Mack & Rita

I am a man and me and my wife just finished watching this movie for the first time. I would watch it again tomorrow night. Like all of Diane Keaton's movie. It was awesome and hilarious and made you really think. I am shocked at the low ratings that this movie got. I rely so much on international movie database but now I realize I have to go with my heart and determine for myself if I wanna spend time on watching a movie or not. We were going to watch this movie over a period of two evenings after we rented it. But we could not stop and had to watch it all. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone.

Honestly I'm all about a cheesy movie sometimes. It's nice to laugh about silly storylines and not so great acting. But this was bad, from the first 10 mins I was asking myself how this movie even made it out into the world. Did no one screen this while making it. The acting was terrible and the script made it even worse. I was expecting a silly chick flick and I was even expecting the acting to be not great. But this was so much worse than my expectations that it was hard to watch. I think this movie could have been good. The storyline has so much potential and a lot of the cast I've seen in many other things and enjoy them. So it sucks that it was so disappointing.

In abysmal 'role reversal' chick-flick "Mack & Rita" Elizabeth Lail (meh) is an 'old before her time' 30 year old yearning for the honest relaxation of old age... then boom, via Simon Rex's 'regression' sunbed (the same vessel that worked much better in "Meet Cute" btw) she transforms into Diane Keaton (embarrasingly awful) and starts living her 'true' life with oldies like Loretta Devine & Wendie Malick, while dating (ridiculously) Dustin Milligan (dreadful) - all under the nose of bff Taylor Paige (the one bright spark in this dull turd). Quite who director / co-writer Katie Aselton was aiming this garbage at is unclear, but what is clear is she missed them. Absolutely pitiful. Flush.

Ever the optimist, I was prepared to believe Mack & Rita - a new twist on the Freaky Friday concept of stepping into the body of someone from another generation - had real comedy potential. Plus, maybe it would have something to say about ageing, or attitudes to older people. Granted, Diane Keaton's recent movies have been mediocre at best. But she's Diane Keaton and she's adorable. So how bad could it be? Well, pretty bad. It turns out Mack & Rita doesn't have much to say about anything at all. And the Freaky-Friday-style switcheroo concept is really just a lazy way of having Diane Keaton play Diane Keaton for 90 minutes. She gets to dress stylishly, be mildly kooky, and sip glasses of iced wine. It really could have been an extended appearance on Ellen for all the trouble they went to constructing a plot and writing a script. Sadly, with only "adorable" to fall back on, Diane playing young-playing-old - Granny Hall, if you like - rapidly becomes annoying. Then just plain tedious. Then more than somewhat depressing. Nobody should bother over-analysing the threadbare plot, but I was mildly intrigued with the almost-romance that the older Rita has with the younger Mack's young-and-sorta-hunky neighbour, Jack. There's a passionate kiss, which is then never again mentioned. And at the end (spoiler alert) Mack and Jack are an item - with Mack evidently not at all perturbed by Jack's gerontophile tendencies. I guess Keaton deserves some kind of credit for being game for anything. And for soldiering on comedically into her late 70s. But she sure deserves better than this dreck.

Obviously, an incredible cast and filming crew. Unfortunately, for me, the main character was incredibly hard (for me) to like. From the beginning, her tone, mannerisms, overall vibe were a bit obnoxious. It was difficult to root for her because she annoyed me. Once the actresses switched, I confirmed that it was indeed just the character, not the actresses. It's a relatable story, but I can only wonder if pre-therapy, early 30's me would have enjoyed it more.

I will try very hard to summarize watching this absolute abomination of cinema. -A '1' for cinematography -Pointless, vapid, narcissistic fem-piece -Diane Keaton sadly can no longer act :( -This has already been done before, but better -The casting is very odd choices. Not sure who any of them are, besides Keaton. -The jokes just fall on their face. -It was mostly just sad seeing that age really can effect someone's acting ability, Diane Keaton is the reason we even tried to watch. -More of the same 'empowerment' propaganda, rather than quality writing or directing. -I highly recommend you avoid losing money on this weird cash grab, and meaningless attempt to destroy the incredible lifetime of great movies starring Keaton. Apparently, she is drinking the spiked punch along with everyone else in Hollywood. What a shame.