Many films released on streaming services in 2020 have been contending for my pick of “top film of 2020.” Unfortunately, The Wrong Missy is not one.
While Happy Madison Productions are known for bad films, this is definitely on par with Jack & Jill for their worst, even if this one is one of the first with no involvement from Adam Sandler. Tyler Spindel, who has assisted Happy Madison in productions before, tries his hand at directing this time around, but the film is so disastrous that he might not get a chance to redeem himself. This film is bad, but at least it’s the fun kind of bad movie – you can get a laugh out of how cringey and obnoxious it is.
The film opens with Tim Morris (David Spade), an accountant from Maryland who’s never really had a meaningful relationship in his life, going on a blind date with Melissa “Missy” Doherty (Lauren Lapkus), an obnoxious lower-class woman who carries a Bowie knife in her purse and follows him everywhere when he tries to escape. Three months later, he meets another Melissa Doherty (Molly Sims), a former Miss Maryland finalist who happens to go by “Missy” as well, coming back home from the airport. After a few days of texting, he begins sexting her and she responds with similar messages. The following day, Tim is invited by his company – and specifically his best friend Nate (Nick Swardson) to go on a corporate retreat in Hawaii, which he invites her to as well. When he boards the plane, he notices that it was not that Missy who he called up and sexted, it was…well, you know what this film’s title is, so you know who it’s gonna be. While Tim is concerned that they may think he’s lying about going on a date with a Miss Maryland, and tries to contact the right Missy the whole time, he realizes that you can see past someone’s appearance when the right Missy turns out to be mean and have a boyfriend, and the wrong Missy saves him from danger several times, making this as cliché as cliché romantic comedies an be.
While the premise is decent, especially because people sharing the same first and last name and living in the same place could be hilarious and isn’t explored as much as it could be in film, nothing in this film is as realistic as it is set up to be – characters are flying off cliffs, sharks attack people randomly, and people are still twerking and dabbing in 2020. It does a better job than most other Happy Madison films at establishing its tone at the beginning and sticking to it. The big issue is that Lapkus’ Missy is such an unlikable character throughout the film, yet she is still trying to convince us that we have to like her. She does try hard to provide laughs, but everything she does will make you want to root for Tim to find and be with the right Missy if and when she shows up, as it’s either cringe or borderline rape – there is no in-between. Lauren Lapkus is a decent actress and a great comedian, but her performance in this really did not sit well with me. The story progression is ridiculous, even for a film like this, and it is filled with awkward dialogue and moments that don’t work in the realistic setting it is supposed to have. The standout humor and dialogue in this film are brief and not the funniest thing I’ve seen, and while David Spade gives a decent performance echoing his overworked straight-man from the classic Tommy Boy, everyone else around him makes it a cringe-worthy experience, especially with that typical Happy Madison-branded crude humor that this film is filled to the brim with. Comedy is always subjective, however, so if this film has you laughing at least a little, then it could be easy for you to forgive its faults. I barely laughed, only briefly at some points, so I couldn’t help but notice all the wrong things with this movie. If anything, the one redeemable thing this movie has, like a lot of bad movies somehow, is its music – Elle King’s cover of the so-bad-it’s-good hit “My Neck My Back” is played during a tense scene that makes it so hard to not laugh at, and Vanilla Ice cameos playing a fictional version of himself performing in Hawaii to try to stay as relevant as he can be.
The Wrong Missy may be weak from top to bottom, and lacks a lot of creativity, but it’s enjoyable just because of how absurdly bad it is. Just like a lot of recent Netflix comedies, it will hold some decently funny moments, but they aren’t enough to say this film is worth a watch. It tries, it really does, but it really is just a disaster.
.5/5 STARS