Sisters * * 1/2

Sisters provides a few laughs but it’s far from the funniest comedy I have seen.  It features a couple of middle age Sisters with a close and testing relationship. 

Some folks have been saying it’s good to see the girls can be just as “out there” with humour which is as shocking as what any bunch of blokes could dish up.  But I think that has been proven a few times already with films like Bridesmaids.

Still, it’s always good to see a couple of women (or anybody else for that matter) puncturing the ballyhoo of respectability.  Modern comedy seems to suggest we've always had dirty minds - it's just taken us a long time to admit it. Now that we're all reliably responsive to filth, comic writers seem to figure that’s where you should go when you want to mine the audience for laughs. (Or maybe it’s just the low hanging fruit?)

Either way, to be honest I’m getting a bit over shock comedy.  Swearing like troopers, making totally inappropriate remarks, doing things with your genitals…. etc….etc.  It doesn’t bother me.  I’m not going to get moralistic about it.  I couldn’t care less. It’s just that when you boil it down, the impact of the joke relies more upon shock than wit. And you can’t shock twice.

In the case of Sisters they take a pretty easy and well worn option - a party that goes over the top and ends up trashing the parents house.  Indeed, the party takes up most of the film.  I guess the “difference” is, the party features forty somethings rather than teens. I don’t know if real teenagers would find the scenario amusing or gross.

Anyway, like all these films, lessons are learnt and messes have to be cleaned up by those responsible. Then they have to face a few hard truths and clean up the other mess - the one that their life has become.

I think if you are into American shows like Saturday Night Live and Comedy Central etc you might enjoy this a lot more, as that is where most of the talent is recruited from, and you’ll see many familiar faces.

I give it 2 ½ stars, but that’s just for its basic good will in wanting to share some laughs with us.