Mr. Movie: ‘Barb and Star’ is dumb funny – but it’s also quite charming

Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar

Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo wrote “Bridesmaids” in 2011. It’s now a cult favorite and is the film that introduced us to Melissa McCarthy. It ultimately made her a star. For that we owe Wiig and Mumolo thanks.

Their movie wasn’t bad either.

That isn’t the case with “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.” The two actresses play best buds who live in Soft Rock, Nebraska. They are mid-lifers whose boring lives consist of work where they talk a lot, their home where they talk a lot, and a talking club where the evening is spent with equally boring ladies talking about the topic of the night and eating hot dog soup.

They feel like middle age has taken their shimmer.

Then Barb and Star get laid off from their job at a furniture store. That leads to a whim that leads them to a swank vacation at a resort at Vista Del Mar in Florida. A funny aside is where the film is done. It is shot in other locales. Only after they got into the process did they learn there really is a Vista Del Mar.

Anyway, Vista Del Mar is where they encounter Edgar. He is there to kill everyone in town because his lady love is rich, psychotic and evil, and has a beef against the city.

Her answer is to kill everyone there with poison mosquitos.

Part of the movie’s charm is how Wiig and Mumolo play the characters. These are ladies they’ve done privately while writing together and in an improv group they belonged to eons ago. They’ve perfected the characters and — irritating as they are — you can’t help but like them.

Wiig also plays the movie’s villain who suffers from pigmentatia degenera hysterica whiteskinaka. That alone shows you much of the type of humor found in the movie. Painted in pasty white makeup and an all-white costume, Wiig is a delight. She has an absolute blast doing the villain.

Helping things along is Jaime Dornan of Fifty Shades fame. He handles the love interest role. Dornan seems to be having a lot more fun than he had in the three soft-core porn flicks that put him on the movie star map.

As for the movie, it’s a mindless premise that is totally dumb in way-too-many places. Included in the plot is tuneless music with flavorless lyrics. The songs are bad with a capital B. Music and lyrics go from a lounge singer obsessed with breasts to seagulls and trees to advice from crabs on love.

None of it should have been funny. So why did I find myself laughing? That is a question I can’t answer. All I can say is this — in spots, “Barb and Star” is quite funny. Silly funny but funny nonetheless. For some reason, Wiig and Mumolo are able to pull it off.

I suppose familiarity with characters they’ve been doing privately for years helped. The two actresses were completely comfortable in their roles and it is obvious they’re having a blast.

Back to why I liked the movie? Maybe it’s because I’m bored with COVID, or bored out of my skull watching TV, or maybe it’s because I’m unable to do anything other than stay home or go to my office. So a movie about two bored ladies finally having the time of their lives just seems to fit my life today.

It might fit yours, too.

▪ Rated PG-13 for language and mature themes. It can be seen view on demand on various sites.

▪ Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

Mark wakes up every morning to the same day. It’s the Groundhog Day thing. He’s a teenager and has been locked in this day for months. Much like Bill Murray in the classic movie, he knows things that happen over and over in that day. He shows up in time to save people from this or that, or to watch some interesting event.

Mark is also bored stiff.

Then one day he sees Margaret. It’s obvious that she’s doing the same thing he’s doing and is stuck in the same time loop. They meet and he shows her things and she shows him things. That’s where the map of tiny perfect things comes into play.

It’s a teen romance and the pheromones fly. Margaret, however, doesn’t want them flying. She isn’t telling Mark everything about why she’s stuck in time and is holding back. The why is part of the mystery of the time problem.

“A Map of Tiny Perfect Things” showcases two young, quite talented actors. Kathryn Newton wowed critics with her work in TV’s “Big Little Lies” and was a lot of fun in last year’s horrible horror flick, “Freaky.”

Newton has a bright future if she can avoid being typecast in teen-oriented love stories.

Chemistry is really important love stories like “A Map of Tiny Perfect Things” and Newton has that in spades with newcomer Kyle Allen. They have an easy way about them and the relationship of their characters feels natural and helps the movie work in places.

However, it’s only in this spot or that.

Allen — like Newton — is a pretty good actor. Not great but not bad. His biggest asset going forward is killer good looks. Being Hollywood handsome is important and acting in movies like “A Map of Tiny Perfect Things” gets you noticed.

We’ll see what he does with that.

“Groundhog Day” involved romance but it was mostly about a man discovering the need to change and finding out who he really is and how he fits in the universe. This one is just kids stuck in a time loop and you having to figure out why.

It’s a romance with nowhere to go and newbie director Ian Samuels and screenwriter Lev Grossman take — if you’ll pardon the pun — too much “time” to get to the point. The explorations of time and a person’s place in the universe and love, relationships and wants are based on Grossman’s short story.

It’s never good to drag something short into something a bit over 90-minutes. Doing that puts lots of imperfections in “A Map of Tiny Perfect Things.”

▪ Rated PG-13 for mature themes. It can be viewed on Amazon Prime.

▪ Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5

This story was originally published February 11, 2021 at 7:19 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie: ‘Barb and Star’ is dumb funny – but it’s also quite charming."