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Ticket to Paradise (2022)
Despite some gorgeous scenery and the star power of Oscar winners George Clooney and Julia Roberts in the starring roles, 2022's Ticket to Paradise is a lackluster comedy that only provides sporadic laughs due to an overly cute screenplay that goes some strange places.
David (Clooney) and Georgia (Roberts) are the bitterly divorced parents of a recent law school graduate named Lily who has met the man of her dreams while vacationing in Bali and when she accepts the man's marriage proposal, David and Georgia decide to fly to Bali to try and stop the wedding, with Georgia's decade younger fiancee, Paul, hot on their trail.
Director and co-screenwriter Ol Parker (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel spends way too much time on exposition, or more specifically, showing us how nasty David and Georgia's divorce was. It starts when they won't sit next to each other on the plane to Bali, but then every time they run into each other, Parker has David and Georgia making these obnoxious scenes centered around how they can't be in the same room together and these scenes go on way longer than they need to.
The romance between Lily and island guy is sweet, but the Lily character is kind of unlikable, wanting her parents' blessing for this marriage and wanting them to be in complete sync about it, which the story has already established is never going to happen. Her reaction to the news of her mother's engagement sucked all the likability out of the character for this reviewer. The ice between David and Georgia and their daughter and her fiancee begins to melt during the movie's funniest scene, where the parents challenge the kids to a game of beer pong. It is a funny scene, but beer pong? This scene was more suited for a 1980's frat comedy a la animal house.
The so-called romance between Georgia and her devoted fiancee also slowed things down too. It's obvious from their first moment onscreen together that Georgia doesn't really love this guy and we're not the least bit surprised during the scene where he proposes to her that she doesn't give him an answer. Now most men would take this as a sign to maybe give up, but this guy actually proposes a second time? Seriously?
On the positive side, the on location filming is breathtaking and the gracefully aging Clooney and Roberts look great and still generate the chemistry they did a couple of decades ago in the Ocean franchise, but getting through this very labored comedy took a little more effort than it should have.
Despite some gorgeous scenery and the star power of Oscar winners George Clooney and Julia Roberts in the starring roles, 2022's Ticket to Paradise is a lackluster comedy that only provides sporadic laughs due to an overly cute screenplay that goes some strange places.
David (Clooney) and Georgia (Roberts) are the bitterly divorced parents of a recent law school graduate named Lily who has met the man of her dreams while vacationing in Bali and when she accepts the man's marriage proposal, David and Georgia decide to fly to Bali to try and stop the wedding, with Georgia's decade younger fiancee, Paul, hot on their trail.
Director and co-screenwriter Ol Parker (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel spends way too much time on exposition, or more specifically, showing us how nasty David and Georgia's divorce was. It starts when they won't sit next to each other on the plane to Bali, but then every time they run into each other, Parker has David and Georgia making these obnoxious scenes centered around how they can't be in the same room together and these scenes go on way longer than they need to.
The romance between Lily and island guy is sweet, but the Lily character is kind of unlikable, wanting her parents' blessing for this marriage and wanting them to be in complete sync about it, which the story has already established is never going to happen. Her reaction to the news of her mother's engagement sucked all the likability out of the character for this reviewer. The ice between David and Georgia and their daughter and her fiancee begins to melt during the movie's funniest scene, where the parents challenge the kids to a game of beer pong. It is a funny scene, but beer pong? This scene was more suited for a 1980's frat comedy a la animal house.
The so-called romance between Georgia and her devoted fiancee also slowed things down too. It's obvious from their first moment onscreen together that Georgia doesn't really love this guy and we're not the least bit surprised during the scene where he proposes to her that she doesn't give him an answer. Now most men would take this as a sign to maybe give up, but this guy actually proposes a second time? Seriously?
On the positive side, the on location filming is breathtaking and the gracefully aging Clooney and Roberts look great and still generate the chemistry they did a couple of decades ago in the Ocean franchise, but getting through this very labored comedy took a little more effort than it should have.