Cuando Ellas Quieren Más

Book Club: The Next Chapter is a film so lazy it almost feels as if it were written by AI instead of living, breathing human beings. It's got plenty of zingers and the cast tries their best to deliver them as best they can, but even the finest thespians in the world can't make this dialogue sound realistic. The story is non-existent as the four lead characters go from tourist spot to tourist spot, drinking wine, telling corny sex jokes, and offering up cliche proverbs about friendship that are so stale and tired that they're gag inducing. The first film was no fine masterpiece, but it at least had a little more substance to it. This is simply a waste of a fine cast, but I hope they enjoyed their trip to Italy.

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.

A clean, polished, well produced film with some very accomplished and famous stars of Hollywood. So why is it boring?

It feels as though they have tried to find how to prove much older women can't star in films, and wrote a script to prove that. But to hold your interest they locate it in a beautiful country which they show you a lot of.

It's sad that Jane Fonda has so obviously had lots of surgery, but the rest don't appear to have and they've aged well. So why mistreat them by making this shambles of an uninteresting film?

I think it dissolves their reputations somewhat as the film is just not good except in terms of a travel brochure for Italy.

Give it a miss, you won't miss anything.

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.