OVERBOARD (2018) REVIEWED
Did Overboard really need a remake? Hell, couldn’t it have just been a traditional remake instead of a gender-swapped film? Gender swapping older stories rarely works out the way people intend. More often than not, it’s stagecraft for tired Coastal elitists trying to mine truth in a shit pile. But, don’t they look so smug doing it?
Eugenio Derbez is going to find the right English-language vehicle. The Mexican cinema star is right on the verge of blowing up in America, but roles like this aren’t going to do it for him. He’s playing a rich guy that learns a lesson by being tricked into a fake marriage. All the while, the white woman he wronged once gets to use and abuse him. But, they grow to respect each other? That makes everything right?
The conceit that class warfare can overcome racial and gender issues will be enough to make the SJW community pulls its poorly dyed pink hair out. While they aren’t entirely wrong, I delight in imaging the possible reads they will have to offer. But, those lazy land whales don’t bother to watch anything until it hits the comfort of Netflix. Well, that’s when they aren’t using torrents to keep feeding the same vicious cycle that births movies like this. So, who do we blame for Overboard happening?
Ultimately, the film is an exercise in IP revival. When people only clamor for the familiar past, studios are happy to slap a new coat of paint on any tired film they own. What’s the harm in recycling old content. Well, it happens in a poorly ventilated vacuum. Cultural changes, cultural forced imperatives and general tone deafness grow like fungi when a content maker keeps churning their old garbage into new product.
Good intentions, the zeitgeist and misplaced focus all come together to usually make noise. The American cinema needs less noise. Send that mess to TV where it belongs. Hell, make a show for Freeform about the implications of duping a rich Hispanic man into being your slave husband. Just don’t steal screens away from original content to make some woke 13 year old storm out to the arcade in disgust.
In regards to the overall review score, I have to give the film some effort. They made a coherent movie that was ultimately about nothing. It’s the film equivalent of taking a dump, but not flushing the toilet out of pride. Overboard (2018) nailed the mechanics, but all that resulted was a big stink.
FILM STATS
- 1 hr and 52 mins
- PG-13
- MGM