These types of action comedies need couples therapy.
Last month, AppleTV+ gave us “The Family Plan” with Mark Wahlberg as a family man who hasn’t told his wife he was a covert assassin. That film had to feature the obligatory angry reactions towards the truth, as well as some dirty diaper jokes and long final battles. So, that didn’t work for me.
And now, this month, Amazon Prime gives us “Role Play” with Kaley Cuoco as an assassin, who hasn’t told her husband her secret life. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? This one isn’t as juvenile or irritable as that film, but it’s still pretty dull and unfunny. In fact, it’s too dull and unfunny to be irritable, but that’s not really saying much.
The Cuoco assassin is Emily Brackett, who lives in New Jersey, happily married to Dave (David Oyelowo) with two kids, even though her secret missions make her forget their wedding anniversary. He proposes that they should celebrate by playing role play, which requires them to come to a fancy NYC hotel, but as complete strangers. Emily would be Alice, while Dave would be Jack.
As the role game commences, she comes across a man by the name of Bob Kellerman (Bill Nighy), who has some unfinished business with her. But she manages to turn the tables on him. After that, the dead assassin makes the news, as well as security footage of the couple in the bar with him. And when federal agents and important people (with Connie Nielsen in the mix) interrogate him, he learns his wife’s true identity, which isn’t Emily. Of course, it’s not. They never give out their real names for obvious reasons.
This is when he looks through his wife’s things, finds her passports and IDs, and decides to meet her in Berlin to deal with whatever situation she is facing. She tells him to stay home, but he’s coming.
“Role Play” has a smoother approach than “The Family Plan,” especially by Cuoco’s talents, and she does what she can with her assassin character. I think the better idea would be for her and Mark Wahlberg’s characters to be taken out of these two movies, and placed in a better one. It may be a “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” rip-off, but at least, they wouldn’t have boring kids or tired jokes like the ones presented here and there. I can already imagine a parallel universe where we would get that movie, as I’m writing this review on my MacBook Pro.
The movie was also written by Seth W. Owen, who also had his characters making stupid choices in “Morgan,” the lifeless Sci-Fi movie where the scientists chose to continue examining an artificial being, instead of putting her down for her violent nature. This is the part when you say: “I’ve never even heard of this movie,” and this is when I say: “The less you see it, the better.”
He also applies certain choices made here, not as stupid as in “Morgan,” but still not very wise. If you’re still trying to avoid the people who want you back in their assassination game, then why would you begin a family? I guess it’s your way of moving on, but somebody could track you down.
We should be grateful this one doesn’t have a baby in the mix, so we don’t get any tired diaper jokes. But we also deserve better action comedies than “Role Play” or “The Family Plan” combined. Like I said: these types of movies deserve some couples therapy.
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video
