The sequel to the detective thriller with Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, seven years after the release of the first part, without much fanfare (for various reasons) was released on Amazon Prime Video. Uninvited and overlooked, the film tries to foll...

"Another Simple Favor" takes the viewer 5 years forward. Stephanie abandoned her cooking and true-crime blog after a suspect died before her eyes, and now she is solely focused on selling her book, which isn't going great without the blog's support. Her agent insists she needs a shake-up, and a high-profile case comes unexpectedly: Emily shows up at her book signing. Stephanie receives another simple favor: fly to Capri to be a bridesmaid.

"Another Simple Favor" is a kind of younger sister trying to copy the older one, but only managing to put on a pretty face. The sequel is full of stunning views of Capri, with the camera strolling through lush landscapes, cozy restaurants, and cobblestone streets. The wedding banquet scene alone looks like it came straight from the most luxurious collections of ceremonial decorations.

The main characters are still dressed tastefully, but according to the nuances of their roles. The stately Emily still combines the luxury of expensive suit fabrics and bright sparkle of accessories, while Stephanie stays true to floral prints and striped sweaters. The characters' personalities also retain their core constants, but now the contrast is barely noticeable. If the character arcs developed in the first part, acquiring previously hidden traits, the sequel tries to equalize the girls into kindred spirits, which looks unnatural in the context of the resulting soap opera.

The plot revolves around Emily's wedding to fiancé Dante (Michele Morrone), and the viewer is thrust into a conflict over the integration of an American into a closed influential Italian family. But only the groom's mother (Elena Sofia Ricci) is a convincing opposing force, creating at least some ground for a real conflict of interest. In the best traditions of wedding ceremonies, the writers have gathered relatives and friends from all sides, but their motivations and backstories are so vague that not only do they fail to fulfill their roles, but they completely turn the second half of the story into "Santa Barbara."

And if boredom doesn't lull you to sleep in the first hour, a moment of revelation arrives when, in an instant (most likely out loud and with an eye roll), you predict all the subsequent plot twists.

And oh, how the characters will spend this time! Typical hide-and-seek and chase scenes for the genre resemble children's games. If in the first part Paul Feig tried to maintain a balance between thriller and humor, the sequel frankly turns into a circus built on Anna Kendrick's giggles under the influence of truth serum and Blake Lively's blissful image.

The dramatic component is treated so unseriously that even death is forgotten literally after two minutes. It dissolves into jokes, sarcasm, and other matters. Plus, the living have a quadcopter! Yes, this toy gets a lot of attention, actively being set up as that Chekhov's gun.

And overall, "Another Simple Favor" actively tries to use images from cinema and literature of different eras, building the backbone of the story on this. There's "Corpse Bride," a very unexpected embodiment of Romeo and Juliet, and "The Godfather" (don't show the sequel to Coppola). But in an attempt to dig deeper into the secrets of Emily's family, the writers got too carried away with family ties, creating not a comedic thriller but a TV series for local television, which will standardly feature villainous villains acting for the sake of villainy, secret relatives, and guide heroes whose roles are reduced to dummies.

Roman Kovalev

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But even with all the initial data, the actors performed their roles well. The interaction between the spontaneous Stephanie and the calculated Emily sparks, and even moments of outright absurdity, the heroines can pull off. Dante played by Michele Morrone... Morrone is Morrone, whether it's "365 Days" or "Another Simple Favor." As for the rest, even the most caricatured role has a certain charm.

Is this enough to justify the drawn-out runtime? Not at all, because it is spent irrationally: maximum plot twists, minimum justification for actions. The film clearly falls short of the original story, and the attempt to set the stage for a third installment in the finale looks even more ridiculous. There are films that are good as standalone movies, and "A Simple Favor" is exactly that kind of film.