BARB AND STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR

Name: BARB AND STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR
Item: BARB AND STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR
Author: Tess Farrand

"Redemptive Ending Marred by Raunchy Dry Humor and Foul Language"

Content: -3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

BARB AND STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR follows two middle-aged women from the Midwest who vacation in Vista Del Mar, Florida when their department store closes. They have no idea an evil woman named Sharon is plotting harm against Vista Del Mar while they visit! While soaking up the sun on the beach, they befriend a man named Edgar. Edgar might be the key to stopping Sharon’s evil plan. Will Barb and Star succeed or get distracted by everything Vista Del Mar offers?

BARB AND STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR is funny, with a strong moral, redemptive worldview extolling friendship, forgiveness and monogamy. There’s a mention of Heaven and Hell. However, the movie is marred by some Non-Christian, Romantic, New Age elements. For example, in a surrealistic, humorous scene, a talking crab tells Barb to “follow your heart.” Also, Barb gets advice from a man who tells her she can find the truth in herself. MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for this content, more than 20 obscenities and profanities, gratuitous lewd content, and a scene involving marijuana in BARB AND STAR.

Content:

(BB, Ro, Pa, FR, C, LL, VV, SS, N, AA, DD, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong moral worldview, with some light Christian, redemptive content, extols friendship, forgiveness, monogamy, and includes mention of Heaven and Hell in a song, marred by some Romantic, immoral elements such as a talking crab in a surrealistic scene tells one of the lead characters to “follow your heart,” and two women idealize the “perfect” vacation, and some comical New Age, pagan elements when a side character bangs on drums and then runs across coals, only to later declare she’s a Phoenix who can find the truth in herself

Foul Language:

12 obscenities, 10 light profanities, two allusions to the “f” word, a man mouths the “f” word, and conversations about bowel movements

Violence:

Hair caught on fire, house is blown up, characters recount stories about a young girl who got eaten by an alligator, and an escaped murderer, and a young girl who gets shot across the ocean in a cannon which gives her father a heart attack, wife recounts a story where her husband got trampled to death on Black Friday, women get punched in the face, a man hits woman over the head with a jar of sand that knocks her unconscious, characters point guns at one another, two men wrestle, and a talking crab on the beach commits suicide

Sex:

Strong and light sexual content includes a singer makes comments about wanting women’s breasts in his face, woman grabs another woman’s breasts while intoxicated, implied three way fornication, man and woman sneak around to have sexual relations, woman mentions she got her lady parts pierced, implied fornication, dating couple makes out and kisses occasionally, a woman graphically describes having intercourse using crude expressions, and there’s a mention of a female getting HPV

Nudity:

Upper male nudity when men swim, when a man wears a speedo, and when a different man appears in briefs, women depicted in their bras in one scene, women on vacation wear bikinis, it’s implied that a young girl is naked in a pool (no private parts are shown, just her shoulders), man wears a beach coverup with a cartoon image of a woman wearing a bikini

Alcohol Use:

Characters socially drink while on vacation, and there’s one scene with outright drunkenness

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

One cigarette is smoked, and marijuana is smoked in one scene; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Villains plot deadly harm against other people, a comical reference to kidnapping and lying.

More Detail:

BARB AND STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR follows two middle aged women from the Midwest who vacation in Vista Del Mar, Florida after losing their jobs, but they have no idea an evil mistress is plotting harm against Vista Del Mar while they’re there. BARB AND STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR is quite funny, with a strong moral, redemptive worldview extolling friendship, forgiveness and monogamy, but the movie is marred by some Non-Christian, Romantic elements, more than 20 obscenities and profanities, gratuitous lewd content, and a scene involving marijuana, among other things.

The story begins in the suburbs as a paper boy completes his route. Next, the paper boy, named Yoyo, goes to a secret underground lair where an evil mistress named Sharon and her henchman, Edgar, are waiting. Sharon’s scientist has genetically modified some mosquitoes to make them extremely deadly. Unknown to this scientist, Sharon has plans to unleash them in the vacation destination of Vista Del Mar, Florida to cause harm to the community at large.

Cut to a department store somewhere in the Midwest. Lifelong friends Barb and Star have coffee while chatting on a couch that’s for sale. Although the two women happen to work at the department store, they treat it like their home and even dissuade customers from buying items they enjoy. Barb and Star meet with their boss. He informs them that the department store chain has gone out of business, but no one bothered to tell the people working in their store until now. This means Barb and Star are out of work.

Barb and Star visit a friend’s home for a weekly club meeting with some of their girlfriends. However, lie about being let go from their jobs. So, when they finally confess the truth, the group ostracizes them.

Barb and Star happen to be roommates. Later that evening while at home, Star has the bright idea to go to Vista Del Mar to create amazing memories, like their more adventurous pal, who they ran into while out earlier that day. After some convincing, Barb agrees to go, and they head off to Florida!

Meanwhile, Sharon sends Edgar with the mosquito venom antidote to Vista Del Mar to make sure her evil plan to unleash the mosquitoes goes according to plan. Edgar is in love with Sharon, but she won’t give him the time of day. So, he drowns his sorrows at the hotel bar, where he meets Barb and Star.

Barb and Star individually sneak out to meet with Edgar. It soon becomes clear, though, that Edgar is developing feelings for Star. Still, Barb and Star feel guilty about lying to one another, but it seems like they’re really branching out of their comfort zones while in Vista Del Mar.

Back at their evil lair, Sharon and Yoyo keep tabs on Edgar, who’s obviously getting distracted by Barb and Star. Sharon and Yoyo decide to take matters into their own hands to make sure things pan out according to plan, but how will Barb and Star fair in all this?

BARB AND STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR showcases great character development that culminates in a redemptive ending. That said, the movie is clearly for a niche audience that enjoys dry humor and SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo both wrote, star and produced the movie, which features some familiar SNL faces and Jamie Dornan, who played the title character in the sleazy FIFTY SHADES OF GREY movies. In BARB AND STAR, Dornan displays his versatility as both a dramatic and comedic actor. Of course, Wiig and Mumolo do a good job of creating goofy but endearing characters. That said, the movie’s frequent, gratuitous lewd content spoils its entertainment value.

Friendship is at the heart of the story in BARB AND STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR. The movie also extols forgiveness and monogamy. In addition, there’s a mention of Heaven and Hell in a song. However, BARB AND STAR contains some Romantic elements. For example, in a humorous, surrealistic scene, a talking crab tells Barb to “follow your heart.” Also, the two lead characters fantasize about having the “perfect” vacation. In addition, there’s some Romantic, New Age, pagan behavior where Barb bangs on some Native American drums, runs across coals and gets advice from a man who tells her she’s a Phoenix who can find the truth in herself. Some of this content is meant for comical purposes. However, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution for this content, more than 20 obscenities and profanities, gratuitous lewd content, and a scene involving marijuana, among other things, in BARB AND STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR.