‘Sisters’ Review Roundup: Tina Fey & Amy Poehler Comedy Gets Mixed Notices

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler‘s latest film collaboration – Sisters – has received only mediocre reviews from film’s top critics.

In Sisters, written by longtime SNL writer Paula Pells, Fey and Poehler play sisters Kate and Maura Ellis. Sisters shows the two wildly different siblings host one last bash at their parents’ (James Brolin, Dianne West) home before they sell it. Unlike in Baby Mama, the 2008 featured that the duo starred in together, it’s Poehler who is playing the more straight-laced character of the two in Sisters. As reserved nurse Maura, she’s convinced by her less responsible counterpart to throw the epic and ill-advised party.

‘Sisters’ Reviews

Reviews for Sisters have thus far come back mixed. Most critics have found it hard to take issue with Fey and Poehler, whose chemistry is as seamless as ever in the comedy. However, Pell’s script has received its fair share of criticism, as has filmmaker Jason Moore‘s direction.

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“There are some serious moments in there, too, and Fey and Poehler’s dynamic pulls it off well — you’d be hard-pressed to find two other comedians today, of either gender, who are this natural playing off one another. If there’s a modern version of that old John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd magic, it’s this pair. The film’s best asset is its central bash, which mixes the utter vulgarity of Animal House, the raucousness of Bachelor Party and The Hangover, and a whole lot of 1990s-style dance breakdowns.” – Brian Truitt, USA Today.

“Fey and Poehler are so in sync with each other that screenwriter Paula Pell could have easily handed them the script with a coin toss to decide the roles. In fact, they’ve effortlessly flipped the formula from their last big-screen buddy romp, 2008’s Baby Mama.… No matter which stock roles they take or how they play off each other in each scene, the actors find new laughs in places most comics can’t (or won’t) go, whether they’re trying on revealing dresses backwards or engaging in some graphic gender-bending cat-calling.” – Andrew Lapin, NPR

“Sisters is a reminder that we generally love Tina Fey and Amy Poehler for everything except their movies. A sloppy, raunchy, underwritten, poorly assembled mishmash of sentiment and gross-out gags strung along an insultingly thin premise, the comedy still has a few moments that can make you laugh hard enough to shoot soda out your nose…. When the new movie wings it, it sputters but clears the runway. When it sticks to the script, it crashes and burns.” – Ty Burr, Boston Globe

“The party sequence, which makes up the bulk of the second half of the film, is a hoot, though the film manages to maintain its heart.Fey and Poehler are a hard duo to beat, even if accepting them as sisters invites some suspension of belief. Their characters are genuinely funny and endearing. Rudolph never fails, and the always underutilized Rachel Dratch is also good. A mention must be given to John Cena, who also appeared in “Trainwreck,” for his comedic talents. Here, he’s a stone-faced drug dealer with a supermarket of goods.” – Kevin C. Johnson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Sisters is currently in wide release.