As a big fan of the romantic comedy genre (yes, I did genuinely mean to type that), Netflix has been pumping and churning them out for audiences around the world to be misconstrued by. Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, About Time, The Big Sick, all romantic comedies that feature in my top 10. In search of trying to find something new, I scrolled through Netflix to find the latest in romantic, funny, love stories. Ibiza – directed by Alex Richanbach, known for directing comedy classic, Step Brothers – is one of the newest releases to our subscription boxes.
Ibiza follows Harper (Gillian Jacobs) on trying to go up in the promotion ranking with her job and also, keep in her bosses good books. Her angry, pretentious boss, Sarah (Michaela Watkins) unwillingly sends her to Barcelona to meet with a very important client to seal a big deal within the company. Her two best friends, Nikki (Vanessa Bayer) and Leah (Phoebe Robinson) decide to join her in Barcelona, frantically tempting her to go out, take drugs and party all night. Whilst in a club, she locks eyes with and falls for British DJ, Leo West (Richard Madden). After briefly meeting in Barcelona, she couldn’t help but travel to Ibiza to possibly see him perform and fall in love with him again. However, it’s not as easy as it sounds, with two hyper-active bubbly friends and a lot of sex and drugs, the journey they take to get to him is a long and strenuous one.
It’s safe to say that this was not a hit or even a recommendation in my books. It did not tickle my rom-com love buds whatsoever. If anything, it’s an hour and a half I have wasted watching this utter American trash. I’m not sure what Richanbach was thinking, going from directing top films such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button to jumbling together a ridiculous idea for a drunkenly-high girls trip is beyond me. Lauryn Kahn’s script must have been thrown into the bin because Richanbach couldn’t have followed any of it. Poor dialogue from start to finish and don’t get me started on the number of pointless cutaways that were thrown into the transitions. The film was so staggered, it has no solid structure keeping it together, making you lose interest from the beginning.
The acting reflects on the Richanbach’s carelessness. Gillian Jacobs starts out as this promising young businesswoman but soon turns out to be a disaster in making us believe her role within the film. She leads with no punch. It’s almost like she’s been set free to do what she wants within her acting, having no direction at all. She struggles to be held down by her counterparts as they serve no strength or purpose to her. They might be written into the film as “friends”, but I find that hard to believe. Her relationship with Leo was told within an average six scenes. SIX SCENES! Does it really take six scenes to convincingly get the audience to believe in their love story? Give me a break. The only feeling I got throughout the film was a thudding and a pounding from the bass, I got no feelings of love or romance. With any type of romance movie, you want to feel connected to the couple that is getting together, but this is the most disconnected relationship within film I have probably ever seen.
I could most likely go on forever to tell you how bad this film truly is. I barely even mentioned the awful implementation of stereotypical “British guys meeting American girls” and how amazing and sexy the British are, we’re not all that amazing, trust me. Again, Netflix, you are producing outdated, mediocre content for the masses, and you think this is acceptable? I told you in my last review of the Kissing Booth, get your sh*t together. I’m disappointed in you.
Yours Sincerely,
A self-confessed film critic.
p.s. I blame What The Flick for making me waste my time watching this awful movie.
Written by Ed 