Review of Snatched (2017) by Efrain P — 15 May 2017

A young and careless woman (Amy Schumer) persuades her ultra-cautious mother (Goldie Hawn) to accompany her on a exotic vacation. What could go wrong?

There are three types of American mainstream comedies. I will call them entry level (no talent, no good material), middle class (some talent, not enough good material) and top-shelf (enough talent and good material).

All of them are rather dirty, of course. What self-respecting modern comedy would not show or talk about genitals, sex, masturbation, farting, getting drunk etc, am I right or am I right?

Snatched" is a middle class efforts which gives us the second starring role of Amy Schumer, the up and coming funny woman type movie star previously seen in Judd Apatow's Trainwreck".

I haven't seen her stand up routines, but as an actress, she's feels something like a new improved Melissa McCarthy or Lena Dunham.

Meaning she looks sexier and does not try to outgross us at every possible turn (at least not so much). But she's still here to make us laugh with the power of dirty and embarrassing jokes.

Snatched" was released just before Mothers Day (on 19th of May in Estonia) and marketed like a girl power comedy, but it's still essentially a entertainment solely for boys.

The more intelligent female viewers will probably not find much to laugh at (except at how stupid everything is), or will even hate Schuumer's character for being so moronic.

Luckily for the makers of this movie, I am not one of the more intelligent female viewers, and I have always enjoyed dirty American comedies, even if most of them are setting the bar pretty low.

So I gotta admit that I enjoyed most of Snatched" although it doesn't aim high and overall feels lightweight. Nobody's trying that hard and there's just a series of sketches instead of a something clearly resembling a cohesive unit called movie.

But just like in Adam Sandler's comedies, the performers have enough charm to pull us through and entertain us mildly until the end credits start to roll.

Schumer is fun and holds her own in the lead, Goldie Hawn as her character's mother feels surprisingly charmless, luckily she's OK to stay back and let the others shine. (Of course, it's been 15 years since Hawn's last movie and I never actually found her that amusing in the first place.).

And then there are colorful supporting roles by Christopher Meloni, Wanda Sykes and Joan Cusack. So, a fun bunch to hang around with for 91 minutes.

You will probably not enjoy Snatched" as much as I did. But then again, this movie was made for people like me who never quite grow out of lowbrow jokes. Arf!