The Fabulous Four

What a waste of good talent! The script was poorly written, directed poorly and the location looked more like a promotion of a tourist destination in a very tacky part of the USA. Product placement was oh so obvious....it was all so much in your face. We walked out of the cinema after 30 mins when the "stars" started to sing in harmony whilst flying through the air against which was so obviously a false backdrop. My friend and I were very disappointed after the trailer promised so much! I'm a big fan of Bette Midler & Susan Sarandon....this movie was beneath both of these fab actors! Could not recommend.

I knew from the trailer how this film was going to go down. I was not holding out much hope. I don't understand why movies with older men in it can be given decent scripts, then you get a cast that is so magical in the older leading lady department, especially Sarandon and Midler and you deliver something so poorly written it hurts my brain. These women deserve scripts of a higher caliber. Not mindless dribble, that is laughs void and storyline vacant. Was it as bad as Summer Camp? NO, but it still failed to deliver, I even cringed at certain moments. Please, Please writers, write better scripts for these stars.

Using seasoned women in a comedy seems to be a genre in itself and the genre is picking up fast. As part of this genre The Fabulous Four is lackluster to films like Book Club and 80 for Brady. It might be that Diane Keaton and Jane Fonda have this genre on lock, which is strange because Sussan Sarandon is one of the hottest senior citizens out there, so this should have worked but it did not, at least not for me.

I do ponder. While the film is exploiting stars of a certain age there is very little comedy actually coming from this. We understand they are old and the movie leaves us with that and nothing else. Unlike films like Thelma in which I get a better insight of what happens to every human on the planet when they get old and that insight increased the entertainment value.

That insight is not found here as the women take advantage of their great genetics and the fact that they need not play old to tell a story about lifelong friendship, which i could have seen anywhere and have seen everywhere so The Fabulous Four is not bringing anything to the table and it shows.

Pass altogether.

What can I say, other than everything about this movie is cringeworthy. So much wasted potential with these actresses. Bette Midler was typical Bette, making faces and shrill. Megan Mullally was a lower octave Karen from "Will and Grace" only with pot instead of booze and pills. Sheryl Lee Ralph was useless and seemed to be there only to check a diversity box. Susan Sarandon looked the entire time like she knew this movie was a mistake. The whole movie felt like a Liftetime tv movie...cheap looking, rushed, AI script, cheap jokes, terrible directing. There's not one moment where I felt like any of these characters were behaving in a realistic manner for women of their age and their place in life, completely unrealistic scenarios and actions. And I can't even begin to describe how awkward the whole Michael Bolton scene was. It seriously looked like a wax figure...he didn't move, just a blank stare into space and singing, no movement whatsoever and no interaction with anyone in the scene...extremely weird and uncomfortable. Skip this one for sure.

My wife and I saw the trailer and really liked it. It reminded us both of the film Last Vegas. The basic storyline similarities are plentiful. The problem is the execution. The only positive I have is Susan Sarandon. Her character's storyline is the only thing worthy of admission and she delivered with what she was given. The other ladies were given nothing to display their brilliant comedic talents. The thought of seeing Broadway legends Bette Midler and Sheryl Lee Ralph on the big screen was gonna be epic. Too bad these writers and director were not up to ther task.

As I stated earlier, if you have seen the film Last Vegas, you could say this film looks like the female lead version. Fabulous Four has the powerhouse talent just the same as Last Vegas and even similar storyline arcs, but this film relies too heavily on cheap, immature, repetitive, bad jokes and not enough energy building a good script. Wait for streaming.