I feel pretty follows Renee Bennett, (Amy Schumer), who after an accident at Soul Cycle, suddenly believes she is the beautiful person she always wanted to be. The film promotes a strong message about body confidence which is always timely and relevant. Despite this neither the premise nor the message is not original, in any way, having been done many times before. However, where this film iterates on the idea is by having Renee be the only one who can see this beautiful person she thinks she is, with everybody else, only seeing the same Women from the start of the film. My main issue with the film is that it relies on stereotypes about women, which reeks of bad writing. Whatsmore Amy Schumer’s performance has no charm coming across as vain, and just quite annoying. This truly is a detriment as you don’t root for her, but rather against her a lot of the time. Using Renee as the idea of every woman is offensive because; she is not nuanced or layered, but rather two dimensional. The high point of the film is its humour and its heart, with it being affecting especially at the end. The film is saved, however, by its wider supporting cast, whether it is Renee’s friends, Vivian and Jane, (Aidy Bryant and Busy Philipps) or Michelle Williams’ character of Avery LeClaire. Vivian and Jane are most better representations of the idea of the every woman, as they just want to be happy and don’t care what other people think, and unlike Renee, you root for them. Williams’ LeClaire is unlike the other confident people and has a true sense of vulnerability, this comes from her need to please her Grandmother. Through Williams’ performance, we see the most well-rounded character in the film. Conversely, the film also uses a lot of needless characters such as Grant LeClaire, (Tom Hopper), who aren’t really characters, but rather just plot devices. To conclude this isn’t the worst comedy to see, it does try and put forward a nice message, but it is hurt by a bad performance from Schumer and a lack to take more daring creative risks. Go and see it for Williams’ performance alone.

2/5
Reviewed by Luke

Life of the Party focuses on Deanna, (Melissa McCarthy) as she goes back to college. To sum up everything wrong with this film in a few words, it is at best a 20-minute comedy sketch, not a 110-minute film. The film’s gravest sin is that is it is not funny, at all. The humour misses it marks every time, ranging from cringey to downright awful. This film has a similar premise to Will Ferrell’s Old School, but that film does it so much better in nearly every way. Whilst both are crude in terms of humour, at least the characters in Old School are likeable, whereas in this they are all either barely even two dimensional, or are just incredibly annoying. This annoyance is best expressed by McCarthy’s character of Deanna, who is shrill and annoying from the get-go. McCarthy plays the character of the overbearing mother to the nth degree, being truly over the top with it, and never in a good way: this is best shown when Deanna must do some public speaking and she starts profusely sweating and then passes out. Furthermore, the lines for her character are just terrible and somewhat contradictory, as she is supposed to be a great mother, yet she can’t tell that in the beginning her daughter, with whom she now shares a college, doesn’t want her there at all. What’s more, the emotional beats between Deanna and her daughter Maddie, (Molly Gordon), don’t feel earned at all instead they feel incredibly forced and unnatural, being the furthest thing from reality. McCarthy’s Deanna is just not likeable in any way and you almost end up rooting for her ex-husband Dan, (Matt Walsh) who is the film’s villain, just because of how unlikeable she is. The direction by Ben Falcone is boring and lifeless, with this film being unable to, at any point, justify its existence aside from being another trash comedy. There are times when the film tries to be clever by inverting tropes, such as when Deanna starts sleeping with Jack who is her junior, clearly an inversion of the usual trope that would see the man sleeping with the younger woman. However, these inversions don’t work, at all, being far too obvious and, at times even a little weird; especially with the late in the game plot twist. Finally, the third act cameo by Christina Aguilera feels tacked on for the sake of it. In the lead up to her cameo, there are a lot of lines of dialogue about Christina Aguilera, with it feeling it some strange sort of way like human product placement. I was going to give this film my first 0/5 but, there was one saving grace, albeit a small one. This was Helen, (Gillian Jacobs). Jacobs is effortlessly charming in every scene she is in, completely stealing the show.
Overall don’t go and see this film, please don’t waste your money, with so many better comedies out this year it almost seems like hearsay to give this lazy, dated, dumb comedy any of your time.
We all deserve better than this.
0.5/5
Reviewed by Luke
Ps Truth or Dare was better than this and, that is my lowest rated film so far.

Game Night is a dark comedy by the directors behind Horrible Bosses. The plot focuses on a suburban game night gone awry managing to be both entertaining and engaging. Subplots of which this film has quite a few are all wrapped up to a satisfying degree by the end. My main critique of the plot is that it has a few too many twists, trying to make it look more clever than it actually is. Rachel McAdams character of Annie is very funny and easily the most charming of the cast. What’s more is that through McAdams performance, you really buy the competitiveness of her character. Morris’ character of Kevin is easily the funniest for me personally. His constant state of worry around which celebrity his wife slept with, (which is a recurring gag), never stops being funny. Another standout from the cast is Kyle Chandler as Brooks. Chandler plays the cool older brother with such ease it’s as though he isn’t acting at all. Furthermore, the dramatic scenes with his character feel believable, with his character having the best arc. Bateman is the weak link of the cast because in near every scene he is in with McAdams she easily out stages him. What’s more, he was the main member of the cast who’s jokes didn’t work and fell flat. Bateman’s character did benefit from strong motivations, with him trying to become more like his impressive older brother (Chandler). The romance between Billy Magnussen character of Ryan and Sharon Horgan’s Sarah works surprisingly well. With the pair being the highlight of the film. The supporting cast outside the main gang is mainly wasted. The only exception is Gary, played by Jesse Plemons. Plemons is the scene stealer of this film and is fantastically awkward in every scene he is in. The action scenes in the film are largely by the numbers, except for one fantastic scene involving a Faberge egg. In terms of the score, there are two excellent usages of Queen songs that I feel really capture the essence of the film.
Overall I would highly recommend this film, even if Jason Bateman isn’t in top form. It is still a very enjoyable ride.
3.5/5
Reviewed by Luke.