Snatched

This review may contain spoilers!

It's an Amy Schumer film, you get what you pay for. I would give Snatched a 1/10.

One thing I really appreciated about this film were the jokes around old paternal figures; scenes where Linda bumbles terribly through social media or suffocates her children with overprotective parenting it's quite amusing to watch.

Ike Barinholtz, who played Jeffrey Middleton, is such an over the top needy whiny role that he fits the 'mama's boy' persona perfectly; I thought the manner in which he encounters the kidnapping problems and responds to them leads to some entertaining moments of comedy. Bashir Salahuddin, who played Morgan Russell, is a very stern tired character who does a great job in portraying his role's lack of interest in interacting with the other characters; the conflict between him and Barinholtz leads to some highly entertaining moments. Christopher Meloni, who played Roger Simmons, is a good comedic role as the over the top jungle explorer role; the plot twist that he's actually a store manager who'd been diagnosed with cancer is hilariously delivered by Meloni.

However the best performance came from Tom Bateman, who played James. Bateman is a suave charmer who's a lot of fun when he's onscreen, you really can't help but like him which is why the very obvious plot twist with him being a kidnapper works so well. Bateman commits well to the charming role he plays but he manages to hint at his true persona very casually so you can join the dots quite nicely. The scene in which Schumer confronts Bateman over his lies is quite satisfying as we see the duplicitous and cowardly nature of Bateman's role exposed under the threat of torture.

The comedy used throughout this film isn't very funny for one major reason, it doesn't let up. There are moments of the film where monologues or dialogues of comedy are flying non-stop; it's hard to keep up and you often feel stuck in a weak stand up routine where you chuckle occasionally but for the most part you feel talked at. The plot of the film is so generic that it really writes itself; you can predict every 'twist' as it happens and often there a re a lot of scenes filled with meaningless moments of comedy to serve the running time. The journey that mother and daughter go on in order to become closer is rather disappointing and you don't really feel like much has changed once the ending of the film comes around. The cinematography is quite disappointing, in fact most of the moments where the director tries to get creative with their shots you feel really pulled out of the film. The editing does nothing to add to this, you would think a film about kidnapping would move quickly but it's a feature that drags out. The score for the film is non-existent; while the soundtrack for the film is made up of a variety of admittedly forgettable pieces of music that often adds little to the scenes it's being used within.

Amy Schumer, who played Emily Middleton, makes for a terrible lead for this film; Schumer's constant monotonous comedic delivery wears the film down pretty quickly. Randall Park, who played Michael, has no chemistry with Schumer whatsoever so their supposed 'relationship' is hard to buy at best; Park is also far removed from the rising star musician role that he's been cast in for this film. Goldie Hawn, who played Linda Middleton, seems to have lost her range as an actress; her chemistry with Schumer just isn't really there so it's hard to buy them as a good mother/daughter pair. Wanda Sykes and Joan Cusack, who played Ruth and Barb respectively, are some of the most ridiculous characters within the film; these vacationing women with a history in 'special ops' makes you roll your eyes a bit. Oscar Jaenada, who played Morgado, is quite weak as the film's overall antagonist; he isn't scary nor does he exude the power you'd expect a major crime boss to have. Arturo Castro and Pedro Haro, who played Dr Armando and Maco respectively, don't have much presence in the film and are used as a bit of a tongue in cheek jab at Colombian culture; Castro and Haro's scenes get kind of slapstick particularly when they're removing that ridiculous tapeworm from Schumer.