(2020) (Nasim Pedrad, Lamorne Morris) (Not Rated)
- QUICK TAKE:
- Romantic Comedy: A desperate woman and her two best friends travel to Mexico in hopes of deleting the mean email they drunkenly sent to her new boyfriend who they incorrectly believed was ghosting her.
- PLOT:
Things have been better for 37-year-old Wesley Darya (NASIM PEDRAD), despite having two best friends in Brooke Barnes (ANNA CAMP) -- whose husband has cheated on her -- and Kaylie Mills (SARAH BURNS) who's desperately trying to get pregnant. Not only is Wesley an unemployed guidance counselor, but her ex is now engaged to another woman while she's not dating anyone.
She hopes that might change on a blind date set up by Kaylie's husband, but Wesley and architect Sean McGuire (LAMORNE MORRIS) definitely do not hit it off. Moments after he calls off that date over them seeming incompatible, she trips, knocks herself out, and awakens to sports agent Jared Sterling (ROBBIE AMELL) who sweeps her off her feet.
She wins him over by acting completely unlike her normal self and they end up sleeping together, but then she doesn't hear from him for days. Thinking he's ghosting her, she, Brooke, and Kaylie drunkenly write an angry email to him, unaware that he's been in a coma for the past few days following a car accident in Mexico.
Realizing their fledgling relationship will be ruined by that email, Wesley convinces her friends to fly from L.A. to Cabo, find his phone or laptop, and erase that message before he ever sees it. But they soon discover that their plan is going to end up more complicated than they imagined.
- OUR TAKE: 3.5 out of 10
The old saying is "don't say something you'll regret" and that holds true as much -- if not more -- today than whenever it was first uttered. And it applies to any form of communication, be it in person, a phone call or via any means of instant messaging available nowadays, especially in the heat of the moment and/or when alcohol or other such substances are in play.
Of course, one always had time to rethink such written messaging in the past since it took time to write by hand, stick the letter in the mailbox, and wait for the mail carrier to arrive. I can just see people writing something in anger and haste, letting cooler heads prevail, and then tearing that up or rushing out to the mailbox to retrieve said letter before it was picked up.
In today's world of instant communication and delivery, though, that's impossible. That is, unless the recipient has yet to open their email, check their text messages or access any other such messaging app.
That's the plot gist of "Desperados" where three best friends -- Wesley Darya (Nashim Pedrad), Brooke Barnes (Anna Camp), and Kaylie Mills (Sarah Burns) -- drunkenly pen a nasty email for Jared (Robbie Amell) who they believe is ghosting our protagonist (Pedrad) after having slept with her.
But just as the send button is being hit, the down-on-her-luck woman receives a phone call from a hospital in Mexico. It turns out her new boyfriend wasn't ignoring her, but instead has been in a coma for a few days following a car accident and is using his nurse's phone -- his being back in his resort room -- to contact her.
Realizing time is of the essence and her future relationship with him is on the line, Wesley convinces her friends to fly from L.A. to Cabo, find his phone or laptop, and delete that email before he's released from the hospital and has a chance to read it. But while trying to do just that, she keeps running into a guy, Sean (Lamorne Morris), with whom she previously had a brief but disastrous first date.
The hilarity is then supposed to ensue as writer Ellen Rapoport and director LP (Liquid Propane? Long Play? Actually Lauren Palmigiano) are obviously going for a sort of "Bridesmaids" vibe with their raunchy rom-com approach.
Alas, unless the notion of a dolphin humping a woman and then having its large penis smack her across the face in slow motion followed moments later by some projectile vomiting leaves you in stitches, I doubt you'll find much of what's present funny. And that includes a sequence discussing "boner pills," the protagonist ending up sans clothing at said resort, or repeated bits where she's mistaken by an angry mother of a 12-year-old for being a pedophile.
Beyond the failed and forced humor, the overall plot is predictable, including the eventual falling out between the female friends and the lead falling for Sean, her initial foil. Granted, none of that's unusual for the genre, but coupled with the weak humor and a generally unlikeable protagonist (as written and then played by Pedrad) and the overall effort comes off as a miss. And yes, I've had plenty of time to think about that without any desperate need to take it back. "Desperados" rates as a 3.5 out of 10.
Reviewed June 30, 2020 / Posted July 3, 2020
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