Movie Review: Barbie

In the history of movies, it has been rare that two highly advertised mega movies have been released in the same weekend. This time around with Oppenheimer and Barbie, the interest has been so high that the names “Oppenbarbie” and “Barbenheimer”, were created, based on the order the masses are planning to see these two new films. The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for both movies are also very high with 94% for Oppenheimer and 90% for Barbie. The 94% for the 3-hour Oppenheimer makes some sense, but the 90% for a mostly bad Barbie film, is crazy.

Due to curiously, this blog, and the insane high ratings for Barbie, I decided to waste two hours, hoping that the trailers and the news reports about this film did not show what this movie was really all about. Unfortunately, the trailers are mostly accurate, showing what is a ridiculous series of disconnected scenes, cartoon-like sets, and even some unexpected musical numbers. This film on the whole looked like it could mark some level of career suicide for both Margo Robbie and Ryan Gosling, yet another reason why the 90% ratings make no sense here.

There are some honorable attempts at providing some very good messages about life and death and how difficult it can be to be a woman – including the speech from America Ferrera, that practically steals the entire movie. None of the attempted messages and camp absurdity are enough to save a screenplay written by husband and wife, Gretta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, where it seems they were commissioned by a major studio to complete the impossible task of – “writing a screenplay about the Barbie Doll, because name recognition will auto-create the box office”. Most of the attempts at humor failed, realized from the very few laughs in the large audience I was in. Baumbach and Gerwig, who also directed this film, knew that making a movie like this straight would never work, so they went in the only direction they could, but some movie ideas are impossible to save.

Other actors that appear in this movie include, Kate McKinnon, whose great comedic talents are mostly wasted, the same for Will Ferrell, Dua Lipa, Simu Liu, Issa Rae, and Rhea Perlman.

With the release of Oppenheimer and Barbie on the same weekend, it will be interesting to see how the box office plays out, as now for well over a year, the world is past the movie theater disaster that was created by the Pandemic of 2020.

My rating for this movie is 50% and only for young girls who have had Barbie dolls, never for adults, other than those with sleeping disorders or who see this movie after smoking weed.