kur1su

If you want to see a bunch of annoying kids experience a whole lot of random nonsense, oh man do I have the movie for you.

The main problem is that for most of the running time, everything that happens is completely random, making it impossible for the movie to generate any tension or cohesion. Add the bad acting and the cheap looking props and you have a movie which biggest mystery is how it even got greenlit and why Peter Stormare agreed to be part of it.

In a just world this would be a title on the bottom of a supermarket bin with discounted straight-to-video movies, but in 2025 this is worthy of a theatrical release.

I have never been a big fan of the work of Adil & Bilall, I think it is very derivative and caters to the lowest common denominator. European movies trying to emulate Hollywood always fall flat and do does this. The plot is "straight from the headlines" and there is extensive use of voiceover to explain EU, Schengen, import procedures, but none of that matters if one scene later they just drive a car onto the quay. None of the characters are very sympathetic and of course the main bad guy is a white dude (who is the only one who had some funny lines at least). So yes, this is better than their Bad Boys films (honestly even the VHS tapes of family walks my dad shot in the 80s are) but it is not a good film, it does not work as an arthouse film (check for example the Pusher trilogy to see a European movie set in the drug trafficking scene for a successful example) and it doesn:'t work as a blockbuster.

Are we supposed to remember the not very memorable movie from 2018 that this is a sequel to? Well according to IMDb I actually did watch that one, but no, sorry, I am drawing a complete blank.

Meanwhile this movie is just a jumble of ideas and none of them are very good. Lots of twists and turns that are supposed to dazzle us but there are no real stakes and there never is real tension to get the viewer invested. The parts that are supposed to be funny work here and there but even then... Great locations though.

I think Paul Feig peaked with Bridesmaids and that is almost 15 years ago. Maybe it is me that is getting too old for this.