Book Club - Ein neues Kapitel

Book Club was one the surprise hits of the summer of 2018 and was a film I enjoyed a lot more than I expected. It was no classic, but it was a breezy way to spend a few summer hours. Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly if you know Hollywood, a sequel was commissioned. The Next Chapter really doesn't have much of the charm of the original and doesn't make a compelling case for existing.

There are a few laughs here and there, but not enough to overcome the mountains of painful double entendres and speeches about friendship. Everyone seems to just be going through the motions and ready to collect their paychecks. But hey, at least there is some stunning Italian scenery to enjoy.

Book Club: The Next Chapter is a film so lazy it almost feels as if it were written by AI instead of living, breathing human beings. It's got plenty of zingers and the cast tries their best to deliver them as best they can, but even the finest thespians in the world can't make this dialogue sound realistic. The story is non-existent as the four lead characters go from tourist spot to tourist spot, drinking wine, telling corny sex jokes, and offering up cliche proverbs about friendship that are so stale and tired that they're gag inducing. The first film was no fine masterpiece, but it at least had a little more substance to it. This is simply a waste of a fine cast, but I hope they enjoyed their trip to Italy.

This appears to be a good excuse for four actors, who seem to get on quite well together, to get someone to fund an all expenses paid trip to Italy to make a movie underpinned by the thinnest of plots. That plot sees the group emerging from lockdown when they finally manage to meet for their routine bookclub. It's at this get-together that "Vivian" (Jane Fonda) announces that she - a lifelong opponent of the institution - is to marry "Arthur" (Don Johnson). "Carol" (Mary Steenbergen) comes up with the idea of a hen trip to Italy and after a bit of scepticism from "Diane" (Diane Keanton) and the timely death of the cat of judge "Sharon" (Candice Bergen) they embark on their trip of a lifetime. What now ensues is a rather predictable and lightweight comedy drama that starts off entertainingly enough but runs out of steam quickly and permanently. The last twenty minutes take us into cheesy territory that really did have me looking around the cinema at the ceiling thinking - "oh, just get on with it". There are a few fun contributions from Giancarlo Giannini as the rather dishevelled police chief and a few cameos from Andy Garcia, but for the most part this is just four folks having a jolly time whilst those of us sitting down remember (or discover) just how beautiful Venice is. It's all instantly forgettable stuff, this, but Bergen has her tongue firmly in her cheek and Jane Fonda just seems to look more android the more films she precariously totters through nowadays.

When an AI script generator is fed "cliches about older women" "Italy tourism brochures" and "text from wine-themed decor items," this is what's spit out. I left 2/3 of the way through so I'm not technically qualified to give a full review... but I had to force myself to stay that long. Jane Fonda was particularly assaulted by the script, but none were spared. Even Italy should fire their agent over this one~ no hackneyed tourist trap was overlooked, no cliche left out. I need 118 more characters for this review to post but the movie was so dull that further criticism is fruit hanging too low. Just. Don't. Do It.

A clean, polished, well produced film with some very accomplished and famous stars of Hollywood. So why is it boring?

It feels as though they have tried to find how to prove much older women can't star in films, and wrote a script to prove that. But to hold your interest they locate it in a beautiful country which they show you a lot of.

It's sad that Jane Fonda has so obviously had lots of surgery, but the rest don't appear to have and they've aged well. So why mistreat them by making this shambles of an uninteresting film?

I think it dissolves their reputations somewhat as the film is just not good except in terms of a travel brochure for Italy.

Give it a miss, you won't miss anything.