Film: 'Sisters'

A jumble of a comedy, this - and that very much seems to be the consensus. Some of it works - including a couple of very funny moments, though no more than that. But a lot of it misfires, some of that being the too rapid repartee which is lost in indecipherability, or is simply not amusing at all when it's clear that it's intended to be. In fact through a lot of this film I thought it was too self-knowing for its own good, and it shows. There are few more effective ways to kill a comedy than to act it as if its funny.

Amy Poehler and Tina Fey are the titular unmarried siblings, now with their respective own homes. They are shocked by the sudden news that their parents (Josh Brolin and Dianne Wiest) have decided to sell their house, the very place in which they grew up, with all their memories and artifacts within, including the one-time shared girls' bedroom kept in the state in which they left it. They decide to mark the house's changing of owner by holding the mother of all parties in their parents' absence, to which they invite all and sundry - virtually unlimited booze and, later, drugs being available - plus bedrooms. Eventual result - mayhem. So far so predictable. If the film intended to make at least one of the loud-mouthed invitees as irritating and unfunny on screen as he would have been in reality, it succeeded very well.

I didn't know Amy Poehler at all and Tina Fey is a name I'm only familiar with through being mentioned in our more recent news programmes for her political sketches. The other name I recognised is John Leguizamo in a bit part, reflecting, I suppose, his decline into low-level celebrity status. Mention must also be made of (mmmm mmmm!) stud, Ike Barinholz, a new name who really lit my fire.

Much of the humour is heavily sexual, and a lot of the vocabulary reflects the same, coming from virtually all the participants. But its success is patchy. The 'plot' is simple enough, though the whole thing finishes with completely foreseeable and cringe-making tying- up of loose ends.

Director Jason Moore achieves about the same level of laughs with me as he did with his 2012 'Pitch Perfect', so it would not be inappropriate to rate this film with approximately (in fact, one step lower) than I gave that particular film. So................................5.5.