Saturday, October 05, 2013

1918 - The Guilt Trip



This film came and went pretty quickly from the populus, and the fact that it's on Netflix this soon says something, sadly... Seth Rogen plays Barbara Streisand's son, they go on a road trip together.  Great title and set-up for a movie that's, well... just okay.
Rule #1 of comedy - if you're going to do a scene that's been done before, do it bigger and better.  Here we have a bit where someone has to eat a giant steak dinner to get it for free.  The Great Outdoors has the best version of this that I've seen - and yes, making Barbara Streisand do it is a very funny idea - but that's about the end of that joke, and it doesn't go anywhere from there.  The whole movie is kind of like that when it comes to the comedy.  Great potential, but not followed up on and grown further.  It's the kind of film that lays very obvious bread crumbs early on and then things go pretty much as you'd expect them.  There's a nice little twist at the very end, but other than that there's not a lot of surprises going on here and for a comedy, that's a problem.
I didn't love it, I didn't hate it.  I think the Streisand audience will enjoy it a lot more than the Rogen one.

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