Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar - Movie Review

Critics Score - 7 of 10

General Audience Score - 6 of 10

Saturday Night Live has served as the launching pad for comedians to break into the world of film since it's inception in the mid-1970's. Many an actor invited to join the SNL cast has eventually made the transition and become a full fledged movie star, with many of the skits performed on the show being turned into full length feature films. Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar, hereafter referred to as Barb and Star, is one of the latest films from the post SNL crowd that feels like it must’ve been a draft for a skit that some producer got pitched while drunk at a bar one night and exclaimed, “That could make a whole movie!”, before slobbering down another martini. This film is one of the most outrageously wacky movies to be released on humankind in quite some time. No doubt I’ll have to Google synonyms for wacky and crazy through the rest of this review. But this film will be quite polarizing I imagine, some will dig the humor while others will be rolling their eyes and shaking their heads in disbelief before turning it off. Decide for yourself whether or not to take a chance and hitch your wagon to this Barb And Star.

This zany adventure begins with an oriental paperboy delivering his route while belting out Barbra Streisand, then pedals to a remote field where an owl scans him and a tree opens letting him travel down to a secret lair where we discover he's actually a secret agent. There we also meet Edgar (Jamie Dornan), they both are working for super-villain Sharon Fisherman (Kristen Wiig), who's plan is to send killer mosquitos to Vista Del Mar, who's beauty contest did her dirty when she was young. Have I lost you yet? The irrelevant plot really takes off when we meet Barb (Annie Mumolo) and Star (Kristen Wiig) sitting around on a couch at the furniture store they work at chatting about their dreams. These characters are the entire movie, they’re two old souls trapped in middle age women’s bodies, and after losing their jobs, they decide to take a trip to Florida to recapture some fun and adventure their lives have been missing. They inadvertently have a drink and eventually a threesome with Edgar and become intertwined in the villainous plot to destroy Vista Del Mar.

By the time the mosquitoes have been diverted and Barb and Star save the day, *spoiler alert* it’s actually more of a shock that this kind of crazy, ridiculous, over-the-top humor actually works some of the time. At the heart of the film is Barb and Star, and not even them, it’s the zany characters and silly humor that drives the movie and propels it to the goofball finale. This brand of humor that was alive and well in the 90’s with the Ace Ventura, Austin Powers and pretty much anything with the late, great Leslie Nielsen, has been replaced with the more adult themed Bridesmaids, Spy, Amy Schumer style, wittier and raunchier comedy. Although Barb and Star may be a couple decades too late, and while it’s just plain dumb at times, there’s certainly a place for dumb entertainment in today’s market.

SUMMARY - This movie and it’s brand of humor is certainly not for everyone, by the end of the first act, I was seriously wondering if this was one of the worst movies of the year. But this film commits so hard to it’s stupidity that it wears you down and after a while, it’s annoying to acknowledge you actually did have some fun and shared a few laughs on your vacation with Barb And Star.