With their 2011 hit film, “Bridesmaids,” co-writers Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo have accomplished a rare feat by weaving a careful portrait of female friendship and a genuine crude comedy. Their long-awaited follow-up, “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar”, takes the duo’s mood in a new direction, silencing their boldness and throwing out emotional truths for a fun and entertaining adventure complete with random musical numbers, one evil underground lair and a talking crab.
Besties Barb (Mumolo) and Star (Wiig), middle-aged drivers from the small town of Nebraska, are determined to win back their mojos with an escape from Florida (consider it their “Eat Pray Love” redemption version ). Affectionately healthy and islanders, our Midwestern ladies are stunned by all the tacky treasures and vigorous men seductively dressed in Tommy Bahama from head to toe. Wiig, Mumolo and director Josh Greenbaum unleash the craziness of feverish dreams against the backdrop of this pastel kitsch paradise.
The whole thing runs a mile a minute, changing from one stupid scenario to the next with a cartoonish contempt for logic. Star begins a romance with a himbo henchman (Jamie Dornan) prone to explosions of music and dance, while a vengeful lover with a familiar mug plans to unleash a horde of killer mosquitoes. There is also a human cannonball and a lounge singer who sings exclusively on breasts.
Barb and Star’s eccentric chatter has its charms thanks to Wiig and Mumolo’s natural relationship, but the characters’ stupidity is less painfully funny than more strange and capricious. “Barb and Star” offers a mixture of laughs, often looking like a Frankenstein montage of various sketches. Still, I cannot help admiring his commitment to the act and his gloriously unbalanced absurdity.
Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar
PG-13 classification. Run time: 1 hour 46 minutes. Rent or buy on Google Play, FandangoNow and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.