Stephanie and Emily reunite on the beautiful island of Capri, Italy for Emily's extravagant wedding to a rich Italian businessman. Along with the glamorous guests, expect murder and betrayal to RSV...
There’s a certain brand of sequel that feels like it was green lit by accident (or worse, as an excuse for a studio-paid vacation to a gorgeous locale) and “Another Simple Favor” fits that category all too perfectly. Set in the stunning backdrop of Capri, Italy, Paul Feig’s follow-up to the 2018 original is a mess of lazy writing, shallow characters, and uninspired twists. What should’ve been a darkly fun, stylish thriller-comedy is instead a dull, campy disaster that fails to deliver on every front except knockout scenery.
Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively are back as Stephanie and Emily, but even their considerable charm can’t save this bloated, tone-deaf sequel. Stephanie, once a quirky suburban sleuth with heart, is now reduced to a caricature of a clueless tagalong. Emily, the once enigmatic femme fatale, now feels more like a bored rich girl playing dress-up in a revenge plot so convoluted and meaningless, you stop caring halfway through. Their chemistry (which helped power the first film) feels phoned in, probably because the script gives them nothing interesting to do or say.
The script is the major problem here, with a trio of screenwriters trying desperately to be clever by cramming in one twist after another like a checklist of shock-value tropes, but nothing sticks because the foundation is so barren. The dialogue is clunky and often groan-worthy, the humor is flat, and every supposed big moment lands with a thud. Even the title feels like a careless shrug.
The whole movie plays like a rejected episode from a bad streaming show that got canceled mid-season. It’s not funny. It’s not smart. It’s not even stylish enough to be fun, campy trash.
Adding insult to injury, no one can be bothered to pronounce Capri correctly — a small detail, sure, but also symbolic of the film’s general laziness. The gorgeous Italian setting feels like a tax write-off rather than a meaningful location, and Feig seems more interested in vacation aesthetics than telling a story with any emotional or narrative weight.
“Another Simple Favor“ wastes its talented, appealing leads, insults the intelligence of its audience, and offers nothing in return except a few costume changes and an endless string of dumb, hollow twists. It’s a movie that raises the question: who asked for this? And more importantly, who cares?
