Vanessa Bayer Archives

Review: ‘Freakier Friday’ starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, Julia Butters, Sophia Hammons, Manny Jacinto and Mark Harmon

August 5, 2025

by Carla Hay

Julia Butters, Lindsay Lohan, Jamie Lee Curtis and Sophia Hammons in “Freakier Friday” (Photo by Glen Wilson/Disney Enterprises, Inc.)

Directed by Nisha Ganatra

Culture Representation: Taking place in the Los Angeles area, the comedy film “Freakier Friday” (a sequel to the 2003 film “Freaky Friday,” which was based on the 1972 young adult novel of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Asians and African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Music manager Anna Coleman and her psychotherapist mother Tess Coleman find themselves in another body swap situation— this time, with two teenage girls: Anna’s daughter Harper and Harper’s snobbish school enemy Lily Reyes, who despise each other but are about to become stepsisters because Anna is marrying Lily’s widower father Eric.

Culture Audience: “Freakier Friday” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the 2003 “Freaky Friday” movie, and “body swap” comedies that are about the ups and downs of families and friendships.

Manny Jacinto and Lindsay Lohan in “Freakier Friday” (Photo by Glen Wilson/Disney Enterprises, Inc.)

When a movie sequel arrives more than 20 years after its predecessor, it can either imitate the predecessor or forge ahead with an entirely new story. “Freakier Friday” does both. Some of this comedy sequel trips over its own awkward tangled web, but “Freakier Friday” finds its stride in the movie’s second half. “Freakier Friday” is best appreciated by people who’ve seen 2003’s “Freaky Friday.”

Directed by Nisha Ganatra and written by Jordan Weiss, “Freakier Friday” has many of the same characters who were in 2003’s “Freaky Friday.” The original “Freaky Friday” story (about a mother and her teenage daughter whose bodies are switched on a freaky Friday) was a young adult novel written by Mary Rodgers and published in 1972. The book’s first movie adaptation was 1976’s “Freaky Friday,” starring Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster as the mother and daughter.

Since then, there have been different versions of the “Freaky Friday” story with the same title: a 1995 ABC TV-movie, starring Shelley Long and Gaby Hoffmann; a 2016 to 2017 regional stage musical, starring Emma Hunton and Heidi Blickenstaff; and a 2018 Disney Channel TV-movie, starring Cozi Zuehlsdorff and Blickenstaff, which was a filmed version of the stage musical. Other movies have used the “Freaky Friday” concept, but with different titles and main characters who were not a mother and a daughter.

In 2003’s “Freaky Friday” (which takes place in the Los Angeles area), psychotherapist Tess Coleman (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) and her 15-year-old daughter Anna Coleman (played by Lindsay Lohan) do not get along with each other. Anna is a slightly rebellious, wannabe rock star who plays lead guitar in a teenage band called Pink Slip. Tess is an intellectual who likes her life to be orderly and well-planned.

Most of the friction in “Freaky Friday” comes from Anna and Tess expecting each other to live their lives in a certain way. Anna doesn’t want her widowed mother Tess to marry Tess’ fiancé Ryan (played by Mark Harmon), a good man who has no children. Meanwhile, Tess disapproves of Anna’s romantic interest in motorcycle-riding schoolmate Jake (played by Chad Michael Murray), who’s slightly older than Anna.

Tess is afraid that Jake will break Anna’s heart. Anna is afraid that Tess will love Ryan more than Anna’s deceased father. Tess and Anna each think that each other’s lives are easier than their own lives. Anna also has less-serious conflicts with her younger brother Harry Coleman (played by Ryan Malgarini), an adolescent brat who irritates Anna, but he secretly admires her and does things to get attention from her.

A visit to Pei Pei’s Chinese restaurant changes the lives of Tess and Anna when the restaurant manager Pei-Pei (played by Rosalind Chao) and Pei-Pei’s unnamed mother (played by Lucille Soong) overhear Tess and Anna arguing. Tess and Anna open a fortune cookie given to to them by Pei-Pei’s mother, and an earthquake happens that only Tess and Anna can feel.

The next morning, Tess and Anna wake up and find out that their bodies have been switched, just a few days before Tess’ wedding to Ryan and about two days before Anna has an important audition with Pink Slip. Tess and Anna are told by Pei-Pei’s mother that the only way their bodies can be switched back is if Tess and Anna do something out of selfless love.

All of this information is important to know before seeing “Freakier Friday” because the body swap comedy is even more complicated in “Freakier Friday” than in “Freaky Friday.” It’s explained in the beginning of “Freakier Friday” that Tess and Anna (who live near each other in Los Angeles) now have a better relationship than they did when Anna was a teenager. They still argue with each other, but their conflicts aren’t serious enough to cause an estrangement.

Anna is now a single mother to a 14-year-old daughter named Harper (played by Julia Butters), who is going through the same rebellious and teenage argumentative stage of life that Anna went through with Tess. Harper’s biological father is not seen or mentioned in “Freakier Friday,” but Tess says in a voiceover that Anna chose to be a single parent. Anna now uses a lot of her mother’s “Zen” techniques to calm down during conflicts. The worst things that Anna and Tess argue about (as shown in the beginning of “Freakier Friday”) are who is going to drive Harper to school.

Tess is still married to Ryan, who appears to be retired. Tess hosts a podcast called Rebelling With Respect. Anna quit Pink Slip years ago when she became a single parent, but she secretly still writes and records songs. Anna is now the manager of a pop star named Ella (played by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), who is signed to Capitol Records.

In the first third of the movie, there’s a clumsy and uninteresting subplot about Anna having to prevent Ella fromhaving a debilitating meltdown because Ella’s music star ex-boyfriend Trevor (who is never seen or heard in the movie) released a song about their breakup called “Better Than the Last One.” This subplot is ultimately a waste of time. Almost every scene with Ella didn’t need to be in the movie.

Harper is a lot like Anna was in high school: a somewhat disheveled teen who loves music but who doesn’t really fit in with any of the cliques in the school. Harper is having a miserable time in school because she’s stuck being the lab partner of a British snob named Lily Reyes (played by Sophia Hammons), a trendy social media influencer who does things such as brag about going to fashion shows and interacting with Anna Wintour.

Lily’s widowed father Eric Reyes (played by Manny Jacinto) is a successful restaurateur who owns an upscale eatery named Lily’s. Eric and Lily relocated from London to Los Angeles after the death of his wife/Lily’s mother. Lily makes it known to anyone she meets that she prefers living in London, which she thinks is a more “cultured” city than Los Angeles.

During the school’s annual bake sale, Lily and Harper get into an argument and instigate a massive food fight that involves several students. They both get detention as punishment. And when Anna and Eric both show up at the school to meet with Principal Waldman (played by X Mayo), there’s an instant attraction between Anna and Eric. The inevitable happens: Anna and Eric begin dating each other.

The movie shows a montage of the courtship of Anna and Eric. And six months later, Anna and Eric are engaged to be married and plan to move to London with their daughters. This engagement obviously horrifies Harper and Lily, who agree on one thing: They both want to stop this marriage from happening. Meanwhile, Tess approves of Eric but she doesn’t want Anna and Harper to move far away from her.

The “body swap” begins after something that happens at Anna’s bachelorette party at a nightclub. This review won’t go into all the details, but it involves a psychic named Madame Jen (played by Vanessa Bayer), who was hired to be entertainment for the party in a side room. The movie pokes fun at gig economy workers by making Madame Jen someone who has several different jobs that she tries to promote at the same time.

Tess and Anna see Madame Jen for fun but quickly leave when they sense another body switch could happen to them again. And then, Harper and Lily go to Madame Jen to get a psychic reading on how to end Anna and Eric’s relationship. A familiar earthquake happens.

The next morning, there’s a quadruple body switch: Tess and Lily now have each other’s bodies, while Anna and Harper now have each other’s bodies. Although “Freaky Friday” was originally about the comedy of a mother and a daughter switching bodies, the best and funniest aspects of “Freakier Friday” have to do with the body swap between Tess and Lily, who aren’t related to each other. Some viewers won’t like this unique aspect of “Freakier Friday” but others will embrace it because it’s such a unique departure from the original story.

Even for people who saw 2003’s “Freaky Friday,” “Freakier Friday” is a lot to asborb, because of how much “Freakier Friday” wants to cram in the body swap story of four people (who all have very opinionated personalities), in addition to catering to nostalgia while also trying to be relevant to the 2020s time period in which this movie was released. It’s a juggling act that doesn’t always work well, particularly in some slapstick comedy scenes. The movie’s best comedy is in verbal joking, not the physical stunts.

“Freakier Friday” makes a lot of cutting commentary about generation gaps and aging. In one scene, Facebook is called a “database for old people,” and Coldplay is described as a band for old people. Tess, who believes in aging naturally, is mortified when she finds out what Lily (in Tess’ body) does to make Tess’ lips look younger. Not as funny is an unnecessary scene where Tess (inhabited by Lily) and Ryan are in a pickleball tournament against a very competitive opponent named Veronica (played by June Diane Raphael), with comedians George Wallace and Sherry Cola inexplicably portraying themselves as announcers at the tournament. The outcome of this scene is inconsistent with the movie’s joke that Lily can’t handle being in Tess’ older body.

There’s also plenty of fan service for those who like 2003’s “Freaky Friday.” Murray reprises his role as Jake, a bachelor who’s still a heartthrob. Jake is now the owner/manager of a record store called the Record Parlour. Jake gets unwittingly pulled into a scheme to break up Anna and Eric. And toward the end of the movie, “Freakier Friday” shows an amusing reference to a “Freaky Friday” subplot when Jake briefly had a crush on Tess when Anna was in Tess’ body.

“Freakier Friday” also has cameos from other alumni of 2003’s “Freaky Friday”: Stephen Tobolowsky reprises his role as Elton Bates, the high school’s mean-spirited teacher who has a grudge against Tess and her family because decades ago, Tess rejected his invitation to take Tess to their school prom. When Harper asks Mr. Bates why he hasn’t retired yet, there’s a hilarious answer.

Chao and Soong return as Pei-Pei (who is called Mama P in “Freakier Friday”) and Pei-Pei’s mother (whose name is listed in the end credits as Grandma Chiang), who do the catering for Anna’s bachelorette party. Malgarini makes a quick appearance as Anna’s younger brother Harry. And don’t be surprised if certain Pink Slip members show up in “Freakier Friday.” Some of these cameos are predictable, but they’re handled very well.

Curtis, who was the MVP of 2003’s “Freaky Friday,” continues to be the standout cast member who is the most convincing and the funniest in the body swap scenes. She also handles the emotionally dramatic scenes with great aplomb. Butters shows a lot of talent and admirable comedic timing, even though “Freakier Friday” has an understandably more mature and calmer version of Anna. Lohan and Hammons do well in their roles, although they’re not consistently great in their body swap scenes.

Of the supporting cast members, Bayer is a scene stealer who makes everything she does very funny. Jacinto does the best that he can with a generic character. Murray gamely pokes fun at his sex-symbol image, especially since “Freakier Friday” makes Jake more confused than ever by the antics of Anna and Tess.

“Freakier Friday” is an ambitious film whose flaws have to do with trying to be many things at the same time: a screwball “body swap” comedy, a romantic saga, an emotional family film, and a nostalgia-filled sequel. Much of the cluttered tone of the movie has to do with the introduction of several new characters. Credit should be given to director Ganatra for reigning in most of the mess that could have been made. Anyone who sees “Freakier Friday” is better off seeing 2003’s “Freaky Friday” first, or else risk getting drowned in some confusion.

Walt Disney Pictures will release “Freakier Friday” in U.S. cinemas on August 8, 2025.

Review: ‘DC League of Super-Pets,’ starring the voices of Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart

July 26, 2022

by Carla Hay

Merton (voiced by Natasha Lyonne), PB (voiced by Vanessa Bayer), Krypto (voiced by Dwayne Johnson), Chip (voiced by Diego Luna) and Ace (voiced by Kevin Hart) in “DC League of Super-Pets” (Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

“DC League of Super-Pets”

Directed by Jared Stern; co-directed by Sam Levine

Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in the fictional city of Metropolis, the animated film “DC League of Super-Pets” features a racially diverse cast (white, black, Asian and Latino) portraying talking animals, superheroes and citizens of Metropolis.

Culture Clash: Inspired by DC Comics characters, “DC League of Super-Pets” features a group of domesticated pets, including Superman’s dog Krypto, fighting crime and trying to save the world from an evil guinea pig that is loyal to supervillain Lex Luthor.

Culture Audience: “DC League of Super-Pets” will appeal primarily to fans of DC Comics, the movie’s cast members and adventure-filled animated movies centered on talking animals.

Lulu (voiced by Kate McKinnon) in “DC League of Super-Pets” (Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

Even though “DC League of Super-Pets” sometimes gets cluttered with subplots and characters, this animated film is a treat that has a winning combination of pets and superheroes. There’s plenty to like for people of many ages. In addition to the appeal of having familiar characters from DC Comics, “DC League of Super-Pets” is a well-cast film for its voice actors, because the cast members bring their own unique flairs to the characters. It’s helpful but not necessary to have knowledge of DC Comics characters before watching this movie.

Directed by Jared Stern and co-directed by Sam Levine, “DC League of Super-Pets” makes good use of mixing zany comedy, engaging action and some heartwarming and touching moments. Stern makes his feature-film directorial debut with “DC League of Super-Pets,” which he co-wrote with John Whittington. Stern and Whittington also co-wrote 2017’s “The Lego Batman Movie.” Where “DC League of Super-Pets” falters is when it tries to cram in certain plot developments to the point where “DC League of Super-Pets” comes dangerously close to biting off more than it can chew. (No pun intended.)

If you have no interest in watching an animated movie about pets and would-be pets of superheroes, then “DC League of Super-Pets” probably is not for you. The world already has more than enough animated films about talking animals. However, “DC League of Super-Pets” mostly succeeds at being entertaining when putting comic book characters in a predictable but dependable story of a group of misfits that become friends while trying to save the world.

“DC League of Super-Pets” begins by showing how Superman (whose birth name is Kal-El) ended up with his loyal Labrador Retriever dog Krypto. Kal-El was born on the planet Krypton. When he was a baby, Krypton went under attack, so his parents put Kal-El on a spaceship alone and sent him to Earth for his safety. Kal-El’s parents Jor-El (voiced by Alfred Molina) and Lara (voiced by Lena Headey) say their emotional goodbye to Kal-El.

Jor-El says, “Krypton is about to die.” Lara adds, “But you, dear son, will live on.” Suddenly, the family’s Labrador Retriever puppy jumps on the spaceship with Kal-El. At first, Jor-El wants to try to get the dog back, but the space ship has already been set in motion. Lara tells Jor-El: “Our boy will need a friend.” Jor-El says to the dog: “Watch over our son.”

Years later, Kal-El is now an adult living in the big city of Metropolis under the name Clark Kent. He’s a bachelor who works as a reporter at the Daily Planet newspaper, but Clark Kent is an alter ego to his secret identity: a superhero named Superman (voiced by John Krasinski), who has super-strength, X-ray vision and the ability to fly. The dog, named Krypto (voiced by Dwayne Johnson), is still his loyal companion and knows about the secret life of Superman, because Krypto often fights crime alongside Superman.

Krypto has superpowers that are the same as Superman’s superpowers. And they both have the same weakness: an energy force called kryptonite that can drain their superpowers. Krypto and Superman are a lot alike, when it comes to how they view crime and justice. However, Superman and Krypto are very different when it comes to adapting to life on Earth: Superman/Clark Kent is social with humans, while Kypto is very aloof with other pets on Earth.

An early scene in the movie shows Krypto trying to get Superman to wake up because Krypto wants to go for a walk. But “walking the dog” for Superman really means “flying through the air with the dog.” Krypto often leads the way on the leash. The Metropolis in “DC League of Super-Pets” is designed to look like a modern, well-kept city with many tall buildings, just like in the comic books.

In this version of Metropolis, Superman is such a familiar sight, no one really thinks it’s unusual to see Superman in a park with his dog Krypto. It’s during one of these park outings that Krypto sees that things at home will soon change for Superman and Krypto. Superman/Clark Kent and his Daily Planet journalist co-worker Lois Lane (voiced by Olivia Wilde) are very much in love, and they meet at the park for a date. They show lovey-dovey public displays of affection, much to Krypto’s dismay.

The relationship between Superman/Clark Kent and Lois has gotten serious enough where it looks like this couple could be headed toward marriage. Krypto is jealous and fearful that Superman/Clark Kent will no longer have the time and attention for Krypto if Lois moves in with them. Krypto doesn’t dislike Lois. Krypto just sees her as a threat to the comfortable existence he has always known with Superman/Clark Kent.

As Krypto worries about how his home life will change if Lois moves in, some other pets in Metropolis are worried if they’ll ever have a permanent home. At an animal shelter called Tailhuggers, several pets are up for adoption, but so far, they have no takers. The shelter is run by a bachelorette named Patty (voiced by Yvette Nicole Brown), who is very kind to the pets and keeps them under vigilant protection.

Brash and sarcastic hound dog Ace (voiced by Kevin Hart) is the leader of the shelter pets. Other animals at the shelter are elderly turtle Merton (voiced by Natasha Lyonne), cheerful pig PB (voiced by Vanessa Bayer) and nervous squirrel Chip (voiced by Diego Luna), who are Ace’s closest friends at the shelter. Also at the shelter is a cat name Whiskers (voiced by Winona Bradshaw), whose loyalty to the shelter pets is later tested.

Ace is anxious to run away from the shelter and is constantly plotting his escape. He tells his animal shelter friends that he knows of a paradise-like farm upstate where they can all go to live freely. One day, Ace actually manages to run away from the shelter, but he doesn’t go far. He’s literally stopped in his tracks by “law and order” Krypto, who uses his superpowers to freeze Ace’s legs to the sidewalk when he sees that Ace is a runaway shelter dog. Needless to say, Ace and Krypto clash with each other the first time that they meet.

Meanwhile, Superman has a crime-fighting incident where he summons the help of his Justice League superhero colleagues: Batman (voiced by Keanu Reeves), Wonder Woman (voiced by Jamila Jamil), Aquaman (voiced by Jemaine Clement), Green Lantern (voiced by Dascha Polanco), The Flash (voiced by John Early) and Cyborg (voiced by Daveed Diggs). Through a series of incidents, all of these superheroes are captured by billionaire supervillain (and longtime Superman nemesis) Lex Luthor (voiced by Marc Maron), who is keeping his captives hidden in a secret lair. Lex also has a cynical assistant named Mercy Graves (voiced by Maya Erksine), who isn’t in the movie as much as she could have been. Mercy’s screen time is less than five minutes.

All of that would be enough of a plot for this movie, but “DC League of Super-Pets” also has a plot about a devious guinea pig named Lulu (voiced by Kate McKinnon), who manages to escape from a Lex Luthor-owned scientific lab that was experimenting on guinea pigs. Somehow, Lulu gets ahold of orange kryptonite (she’s immune to kryptonite), she develops telekinesis powers, and goes on a mission to prove her loyalty to Lex by trying to destroy the Justice League.

Lulu has an army of former lab guinea pigs to do her bidding. Two of Lulu’s most loyal of these accomplices are mutant guinea pigs that also have newfound superpowers: Mark (voiced by Ben Schwartz) is fiery red and can shoot flames, while Keith (voiced by Thomas Middleditch) is ice-blue and has the ability to freeze things. Lulu also has a plot to (cliché alert) take over the world.

It should come as no surprise that Krypto ends up joining forces with Ace, Merton, PB and Chip to try to save the Justice League and save the world. During the course of the story, certain superpowers are gained, lost and possibly gained again for certain characters. Viewers of “DC League of Super-Pets” should not expect the Justice League superheroes and Lex Luthor to get a lot of screen time, because the movie is more about the pets.

Lulu’s revenge plot gets a little convoluted, but not so confusing that very young children won’t be able to understand. The movie has the expected high-energy antics, with animation and visual effects that aren’t groundbreaking but are aesthetically pleasing on almost every level. Once viewers get used to all the characters that are quickly introduced in the movie, it makes “DC League of Super-Pets” more enjoyable.

The movie has some recurring jokes, such as self-referencing all the movies and licensing deals that come from comic-book superheroes. “DC League of Super-Pets” also has a running gag of guinea pig Lulu being insulted when she’s often misidentified as a hamster. After one such misidentification, Lulu snarls, “A hamster is just a dollar-store gerbil!”

Lulu has some of the funniest lines in the movie. When she sees the DC League of Super-Pets together, she makes this snarky comment: “What is this? PAW Patrol?” And even though Batman isn’t in the movie for a lot of time, he also has some memorable one-liners, which he delivers in a deadpan manner.

It soon becomes obvious that these Super-Pets have another purpose besides saving the world: Each pet will be paired with a Justice League superhero. PB is a big fan of Wonder Woman. This star-struck pig thinks that Wonder Woman has the confidence and independent spirit that PB thinks is lacking in PB’s own personality.

Turtles are known for walking slow, so it should come as no surprise that Merton admires The Flash, whose known for his superpower of lightning-fast speed. Ace sees himself as an “alpha male” who strikes out on his own when he has to do so, which makes Batman a kindred spirit. Chip is attracted to the fearlessness of Green Lantern. As for Aquaman and Cyborg, it’s shown at the end of the movie which pets will be paired with them.

Amid the action and comedy, “DC League of Super-Pets” also has some meaningful messages about finding a family of friends. Ace has a poignant backstory about how he ended up at an animal shelter. Ace’s background explains why he puts up a tough exterior to hide his vulnerability about being abandoned.

Johnson (who is one of the producers of “DC League of Super-Pets”) and Hart have co-starred in several movies together. Their comedic rapport as lead characters Krypto and Ace remains intact and one of the main reasons why “DC League of Super-Pets” has voice cast members who are perfectly suited to each other. Hart is a lot less grating in “DC League of Super-Pets” than he is in some of his other movies, where he often plays an over-the-top-buffoon.

Even though Ace is an animated dog, he has more heart than some of the human characters that Hart has played in several of his mediocre-to-bad movies, Law-abiding Krypto and rebellious Ace have opposite personalities, but they learn a lot from each other in ways that they did not expect. All of the other heroic characters have personal growth in some way too.

“DC League of Super-Pets” is a recommended watch for anyone who wants some escapist animation with entertainment personalities. The movie’s mid-credits scene and end-credits scene indicate that “DC League of Super-Pets” is the beginning of a movie series. It’s very easy to imagine audiences wanting more of these characters in movies if the storytelling is good.

Warner Bros. Pictures will release “DC League of Super-Pets” in U.S. cinemas on July 29, 2022.

Review: ‘Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar,’ starring Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo

February 11, 2021

by Carla Hay

“Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar”

Directed by Josh Greenbaum

Culture Representation: Taking place mostly in the fictional U.S. cities of Taylorsville and Vista Del Mar, the comedy film “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar” features a predominantly white cast (with some African Americans and a few Asians and Latinos) representing the middle-class and working-class.

Culture Clash: Two middle-aged female best friends unwittingly get ensnared in a villain’s scheme to get deadly revenge on the residents of Vista Del Mar, Florida.

Culture Audience: “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar” will appeal primarily to fans of stars Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo (who co-wrote 2011’s Oscar-nominated “Bridesmaids”), but “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar” is a disappointing, uneven dud.

Jamie Dornan in “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar” (Photo by Cate Cameron/Lionsgate)

When close friends Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo first wrote a movie screenplay together, it was for 2011’s hilarious “Bridesmaids,” which garnered an Academy Award nomination for the duo, as well as a best supporting actress Oscar nod for “Bridesmaids” co-star Melissa McCarthy. Unfortunately, Wiig and Mumolo’s next screenplay collaboration is the messy and frequently unfunny “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar,” an awkward mishmash of repetitive jokes about being middle-aged women, with some sci-fi and musical theater elements that mostly fall flat. The movie definitely won’t be nominated for any awards, not even a Razzie, because “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar” is ultimately forgettable.

Directed by Josh Greenbaum, “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar” is a frequently unfocused movie that loses steam in the last third of the film. Greenbaum has a background in directing sitcoms, such as “Fresh Off the Boat” and “New Girl.” And that TV comedy background shows up in the most annoying ways in this movie. The music score sounds like it was made for a sitcom, and the music volume is turned up to irritating levels because it interrupts the flow of the movie.

Unlike “Bridesmaids,” which was made for adults, “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar” tries to be more family-friendly and therefore loses a lot of potential to have raunchy humor that’s genuinely funny. However, there are moments where the filmmakers tried to throw in some adult-themed content, such as drug-fueled partying that ends up with some of the main characters having a sexual threesome. But this very adult scenario doesn’t really work in this film, because the movie is too cutesy with its sexual innuendo, thereby making the tone of the movie look confused and ultimately ineffective. Imagine if 2009’s “The Hangover” or 2017’s “Girls Trip” held back on a lot of the things that happened in the stories because the filmmakers wanted to make these movies suitable for underage kids to watch.

In “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar,” Mumolo portrays widow Barb Quicksilver and Wiig portrays divorcée Star Testigivlio, two middle-aged best friends/housemates who talk in a Midwestern twang and embody every stereotype of being a very bland, sheltered and uptight middle-aged American woman. (The movie has a running joke about Barb and Star’s penchant for wearing culotte pants.) The movie doesn’t say which U.S. state Barb and Star live in, but their hometown is called Taylorsville, and it’s far enough away from Florida that they have to travel by plane to get to the Florida city of Vista Del Mar.

Barb and Star are motormouths who frequently talk over each other but don’t have much to say that’s meaningful. They obsess over trivial things, such as why they don’t want anyone to buy their favorite sofa at the Jennifer Convertibles furniture store where they work as sales clerks. They’re so attached to the sofa that they come up with excuses for customers not to buy it. In the end, it doesn’t matter, because one day their boss (played by Ian Gomez) calls Barb and Star into his office and tells them that they’re all losing their jobs because the company has gone out of business.

As Barb and Star leave the store in shock, a friend of theirs named Mickey Revelet (played by Wendi McLendon-Covey) sees them walking down the street and runs over to talk to them. Mickey raves to Barb and Star about just coming back in town from the vacation that she and her man Miguel took in Vista Del Mar, Florida. (It’s a fictional city in Florida. The movie was actually filmed in Mexico City and Cancun, Mexico.)

Mickey brags that not only did she have a lot of fun and get a splendid tan, but she also says that going to Vista Del Mar had this effect on her: “I feel like I got a soul douche.” That’s the type of dialogue in the movie that’s supposed to be funny. Before Mickey leaves, she hands Barb and Star a travel brochure for Vista Del Mar. McLendon-Covey was a scene-stealing character in “Bridesmaids,” but “Bridesmaids” fans will be disappointed that her role in “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar” is really just a quick cameo, since she’s only in the movie for about five minutes.

Barb and Star’s idea of fun is getting together not with a book club but with a talk club, which consists of other boring women who are around the same age. The members of the talk club gather to discuss a single topic per meeting. Shortly after Barb and Star lose their jobs, they’re at a talk club meeting, which is led by a bossy snob named Debbie (played by Vanessa Bayer) at Debbie’s home. Three other women are also in attendance: Pinky (played by Fortune Feimster), Delores (played by Phyllis Smith) and Bev (played by Rose Abdoo), who all do whatever Debbie expects them to do.

The talk club has certain rules that Debbie is fanatical about enforcing. When one of the club members is one minute late, Debbie locks the door and won’t let her inside. And the three cardinal rules of the club are (1) No wearing of sneakers; (2) No swearing, except for the “f” word; and (3) No lying. When Debbie announces that this meeting topic will be jobs, Barb and Star look at each other with dread because they’re embarrassed to talk about how they’ve become recently unemployed.

As the members of the club go around the room to talk about their jobs, (pharmacist Debbie is ecstatic when she describes how much she loves shaking pills in bottles while listening to music), Barb and Star continue to act as if they still work at the furniture store. However, the guilt of lying gets to Star, who blurts out that she and Barb lied and they actually got laid off recently. A furious Debbie kicks Barb and Star out of the club.

With their social life in shambles, Barb and Star decide to follow Mickey’s advice and take a vacation in Vista Del Mar. On the plane, there’s a sequence that goes on for far too long where Barb and Star ramble on about what kind of lady would be an ideal friend to lots of other women. They call her Trish and imagine all sorts of scenarios and personality traits that this ideal woman would have. And as soon as this becomes the entire plane conversation in the movie, you just know that there will be a character named Trish that shows up at some point.

Now for the weird and clunky sci-fi part of the story. It’s shown in the beginning of the movie that underneath the quiet streets of suburban Taylorsville is a high-tech underground bunker where a villain lives named Sharon Gordon Fisherman (also played by Wiig), who wants to kill the people of Vista Del Mar for a revenge reason that’s revealed in the movie. (It’s the most obvious reason possible.) The only way to get to the bunker is through a secret entrance in a tree trunk. Yes, it’s that kind of movie.

Sharon has a skin condition that makes her look unusually pale and sensitive to being in sunlight. She always wears white clothing. And she wears her hair in a jet-black bob, which kind of makes her look like a cross between Gloria Vanderbilt and Tilda Swinton, if they wanted to look like a Goth who only wears white. Sharon has a bitter demeanor and she seems to have problems emotionally connecting to people.

Sharon has three people working for her: an unnamed elderly scientist (played by Patrick Bristow), a handsome henchman named Edgar Pagét (played by Jamie Dornan), and a precocious boy named Yoyo (played by Reyn Doi), who’s about 9 or 10 years old. In the movie’s opening scene, Yoyo is shown riding his bike while delivering newspapers and singing Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb’s 1980 hit “Guilty.” However, Yoyo is no mild-mannered paperboy.

The scientist tells Sharon that he’s found a way to genetically modify mosquitos so that one mosquito sting can kill a large animal in minutes. When the scientist finds out that Sharon wants to use these mosquitos to kill humans, he objects to this plan and then is on the receiving end of Sharon’s deadly wrath. Shortly after that, Sharon orders Yoyo to activate a remote control in an earring that he’s wearing. The remote control sets off a bomb that was in a newspaper that Yoyo delivered to someone’s front porch.

Sharon then dispatches Edgar to go to Vista Del Mar to let loose the lethal mosquitos on the city’s population. Edgar is infatuated with Sharon and there’s a not-very-believable subplot that Edgar wants to be her boyfriend, but she’s been resistant to the idea. Sharon has a dead personality, so it’s very far-fetched that someone like Edgar (who could have his pick of women) would be pining after someone who lacks charisma and is very self-absorbed. But maybe Edgar likes women who play very hard-to-get.

And so, when Edgar goes to Vista Del Mar and inevitably meets Barb and Star, it’s at a hotel bar. He’s pining over Sharon and distracted in thinking about her, while Barb and Star try to strike up a conversation with him. There are some shenanigans that happen between Barb, Star and Edgar that leads to a very cliché plot development in a movie about two female best friends: They end up competing with each other over a man. Take a wild guess who it is.

In addition to the sci-fi elements of the movie that are very poorly conceived (with tacky visual effects), “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar” has some musical song-and-dance interludes that come out of nowhere. The first is when Barb and Star arrive at the Palm Vista Hotel, and all the people in the lobby break into a musical number to greet Barb and Star. Edgar also has an extensive musical number on the beach that involves an obvious stunt double.

There are also some other bizarre things in the movie that don’t work well either. For example, Star has a conversation with a talking crab named Morgan Freemond (voiced by Josh Robert Thompson), and the “joke” is that the crab sounds like Morgan Freeman and gives advice to the lovelorn Star. Damon Wayans Jr. has a useless role in the movie as a spy named Darlie Bunkle, who makes contact with Edgar. The running gag with Darlie is that he’s supposed to be undercover and always lectures Edgar to keep their communication “private,” but Darlie always bungles and reveals his own identity so that it’s out in the open and not “private” at all.

If the movie wasn’t trying so hard to appeal to underage audiences, it could’ve had more fun showing adults acting and talking like adults. Instead, by playing it too coy and too safe, the movie’s humor fails to be edgy or genuine. There’s a recurring character in the movie named Richard Cheese (played by Mark Jonathan Davis), who’s a singer/pianist in the hotel lounge. The joke is that Richard keeps singing about how much he loves women’s breasts, and he comes up with all sorts of ways to say the word “breasts.” It’s a mildly funny gag, but the humor is very juvenile, like 10-year-old boys giggling about saying slang words for this part of the female anatomy.

“Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar” is a story about two middle-aged single women who go on what’s supposed to be a fun-filled vacation together, but the movie is so watered down, that Barb and Star might as well have been teenagers. Barb and Star are sheltered women, but it would’ve been funnier to have them experience culture shock in a raunchier environment. “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar” is one of those movies where the trailer makes the film look a lot funnier than it actually is.

Wiig and Mumolo (who are also two of the movie’s producers) are capable of doing much better work. Barb and Star are fairly one-note. And except for a brief mention of why they are single (Barb’s husband Ron died in an accident, while Star’s husband Carmine left her for another woman), there’s no backstory for these two central characters. It seems as if the filmmakers were trying to do a middle-aged version of 1997’s “Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion” (another movie about two sheltered best friends who travel somewhere to party), but “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar” lacks a lot of the charm that made “Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion” a hit.

“Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar” isn’t a completely terrible movie, because viewers can find some laughs here and there. (People who are under the influence of alcohol or other substances while watching are more likely to find this movie funny.) Wiig has better comedic timing than Mumolo, while Dornan has some deliberately campy moments that can’t save this embarrassing film. Andy Garcia and Reba McEntire have unremarkable cameos in the movie. Considering the level of talent involved in this movie, it’s a misfire in so many ways, and it will just make people appreciate “Bridesmaids” even more.

Lionsgate will release “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar” on VOD on February 12, 2021.