L'Ombre d'Emily 2

Five years ago my wife and I watched 'A Simple Favor' and found it reasonably interesting and entertaining. So we settled in after dinner and wine to watch this sequel, streaming on Prime.

Had my wife not been watching also, I would have turned it off after the first 10 or 15 minutes. The main characters use the worst cursing language you can imagine, not to add to the story or the characters but just to use foul language. That was disappointing. But we stuck with it.

Blake Lively is back as Emily and Anna Kendrick is back as Vlogger Stephanie. This time they are going to the Isle of Capri for Emily's wedding. She sort of forces Stephanie to go along.

The first movie involves Emily using her identical twin in an illegal scheme to get money. In this movie we find out there actually were triplets, and now the third is entering the fray.

The overall story here is not that good, much of the dialog is misplaced, the situations mostly implausible.

Not a very good movie at all.

I loved the first movie and I didn't exactly have high expectations but, with a star-studded cast, I did expect more.

Tbh it was pretty bad in my opinion - extremely far-fetched, cheesy, and underwhelming. I fell asleep halfway through it because I found it difficult to pay attention and when I finished it later, it definitely got worse instead of better.

I won't post spoilers but I was super disappointed with the plot twists and the added backstory. The writers could have made this movie SO much better but, nope. Unfortunately it felt like I was watching a low budget, cheesy lifetime movie.

I enjoyed the first movie. The characters had some realism to them and were somewhat likeable. These characters are cardboard cutouts, profoundly selfish and unlikeable, unbelievable and written as if some not ready for prime time 19 year who was trying to be cool wrote this. Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, do you really need the money this bad? I would have read the script and said I am not doing this film - not unless the script is shredded and rewritten. You can kiss a third installment goodbye after this mess. If you can go into this with no expectations and see it as a forgettable who done it, then maybe it is worth watching while folding socks or something.

Am I too boring or too "proper" or is it strange for anyone else who thinks it's "normal" to normalize incest and include pedophilia in a movie that is presented as a comedy?

And am I the only one who doesn't see any humor in it and doesn't find the movie funny? If it's an attempt at eccentric humor, it failed miserably. Such a shame.

Anna works very well with humor. She has a humor a la Tina Fey. I think Blake is average.

I didn't expect much but I didn't expect too little either. It just sounds like humor that tries too hard to be subtle and too clever and fails at everything it tries!

It's a little bit sad! KK.

Another Simple Favor feels like it's trying too hard to recreate the original's magic and misses the mark. While it brings back the same stylish flair and lead duo, the plot is bloated with unnecessary twists that feel more chaotic than clever. The humor doesn't land as often, and the story lacks the sharpness that made the first film such a fun surprise. It's not the worst sequel-but it definitely doesn't earn its place.

As someone who genuinely enjoyed the first movie and thought it was dark, funny, and surprisingly clever, this one was a major letdown. Blake Lively's character just doesn't hit the same way-what once felt bold and sharp now feels forced and exaggerated. Anna Kendrick's performance is still on point, but even she can't save a storyline that's over-the-top in the worst way.

Honestly, I couldn't even get through the first 30-40 minutes. I turned to my boyfriend and said I didn't want to finish it-it was that cringey. I like some of the new characters they added in more than the storylines/actcinf of some of the characters that were in the first movie. The acting often comes off as flat, but I think that's more a fault of the writing/how they wanted the characters to be seen than the cast/actors skills. It's like the film forgot what made the original work and replaced it with silliness (that was just that silly and not funny) and chaos for chaos's sake.