When examining the track record of Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, this Spa Weekend review highlights a filmmaking duo still determined to milk the blueprint that initially made their names. Having written the original script for the 2009 smash hit The Hangover, they practically defined the modern raunchy party genre centering on three buddies and an eccentric outcast getting completely blackout drunk. Over the years, they leaned heavily into that exact template across various iterations, including 21 and Over, Bad Moms, and A Bad Moms Christmas. With their latest outing, that familiar machinery is wheeled out once again, offering few genuine surprises or fresh laughs.
The Setup and Main Characters
The premise of the story follows an entirely routine path. Three childhood companions now navigating their forties find themselves lamenting the reality of drifted connections and lost leisure time. Leslie Mann portrays Jane, an attorney balancing single motherhood, Anna Faris plays the diligent Sophie, and Michelle Buteau appears as the fiery divorcee Coco. Seeking a quick escape, they spontaneously book a getaway at an upscale luxury spa resort overseen by an owner with a bizarrely indeterminate English accent. Things unravel rapidly when an accidental invitation brings their estranged Australian acquaintance, the chaotic wildcard Mel played by Isla Fisher, directly into their midst.
Outdated Tropes and Shoddy Humour
Beneath its polished visual surface, the narrative relies on an exceptionally reductive understanding of female wish fulfillment. The screenplay seems convinced that modern adult women desire little more than male strippers, mud treatments, surface-level meditation, and crude physical antics. The designated romantic figure arrives in the form of Adam Demos as a yoga instructor named Kai, whose chiselled midsection and sun-bleached hair tips seem pulled straight from a dated 1990s catalogue. The jokes surrounding him feel archaic, lacking the wit or bite required to make the situational comedy land.
The Problem with the Wildcard Role
Isla Fisher’s Mel is clearly designed to replicate the awkward outsider energy popularized by Zach Galifianakis in The Hangover, yet the execution misfires significantly. Where Alan possessed an endearing innocence despite his strange behaviour, Mel comes across as hostile, destructive, and thoroughly lacking in basic self-awareness. Her disruptive escapades, which include commandeering a golf buggy for a reckless joyride, releasing farm goats across the manicured resort grounds, and making loud disturbances during quiet meditation classes, feel staged rather than hilarious. It portrays genuinely toxic interactions that her long-suffering friends inexplicably shrug off and forgive without hesitation.
Talented Ensemble Let Down by the Script
If there are minor bright spots, they belong entirely to the leading performers. Leslie Mann, Anna Faris, Michelle Buteau, and Isla Fisher are seasoned comedic talents who manage to locate brief moments of personal charm amid an undercooked and disappointing screenplay. Putting an all-female ensemble at the center of a mainstream theatrical comedy remains an important milestone, and women deserve the creative freedom to play characters as messy, absurd, and uncouth as their male counterparts. However, delivering a truly memorable farce requires sharper perspective, making it clear that a fresh creative team at the helm would have served these performers far better.
