Writer-Director Nicholas Stoller has a solid R-rated raunchy comedy resume (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Neighbors) so I was interested in seeing Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell team up with him for some silly shenanigans (a vibe I need right now). And it does deliver some genuine LOL moments, via its endearing odd ball quality. But the film’s escalating gamesmanship between
its leads becomes eye-rollingly tiresome over time. Stoller’s comedic strengths reside more so in jokes that are peppered in the minutiae of conversational dialogue – and less so in roasting generational divides – the latter of which is a focal point and comes off as obviously superficial.
If you’re looking for a dumb comedy to get some giggles, it’s worth a watch. But don’t expect anything nearing the levels of golden era late 90s/early 2000s raunchy rom-coms.
