Movie Info
Movie Name: Sisters
Studio: Little Stranger
Genre(s): Comedy
Release Date(s): December 9, 2015 (Premiere)/December 18, 2015 (US)
MPAA Rating: R
Kate Ellis (Tina Fey) is down on her luck and has a daughter named Haley (Madison Davenport) who doesn’t respect her. Her sister Maura Ellis (Amy Poehler) is a recently divorced nurse who can’t seem to get back into dating. When their parents (Dianne Wiest and James Brolin) decide to sell their childhood home, Kate and Maura decide to throw one more all-out end of the line “Ellis Island” party…but some things have changed since they were in high school.
Directed by Jason Moore, Sisters is a comedy released in 2015. The movie received mixed reviews but had a relatively strong box office return (despite opening against Star Wars: The Force Awakens).
I like Tina Fey, but she is often hit or miss (30 Rock was a hit, but stuff like Admission…ugh). The same is true of Amy Poehler. Sisters wasn’t written by Fey or Poehler, so I didn’t have much hope…and the movie kind of lived up to average expectations.
The movie waves between trying to be a female crude comedy and a regular “chick flick” comedy. The movie plays out almost exactly like you’d expect it to with jokes turning into sappy sentimentality and a traditional (and predictable) ending. The writing isn’t the strongest, but there is some smart humor in it.
Fey and Poehler are pros and their characters feel a bit like a switch up for their normal roles with Fey being the vulgar and Poehler being the good girl sister. Maya Rudolph plays the wet blanket frienemy of the two and James Brolin and Dianne Wiest play the typical parents. You have John Cena stopping by as the drug dealer Pazuzu, and Ike Barinholtz as the eye-candy boy toy character. Other stars include John Leguizamo, Bobby Moynihan, Samantha Bee, Rachel Dratch, Chris Parnell, and Heather Matarazzo.
The movie is pretty set based with most of the comedy taking place at the house. It is very standard looking comedy which matches well with its pretty standard plot.
Sisters is no great comedy and with two great comedians that is kind of a bummer. The movie is just so-so and not very inspired. It didn’t go all out as a crude comedy nor does it stick to the nice smart comedy…instead, you get a rather average comedy with a wasted cast.