As a fan of SNL and comedy in general, it’s sometimes hard to decipher whether or not a movie full of people you know are funny in a dedicated project of theirs, such as Andy Samberg’s POPSTAR, or a phoned-in movie for the bored one weekend. Luckily once you’re used to it, it becomes pretty easy to figure it out based on the trailers. There are a couple reappearing features that help identify the phoned-in movies: overuse of physical comedy, destination locations, and Zach Galifianakis. He’s normally very funny – his BETWEEN TWO FERNS and stand up comedy segments are amazing, but his choice of comedy movie roles since his breakout in THE HANGOVER have been sub-par to say the least. So is MASTERMINDS the one to change his streak?
In short, no. The new production decides that we are not past gut punches, pooping in fancy Mexican pools, and Zach Galifianakis smiling awkwardly – this is what’s considered fitting jokes for this film. There are a few laughs sparsely peppered throughout the film, but when the best joke is in the end credits blooper real, there is a problem.
The plot revolves around the real life story of David Ghantt (Galifianakis), a vault supervisor who gets coerced by Kelly Campbell (Kristen Wiig playing a girl he has fallen in love with) into stealing the largest sum of cash money in U.S history from his vault. Steve Chambers (Owen Wilson), the mastermind behind the heist, ships Ghantt off to Mexico before turning him into the FBI and after failing in that ultimately sending a hitman. It’s up to Ghantt to save himself and the woman he’s fallen in love with to avoid catastrophe.
In the end, the story follows the beats and no one really stands out as superbly funny. McKinnon is barely in the movie as one recurring joke. Leslie Jones as the straight man (or in this case woman) is actually surprisingly refreshing but is still pretty underused. In terms of mindless entertainment, It’s not a bad watch to catch on T.V, but nothing about this film is worth a Saturday night out.
