Book Club - Ein neues Kapitel

Diane (Diane Keaton), Vivian (Jane Fonda), Sharon (Candice Bergen), and Carol (Mary Steenburgen) are the best of friends. They are meeting in person for the first time since the isolation of the pandemic. They decide to go to Italy.

I'm fine with the first movie. It's fine. Don't ask me to watch a sequel. Yet here we are. I don't begrudge anyone from doing a honest day's work, but this one is a classic Adam Sandler move. Sandler often gets a bunch of his friends and makes a movie at some exotic resort location. There's a lot of that here. The writing is boring. I stopped caring about these characters. Maybe they'll stop making these although I can see a way to make the next one interesting.

Book Club was one the surprise hits of the summer of 2018 and was a film I enjoyed a lot more than I expected. It was no classic, but it was a breezy way to spend a few summer hours. Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly if you know Hollywood, a sequel was commissioned. The Next Chapter really doesn't have much of the charm of the original and doesn't make a compelling case for existing.

There are a few laughs here and there, but not enough to overcome the mountains of painful double entendres and speeches about friendship. Everyone seems to just be going through the motions and ready to collect their paychecks. But hey, at least there is some stunning Italian scenery to enjoy.

It has scenes that make you smile like in the first episode. You can choose to watch if you want to spend a pleasant time. Watching Italy through Bill Holderman's eyes is a different pleasure. Diane Keaton and Andy Garcia go well together. I wish they would come together in a different movie. It is a great chance for us to still see these beautiful people on the cinema screen despite their ages. If I come to Don Johnson's age, I want to look good like him. It is a great pleasure to be able to watch Giancarlo Giannini in this episode. Long live Giancarlo. Thanks to this movie, I realized how much I miss Italy. Wait for me Italy, I'll be there as soon as possible.

By the way, I hope the same cast can make another episode.

I waited for this movie with great anticipation. The actors have done fine work in the past, and the previous Book Club movie was nicely done.

But this Book Club: The Next Chapter is so flimsy it is embarrassing, mainly to women in general. As if women live in a world of teenage dreams and have no way of solidifying their identity without resorting to superficial concerns and external validations.

For instance, the constant emphasis on clothes, or on how men love or do not love the women, or on the ideal, magical trip that is supposed to liberate you, or on what the fates want for you, or on what signs you are being given about your "destiny" - all this is just so tiresome and empty.

The characters never seemed to be concerned about anything except their own private selves.

And the ending was preposterous. It made the women seem as if they were completely inconsistent.

Book Club: The Next Chapter Is the sequel to the first Book Club movie from 2018. Both films are directed, part written and produced by Bill Holderman.

After the corona pandemic and having read many books because of this, the friends of the book club decide to travel to Italy. They also use this trip as a bachelorette party for Vivian (Jane Fonda) who has been proposed to by her partners. During their journey they experience many pleasant and less pleasant things.

Unfortunately, this sequel quickly comes across as unnecessary, because for a second book club film, little is read or really talked about books. The members of the club go on a vacation alone in this sequel, to admire some culture and fashion styles.

In the beginning, the film also responds to the current situation of the corona pandemic, but does little with this after bringing it up. It just gives the characters an extra reason to want to travel to Italy. During this trip they show beautiful images of famous places and buildings in Italy, but besides showing these things, little is done with them.

The story also remains on a predictable side and remains somewhat the same as many other comedy in which characters take a journey. Thanks to unrealistic or forced moments, the film also loses some of its credible sides and sometimes goes on unnecessarily too long. The movie could have been ten minutes shorter.

The acting is well done by the four actresses who play the friends. They again come across as real friends who have known each other for a long time and are friends with each other. Thanks to the lesser story, they only get little to work with or to do something special with their roles.

Due to the predictable sides, most comedy also has a predictable side. The actresses know how to portray this in appropriate ways in the film, but the final punchline is often not as funny as it could have been.

In the end, this is an unnecessary sequel, which can be fun for fans of the first part, but for a better film, they should also just watch the first part again. In the other place where the story takes place, this film remains somewhat the same as the first film.