Weekend Watch: Ticket To Paradise, Somebody Feed Phil Season 6
Movie star wattage helps a lightweight comedy while the happiest foodie in the world is back
Image Credit: Universal Pictures
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Roberts and Clooney bring the charm and Phil Rosenthal finds the food. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite
We’re told a lot in this age of mega-franchises and IP-over-actors, that stars no longer matter. Characters open movies, bring bums to seats. Sequels. Whatever could be described as a “sure thing” in the capricious world of Hollywood.
Yet some names are still flying that flag – the Rock has his latest film opening this week, and while it’s a superhero outing, I’m sure those outside of comic book fandom know his name more than they know Black Adam. And the most successful movie of the year in the US? Top Gun: Maverick. Which also has franchise name recognition, but Tom Cruise is a huge part of that. If Maverick had opened with, say, his cousin William Mapother in the lead and not the stunt-happy perfectionist, would the box office return have been so high?
The same level of recognition can be applied to George Clooney and Julia Roberts, because without them, I’m not sure Ticket To Paradise gets made, let alone has a chance at making money.
Co-written (with Daniel Pipski) and directed by Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again’s Ol Parker, it’s the lightest of lightweight comedies hung around a very simple idea: bickering divorced couple is forced to work together to try and stop their daughter making what they perceive is a big mistake and marrying some guy she met on a post-gradation trip to Bali.
You could cast anyone in this, but I’m not sure that without purveyors of nuclear-level charisma such as Ticket’s two leads that it would work half as well as it does. And as it stands, it’s more of an easy-going way to pass the time than some groundbreaking comedy.
Yet it does have its appeal, even beyond the main duo, who bicker and spar in appealing (and amusingly mean-spirited fashion, drawing on their years of friendship to make it all work). Parker was smart enough to assemble and ensemble that complements the stars, including the talented Kaitlyn Dever to play their daughter Lily and her fellow Booksmart veteran Billie Lourd, who might as well be channelling the spirit of her mother, Carrie Fisher, as the incorrigible Wren.
Around them are the actors (including French/Indonesian Maxime Bouttier as Gede, the seaweed farmer who is the object of Lily’s affection and the reason for her parents’ panic) who bring to life the local Balinese population, whose traditions and ceremonies serve as more than just local colour. Gede’s family are treated as people, not just props or obstacles to the main characters’ desires.
It all coasts along amiably, with one or two issues (comic business with a snake and another with dolphins, despite driving part of the plot, is clumsy and out of keeping with the rest) and heads exactly where you think it will. Which is par for the course on a movie such as this, encouraging you to enjoy the journey, even if the final destination is somewhere that you’ve been to many, many times.
Frustratingly, there is a moment that looks like the film completely subverting the Clooney/Roberts connection, but the makers lose the courage of their convictions by the end.
The leads are safe hands to move this one along, but Dever and Lourd are happily working at their level, even if they aren’t given as much to do.
If it sounds like I’m damning with faint praise, I don’t intend to – Ticket To Paradise is a genuinely enjoyable comedy which, while it’ll never challenge the likes of His Girl Friday is a throwback charmer with plenty to recommend it. So here I am, recommending it.
Ticket To Paradise is in cinemas in the UK (where it has been out for a month already) and US now.
Image Credit: Netflix
Somebody Feed Phil needs no such star power to make it work – it has the comedy and magnetic energy of Everybody Loves Raymond creator/show-runner Phil Rosenthal, and if you appreciate his brand of giddy enthusiasm and infectious joy, the show can be a real balm in tough times.
Sure, there is the drawback of knowing that Rosenthal can do this because he has millions in the bank from his TV career and that Netflix is bankrolling him on gourmet vacations around the world. But that has never gotten in the way of the pleasure I derive from seeing him taste new foods, help friends experience dishes he adores and generally charm the heck out of everyone he meets.
Redefining genial, Rosenthal is a natural host, keeping the exposition to a minimum and digging in with gusto. Even if he meets something tough to swallow (there are a couple of those this season), it’s all good fun, and he’s so interested in people that you can’t help but want to know more about them too.
Philadelphia, Nashville and Croatia are just three of the destinations for this season, and the final episode of the season is a heartfelt tribute to his parents, who were the highlight of many an episode and sadly both died in the last couple of years. Their end segments – since replaced by a more hit-and-miss bit in which Phil calls up famous friends to request a joke his late father Max would have enjoyed – were always winners.
I’ve written about the show in the past – both a Season 4 review and its appearance, way back in the early days of this column, on a list of feelgood series to enjoy as the pandemic’s initial chaos kept us indoors – and my love for the show has not diminished.
It’s far from an essential series, but I just can’t get enough of Rosenthal, his brother Richard and the suggestions for places to eat in the future. And if you enjoy Phil’s schtick the way I do, allow me to also recommend his Podcast, Naked Lunch, which he co-hosts with good friend and writer David Wild. It’s an interview Pod where they invite celebrities (some of them friends, some of them new acquaintances) out for lunch (hence, the title, though all clothes remain on) and chat about careers, comedy and more.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go and find something to snack on…
Somebody Feed Phil Season 6 is on Netflix now. I’ve seen the whole season.