The makers of the Hangover movies and Bad Moms try to create the magic and chemistry of Bridesmaids by plonking four old girlfriends in an upscale Palm Springs spa retreat in this madcap but ultimately misfiring comedy.
Fine comedic actors – Leslie Mann as the uptight Jane, Michelle Buteau as badass Coco, Isla Fisher as trainwreck Mel, and Anna Faris as workaholic Sophie – gather for a girls behaving badly romp that lays on the bad taste gags as thick as a collagen face mask as they try to recapture the spirit of 2011 at the box office.
Thing is the firecracker Mel is the one that nobody likes in the friend group, an unwelcome interloper from the distant past who turns up uninvited, unwanted and unannounced to cause merry mayhem amid the potted plants and Zen gardens. Before you can say “namaste”, wellness turns to badness and sessions of goat yoga, guided meditation, and restorative mud baths descend into slapstick farce, pratfalls. and lessons learnt about the true value of friendship.
In a wafer thin script exploding with F bombs, cliches collide and thoroughly dated bad taste jokes refuse to land. The gung-ho cast do their best with very poor material and at least they were having a good time.