We recommend better movies with Goldie Hawn, Amy Schumer, mother/daughter relationships, South America kidnappings, and more.
The movie that finally brought Goldie Hawn back to the big screen after a 15-year hiatus and the sophomore starring vehicle for Amy Schumer is an often funny but still quite mediocre effort for such an exciting-sounding project. The actresses appear in a pre-show spot before the movie thanking audiences for seeing it in a theater, but Snatched isn’t essential viewing in any format and definitely isn’t theatrically necessary unless you just want to laugh with a crowd.
The following dozen movies are more vital. Most of them are better works from the director and cast of Snatched, while others are better takes on the same themes and settings. You don’t have to see the new Hawn and Schumer team-up, but you do have to see these:
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Arguably the greatest film dealing with mother-daughter conflict, Michael Curtiz’s adaptation of James M. Cain’s novel stars Joan Crawford in an Oscar-winning performance as a woman who does everything she can for her kids yet winds up with a spoiled jerk of an eldest child. Ann Blyth’s Veda is not so dumb nor so kind as Schumer’s Emily, and things between the two women don’t work out quite as heartwarmingly as they do for the ladies of Snatched. Todd Haynes’s recent miniseries remake is also worth seeing.
Cactus Flower (1969)
Hawn’s first big movie role, which broke her out into serious stardom and netted her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, is in this classic rom-com co-starring Walter Matthau and Ingrid Bergman. The newcomer was somewhat typecast as the sort of ditzy blonde she’d been playing on TV’s Laugh-In, but it’s not a thin characterization. Hawn, like Marilyn Monroe before her, knew how to do dumb intelligently. How she put up with Schumer’s obnoxious idiot version while making Snatched is beyond me.
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
Want a great movie in which people trek through the Amazon rainforest? Werner Herzog’s first pairing with actor Klaus Kinski, about a conquistador’s search for El Dorado, is so crazy that none of the lost in the jungle humor in Snatched lands with any weight if you’re familiar with it. Never mind that the new movie is just a stupid comedy. It’s also such a blatant vacation project, especially compared to Aguirre, which was actually filmed in harsh Peruvian locales rather than safe Hawaii.
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)
Oh, Joan Cusack, what are you doing playing a character whose tongue is cut out? Your voice is a big part of why you’re so amazing. Well, you’re good mostly silent in Sixteen Candles, but that was before you vocally shined in Broadcast News, Working Girl, My Blue Heaven, In & Out, and of course the Toy Story sequels. I love your expressive face, but I prefer your speech to go with it. And in Grosse Pointe Blank you don’t need fake acrobatics to be a ferociously awesome part of a post-military mercenary duo.
Ratas, Ratones, Rateros (1999)
There’s not much of Ecuador in the spotlight of Snatched. In fact, much of the movie is set in Colombia. But it does depict the nation as a dangerous place outside the gates of resorts. Well, Ecuadorian cinema, like much of South American film, isn’t that much better for the country’s reputation. At least those films that break out on the global stage as its national cinema representatives. Still, of that sort of thing, Sebastian Cordero’s early work deserves to be seen. This gritty crime film and Cronicas, in particular.
Manda Bala (2007)
Brazil is another country whose national cinema is unfairly focused on crime and other bad things. But again, much of that negative representation is done very well, at least. This documentary, which is actually by an American director (Jason Kohn) but fits the classification as a Brazilian co-production, is probably the best film addressing the issue of kidnappings in South America. There’s also Sequestro, the Netflix series Captive, and My Kidnapper, which is relevant in being about tourist victims in Colombia.
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