Crazy Rich Asians: Simmer Down Ladies
We know, we know. For weeks all of you have been refreshing your computer and phone screens dying for the the next review from That Movie Blows. Shammy and I know that we are the number one highlight of most of your weeks. For this, we apologize. But, in our defense, it’s been kind of a crazy August/September. So here’s why we haven’t been around:
- It’s the last month of summer, and frankly, we’ve been trying to enjoy it.
- Shammy went to France for a week.
- The Avengers: Infinity War digital copy came out, so ten viewings of that has become a priority.
- AMC re-released more Marvel movies in IMAX, so naturally we had to go see Captain America: Civil War and The Avengers again.
- We actually saw The Spy Who Dumped Me, but it was so bleh that we couldn’t bring ourselves to right a review.
- Literally no movies have peaked our interest. 1
But we are back. Full force. We saw Crazy Rich Asians last week. If you didn’t know, Crazy Rich Asians had been top of the box office for four straight weekends! That’s super impressive! Well let’s cool it people, because while this movie was funny and suh cute, it has no business dominating the box office for a month straight.
Let’s get one thing straight. Shammy and I are huge chick flick fans. We watch pretty much all of them. If there is an angsty teenage drama on Netflix, we’ve seen it. Nicholas Sparks movies? Seen them. Crazy Stupid Love? Might be the best chick flick of all time. Now, while Crazy Rich Asians is a solid chick flick for sure, it’s really just The Proposal set in Singapore instead of Alaska. “Rich heir to the family business that has been living in New York for a number of years returns home with new girlfriend, and is torn between staying home and taking over the family business or returning to New York and marrying the woman of his dreams.” That line could literally apply to either of those movies. So while this isn’t necessarily a negative for Crazy Rich Asians, it didn’t help that the movie seemed repetitive and that I would prefer to watch Deadpool and Miss Congeniality try to figure out how to make it work in Alaska.
Despite all of that, Crazy Rich Asians definitely had its moments. The cast was solid. The duo of Constance Wu and Henry Golding were great as our leads, especially since they I had never heard of them before. Ken Jeong made a zany appearance, as he usually does. Silicon Valley’s Jimmy O. Yang randomly showed up and was hysterical. But the show stealer here was Awkwafina,2 who excelled as Wu’s best friend that can’t get over how rich her BFF’s BF is. Awkwafina, have a summer! All the characters worked well together to create a fine rom-com story. I could have done without Gemma Chan’s side storyline of “My marriage is falling apart and I’m sad,” but I’m guessing that leaving that out would’ve made made book readers unhappy? Who knows, this isn’t That Book Blows.
Verdict: Overhyped, it blows.
Look, Crazy Rich Asians is a chick flick. I actually kind of liked it. Will I see it again? Probably. But you can’t just take a movie and hype it up like this, only to give me a run-of-the-mill rom-com. I know what you’re going to say, “But, Sean! It’s been at the top of the box office for four weeks!” Yeah, well guess what? THERE ARE NO GOOD MOVIES IN THEATERS RIGHT NOW. It’s an epidemic how bad it is. All the big blockbusters hit in May, June, and July and we’ve been since stuck with the likes of The Meg, Mile 22, and The Happytime Murders. Not a lot to work with folks. Thankfully, October will be here soon and we can go on a nice four month stretch leading to the Oscars.
Crazy Rich Asians was fine, but stop crying girls. You know what’s going to happen. It’s a chick flick. Don’t make it out to be more than that.
Scenario to watch: See it in theaters if you’re bored or love chick flicks. Definitely give it a shot when it hits HBO in six months.
