The Wrong Missy — Movie Review
by KJ Proulx
Over the years it’s been a slow descent for Happy Madison Productions. Whether you’re talking about Mr. Deeds or more dramatic films like Reign Over Me, they’ve had their share of solid entertainment. Aside from thinking Netflix’s film Murder Mystery was fine, I’d say every film since Funny People back in 2009 has been a disappointment to say the least. For that reason alone, I’ve taken a pass on movies like The Week Of and Father of the Year. For some reason, after seeing an advertisement for The Wrong Missy (this studio's latest release on Netflix) I decided to give it a watch. It may not be quite as bad as some of their more recent outings, but The Wrong Missy is all kinds of cliche.
The film follows Tim Morris (David Spade) after he has met the first girl that he thinks he can fall in love with. He then proceeds to text her and hopes to bring her on his work trip. Well, it just so happens that this girl has the same name as a girl he had a blind date with once and they end up on the trip together instead. She can’t get enough of him and he can’t stand her. Hijinks ensue and I'm sure you can predict every major story beat that occurs from there. By the time the third act was starting, I found myself rolling my eyes. With that said, not everything about this movie is bad.
The premise of this movie is something that could probably work as a very good comedy if it was written better. David Spade and Lauren Lapkus actually shared a few funny moments together, but I found their chemistry wore pretty thin by the end, thus not even caring about their outcome all that much. The first act of this movie was a nice little set-up for the character of Tim, but the way they set up Missy just had me worried that I would have to spend an entire film with this character. I’ve liked Lapkus in films/shows before and she wasn’t bad here, but her over-the-top performance got old pretty fast for me. Still, I have to admit, although not all that great, the first act kept me engaged enough.
Sadly, there really wasn’t a lot that added to these passable elements. The set-up was fine and the pay off was incredibly predictable, so I was left wondering what, in any way, was special about this one. Not that I expect a lot of meat to the story with a film from Happy Madison, but you’d think every now and then they would try to surprise everyone with a great one. Directed by Tyler Spindel, who has appeared as small characters in a few comedies and had his biggest hit be Father of the Year a couple of years ago on Netflix, I can probably say that this is his best directorial effort yet (although I have yet to see Father of the Year), but I think maybe he should try his hand at a different genre.
In the end, the chemistry between these two and the nice little set-up at the beginning is what held my attention, but this movie does nothing more to make it worthwhile. I will say this though, even though it’s been a long time since Rob Schneider has made me laugh, his glorified cameo in this movie is easily the funniest part. I mean, his character traits feel very very lazy and his character is really just thrown in to garner a few extra laughs, but he worked for exactly that. I really don’t have many positive things to say about this film and the few positives I did mention, just wasn’t enough to get me to recommend this one. I’d definitely take a pass on it.
Rating: 2/5
Check out the trailer below:
