Courtesy of Fox
On paper, pairing up the legendary Goldie Hawn and this generation's Amy Schumer should have been a slam dunk, and yet, Jonathan Levine’s R rated, mother-daughter comedy is lazy. The story is a testament to that, as Schumer’s Emily has been recently dumped by her boyfriend and is forced to ask her mother Linda (Hawn) to travel to Ecuador for an exoitc week long getaway. Once they arrive it’s all booze and zippy one liners until the pair gets abducted by Colombian drug lords looking for ransom. A classic comedy situation, with plenty of hijinks for our characters to get into and, most all of it falls flat. Emily and Linda’s relationship lacks chemistry or any definitive purpose, which throws the balance of the picture off. It’s strange, because the supporting characters in this movie are more interesting. Wanda Sykes and Joan Cusack play a pair of retired black ops spies that are on vacation as well and they show up to aid our characters along the way. Cusack’s character, Barb, doesn’t utter one word the whole movie and let’s her facial expressions do all the work. It’s good stuff, and I would much rather see her character have a full length feature. And Ike Barinholtz has some fun playing the agoraphobic brother that is tasked with finding his family, once they go missing, his search lands him at the desk of a United States Embassy employee named Jakob (Nicholas Lockwood) and the two share a scene of blissful one liners (“I'm so annoying, I've read the entire “Game Of Thrones” series, I'll text you spoilers”). That scene, like many others, without the main characters are fun and inspired, and it gives a taste to what “Snatched” could have been with better material. Instead, it's just sloppy. C-