The Lovebirds: Unimaginative and Unfunny

The Lovebirds is a movie made by Paramount Studios and was supposed to be theaters, but was released on Netflix due to corona virus and theater closings. It stars Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae, who play a couple who witness a murder and are now on the run. Four movie starring two comedians that doesn’t feel very funny or organic. Let’s try and figure out why that is.

The Lovebirds is the type of movie when two characters have to get to a destination or goal and encounter weird or silly situations along the way. Many movies have done this before including Date Night, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, and Game Night. So why does The Lovebirds fail when these movie succeed? First of all, The Lovebirds feels like an amalgam of all of these movies. The random events scenario that these movies have can only be effective if the actors are fully invested. But Rae and Nanjiani are not funny and extremely robotic. For a movie starring two comedians, there is no chemistry between them and they don't play of each other comedically very well. It also doesn't seem that the actors wrote any of their own jokes or had any ad lib.

The movie has three writers and I don't think any of them have really written comedy before. That's why everyone in the movie feels like they are just going through the motions. There is a scene where the two main characters are in some sort of secret society meeting and there are hooded figures. An orgy takes place but even that feels boring and inorganic. An orgy isn't supposed to be boring and that's why the writing of this movie is terrible.

If The Lovebirds had been released in theaters it would have lost a lot of money for Paramount. Normally Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani are very funny in their other roles but this movie is devoid of most comedy. I really can't find anything positive to say about The Lovebirds. 🚫🍔 or Zero Burgers