My Review of "Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar"

Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar is a comedy that came out recently in 2021. I think it's a crying shame that not a lot of people are giving it much buzz. Although I didn't know what I was getting into when I decided to watch this movie, I was taken aback how wacky it ended up being. You have to understand that I'm into wild and zany comedies and not a lot of them come out anymore. That's why this movie floored me as I was watching it.

The movie starts innocently enough with a chubby Asian kid delivering newspapers in a suburban street. It's quite odd already because in this day and age we don't really have kids delivering newspapers anymore. I could already tell that this movie was fully aware of itself. Little do we know that this kid actually works for this evil villain that is out to eliminate the township of Vista Del Mar using mosquitoes.

The banter between the villains reminds me a little of the banter of Austin Powers back in the day. They all have one dimensional personalities that shine when conflicting with each other. The whole premise of the villainous plans are quite ridiculous and it's meant to be. That's part of the fun.

While all this is happening we have our heroines Barb and Star. The two best friends are very innocent, naïve middle aged women. I love their little banter about mundane things. They will go 100 miles a minute on something so menial and that's part of the fun. Their discussions are often over the top and extremely positive. It's a far cry from the usual doom and gloom conversations we're used to nowadays.

The catalyst of Barb and Star's trip to Vista Del Mar evolves from them getting fired from a furniture store. They absolutely love their job only because they can hang out with each other. The whole workplace situation had me howling in laughter to see how much these two are oblivious of everything but their friendship. It's sort of similar to the relationship between the step brothers in the movie Step Brothers.

After they get fired they are shamed of their situation and try to lie to keep it from their neighborhood conversation club. That doesn't work out too well for Barb and Star as they're terrible at lying and they immediately fessed up. The conversation club leader immediately bans them from the club when the truth is revealed. This whole scene had me in hysterics because of the dictatorship rule of the leader.

Down and out Barb and Star really have nowhere to go. From one of the conversations they had at the conversation club they hear about a beautiful place called Vista Del Mar. The two decide that they're going to go on a much needed vacation at Vista Del Mar. From there the hijinks continues and the jokes get bigger and more wild as the movie progresses.

There'll be your usual partner movie tropes where there's some sort of mistrust between the two pals. You basically know where some of it is going but the journey to get to those stages in the movie are so wonderfully written. There's the random song and dance that is so outside of character that I couldn't help but laugh at.

Even more impressive is that they were able to do a ton of these wacky hilarious situations without making anything extremely politically incorrect. For the most part I thought a lot of it was done quite tastefully. They built up the personas of Barb and Star so well that the comedy is them being in innocent situations. They're so reserved that you want them to succeed and go wild. When they do, that's when the comedy hits you like a ton of bricks.

I think if you're looking for a zany comedy then this would be the movie to check out. I was thinking it was going to be like the movie Spy with Melissa McCarthy. There are some similar elements to that movie but this is quite an original title of its own.

Overall, I had an extremely good time with this movie. It may not be for everyone but the absurdity of the situations that happen in this movie had me howling in laughter. I think this movie is kind of the sleeper hit of the year if we give it enough buzz. This movie deserves it too because it came out at a time when we need this type of laughter the most. I have to give this movie an 8 out of 10. Watch this movie for at least half an hour and if you don't fall in love with Barb and Star I don't know what's wrong with you.