The Kitchen

Although I cannot fault the excellent performances of Melissa, Tiffany, or Elisabeth, who all do justice to characters that are way too complicated, the film itself left a lot to be desired. First of all the situations seemed so totally unlikely that it was hard to swallow the overall plot. Another thing that I found irritating was that there ended up being no one I felt like rooting for, and I do mean no one. Overall, not a complete waste of time, but certainly not very memorable.

This film tells the story of three women who pick up their husband's job to run the neighbourhood.

There is a bit of comedy, and there is a bit of gangster in the story. However, there is not enough of both of these elements. They try to please two crowds, but end up pleasing neither. Unfortunately, the film doesn't quit work for me.

Novice writer Andrea Berloff makes her directorial debut, and manages to do a better job (for a newbie) with the camera, than her story.

The story started off good and held my attention, until the boys got out of jail. Then the writing just got ridiculous, convoluted and full of plot issues, and tanked from there. The entire conflict towards the end (especially the whole 'black power' component) between McCarthy and Haddish's characters was just dumb and unnecessary. There were so many more much better options the films' direction should've headed to after the boys got out. I wanted more... more action and suspense - in good old fashion mob storytelling, instead of this equal rights and gender equality garbage.

This was more of a drama, than the gangster film it wanted to be. The gals all played their roles well, but their story was just bland and unconvincing from the start. The 102 min length felt longer with the slow pacing and some dragged out and unnecessary scenes, especially towards the end. The editing was terrible. The cinematography and score were on point.

It's certainly no female Goodfellas, nor anything close to a Scorsese film... it's a dumbed down version of Widows, albeit still enjoyable - if there's nothing better to watch.

It's a 6/10 from me.

This movie couldn't make up it's mind what kind of a movie it wanted to be (Gritty Crime Drama, Female Empowerment Vehicle, Action Adventure Ride, Anti-Hero Saga). One one hand it had a high power primary cast with an equally stellar supporting cast, on the other hand it was loosely based on a DC comic series. The acting was passionate and well articulated, yet the writing was muddled, the premise kept shifting and the resolve was unfulfilling. The acting was good but rather drowned out by the movie's lack of focus. I give this film a 6 (fair) out of 10. {Crime Drama}

Violent crime drama.

Set in 1978, 3 wives of Irish mobsters take over after their husbands are imprisoned for armed robbery. After a weak start the movie progresses at a better pace although I couldn't help thinking Melissa McCarthy was badly cast and her rise to power was all too easy.

The movie made me think of 'Widows', which I didn't enjoy much either. The whole movie is pro extortion, murder, and corruption in the manner of Scorsese but not really made in a way that can be compared.

Probably not one to watch.