Queenpins

8/10 - similar in style to fellow STX film, Hustlers, this female-led story ripped from real life is utterly engrossing, well-executed, and while not perfect, makes for an enjoyable two hours (and a desire to get more into couponing)

This is a fun little movie about some women who sell stolen coupons on the internet.

The premise is simple but solid. The film rests squarely on Kirsten and Kirby who are more than up for the task and they were great to watch.

This could have been an absolute low-end classic like "Office Space" or "Mad Money" but it tries a little too hard to make this truly worth your time.

The story has a lot of bloat to it that so easily could have been cut. The husband feels like he should be integral to the plot but is superfluous. He is only there to be a one dimensional butt-hole for Kristen to rail against. If anything it makes her character come across unnecessarily cold - "I don't need you as I have loads of money now so see you later sucker!".

To pad the film out there is some toilet humour and over-acting jokes that just don't land.

The relationship between the investigators was a nice touch but it feels like they couldn't decide what to do with the Loss Prevention officer and he sometimes felt like a cartoon character: stupid and irrelevant rather than a loveable buffoon.

The plot strays in to silly-land with the hacker character and never really gets back on to solid ground, so any sense of tension was lost and it ended up being a full on comedy and I lost interest in the final outcome.

Overall this is bouncy and fun with an adequate production and some funny jokes. It is good for a Sunday afternoon if you want something new but I think it only has one watch in it.

This film wasn't deep, and at times it stretched credibility, but it was fun and engaging. I'd call it a buddy film on a couple of levels: The main characters, Connie and Jo, and then the sub-characters, Simon and Ken. The acting was solid, though the relatively unknown Paul Walter Hauser stole the movie. I'd recommend this film for unwinding on a Friday night after a long week.

Coupons... so many coupons....

Wow this actually happened. A coupon scam that costed companies millions of dollars masterminded by two jobless ladies. This was some next level utilization of coupons. At first they just stockpiled coupons that they got from the mail and used them all at once. However, things became out of hand when they came up with the new business that crossed the line of legality.

The way the story was told was done many times before in other crime thrillers that started out with a character getting arrested and then retold how that happened. However, there's a good amount of comedy that reflected the ridiculousness of the story. The first two third of the movie I enjoyed quite a bit, but then after the fallout the story became lackluster and the impact didn't land with me.

The character I liked the most was Ken Miller, played wonderfully by Paul Walter Hauser. The dude was just hilarious and goofy. I cracked up couple of times when he was on the screen. He also had good chemistry with Vince Vaughn's character. Another character that I liked was Bebe Rexha's character. She had little screen time, but she owned her lines and looked amazing.

Another problem I had was the runtime. Usually the pacing was slow, and the story took too long to get to its destination. Near the end I was kinda checking out and didn't care much about the ending.

Overall, a ridiculous real-life story with some funny moments, but the story execution could be improved. 6.5/10.

Aside from the many poor attempts at humor, there still were a few LOL moments. The writing needed to be more consistent and tighter, with better character development. The directing was decent and the score on point. The 110 min runtime and pacing were spot-on. But it was the stellar casting and their performances that elevated this "based on true events" interesting af comedy. Kristen Bell shined as the coupon queen, and Paul Walter Hauser nailed his role. I wanted to see more of Vince Vaughn though. Nevertheless, still enjoyable and a recommended watch. It's a well deserved 8/10 from me.