Desperados – Film Review
A panicked young woman (Nasim Pedrad) and her two best friends (Anna Camp & Sarah Burns) fly to Mexico to delete a ranting email she sent to her new boyfriend. On arrival, they run into her former beau (Lamorne Morris), who soon gets caught up in their frantic scheme.
Right from the raunchy opening scene of Desperados, I had a terrible feeling in my stomach that told me this was going to be a chore to sit through. Somehow, as each minute passed, the film as a whole got worse and worse, and I found myself counting down the time until the movie was over.
Why is this film as bad as it is? It’s a simple answer, really – the script. Ellen Rapaport wrote this non-stop sex joke-filled “comedy” that had several opportunities throughout its running time to go in a clever direction and be a little bit diverting, but at every chance it has, it, unfortunately, takes the most formulaic and stale route possible.
Practically every single joke in Desperados is in relation to sex toys, intercourse, or anything of the sort. There’s even one painfully awkward and cringe-inducing sequence in which Nasim Pedrad’s character Wesley enters a hotel room that she is trying to enter, only to discover a young boy is in there. From there, the child touches her and gets excited because he touched a girl. Scenes like that are what make this story so dreadful to watch.
From left to right: Nasim Pedrad as Wesley, Anna Camp as Brooke, and Sarah Burns as Kaylie in Desperados (2020).
But let’s talk about Nasim Pedrad because she is without a doubt the best thing that Desperados has going for it. I wouldn’t necessarily say that she is great in the film or anything like that, but I could tell that she genuinely did have a blast making this movie and put a lot of energy and charisma into playing this character. If you are a fan of her work, you will more than likely like her here. Me personally, I didn’t necessarily think her performance was either good or bad. I appreciated her commitment to this role, but I didn’t think that her portrayal of this character was impressive or anything like that.
Plus, the way the movie ends is extremely predictable, and I am willing to bet that nearly everybody that watches Desperados is going to see the ending coming from a mile away. If you are like me and have seen several hundred movies in your life, it’s quite obvious where the filmmakers are going to be taking the story fairly early on. Whenever I saw the ending with my own eyes, instead of being surprised, I was shaking my head because it went down the path I was hoping it would avoid.
There’s truthfully nothing of praise that I can give to this movie. It’s a comedy that goes for shock value at every single turn, is filled with highly unlikable and annoying characters, and a storyline that is ridiculously predictable and disappointing.
Desperados is filled with cringe-inducing raunchy jokes, annoying and unlikable characters, and a story that goes down a far too predictable route.
Overall Grade: F
MPAA Rating: TV-MA
Cast: Nasim Pedrad, Anna Camp, Lamorne Morris, Sarah Burns, Jessica Chaffin, Toby Grey, Mo Gaffney, Izzy Diaz, Robbie Amell, Heather Graham, Rodrigo Franco, Mike Mitchell
Directed by: LP
Distributed by: Netflix
Release Date: July 3, 2020
Running Time: 105 minutes