ANOTHER SIMPLE FAVOR
Starring: Blake Lively, Anna Kendrick, Alex Newell, Michele Morrone, Henry Golding, Ian Ho, Allison Janney, Elizabeth Perkins, Elena Sofia Ricci, Andrew Rannells, Lorenzo de Moor, Taylor Ortega, and Bashir Salahuddin
Director: Paul Feig
NICK
I watched A Simple Favor for the first time a few days ago, so it was fresh in my mind leading into the sequel. Although this is certainly a step down, there's still some fun to be had, mainly thanks to the chemistry of Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick. Beyond them, the new cast members don’t add much (including Elizabeth Perkins, who replaces the sorely missed Jean Smart) and the campy story is needlessly convoluted. It’s the same thing we’ve been seeing lately: another streaming film that you can waste some time with, but is, at the end of the day, another unnecessary sequel.
ROBERT
You never want to believe a follow-up to a movie you loved could even hint at being bad, no matter the number of red flags staring you in the face. So, there was no caution with my optimism for Another Simple Favor, but oh boy, there should’ve been! After seven years, the story conceived was lame and like that of a daytime soap opera, so my interest waned quickly. The characters, namely Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) and Emily (Blake Lively), didn’t seem true to who they had been in the first film. It felt lazy, sloppy, and made only so they could have a production in Capri.
AMARÚ
I watched A Simple Favor some years ago, and while I remember the watch being impactful, it wasn’t enough to remember anything about it going into Another Simple Favor. What carries over the most is Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively’s chemistry, which holds enough weight to push through what amounts to a bad TNT television show. While I love Leverage and The Librarians, maybe that’s not what you want for a major motion picture sequel, and even those shows didn’t stoop to the campy trash in the last hour. The Kendrick and Lively sparring match was fun, but everything else around it was just dumb.
