emily can go invisible and together they are ready to fight crime, right wrongs and in general protect and serve the windy city. Enter…comedy. Because it is inherently funny even on the purely visual basis and so very against the grain of the prototypical superhero entertainment. And because McCarthy is a genuinely hilarious actress. Spencer, oddly enough, isn’t, almost at all. She’s a perfect physical match for McCarthy and can provide a sort of straight foil thing, but she isn’t a comedic genius in any way. There’s just enough funny crap going on around her that you won’t notice. Melissa McCarthy is one of the highest paid actresses, she’s (not a weight pun) too large to fail in a way, and she seems to be choosing to throw that weight (oh man, I can’t help it) behind her man. Granted Tinseltown isn’t exactly known for relationship longevity and it’s lovely to find a genuinely happy (or so they seem) longtime couple like her and Falcone, but that talent distribution there is far from even. Falcone is by now a perfectly competent director and even a semidecent comedic writer, but these movies he makes survive exclusively on the star power of his very talented wife. Which means it’s a huge drag on her otherwise good career, just compare Bridesmaids to Superintelligence and you’ll get it. She can even do drama, really well, actually, her recent dramatic turn as Lee Israel proves in aces. So her passion for dumb comedies is tough to explain outside of the fact that a. she’s a nice midwestern girl who did well and wants to entertain nice midwestern people in a mild inoffensive way or b. she loves her man and wants to work with him and has fun doing it and doesn’t care about results/reviews/etc. because she can always work outside of that and do something really good if she needs a change. Maybe it’s a plus b. Who knows. The important thing is that their collaboration has finally produces a decent result. With all the right PC messages weaved in, it’s girl power all the way, for girls of all ages. And sizes. And to their credit, everyone always seems to be enjoying themselves in these movies, just look at Jason Bateman clicking his claws…tots adorbs as the kids say. So hurray for the happily married lowbrow superteam who finally got one right. Whatever the critics say. Sequel, anyone?
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