Role Play – An Instantly Forgettable Action Comedy

Role Play is the newest Prime Video action comedy that follows Emma (Cuoco), a woman who lives in the suburbs of New Jersey with her husband David (Oyelowo) and their two kids. What her husband and kids don’t know is that Emma has a secret life as an assassin. One night when Emma and David decide to spice up their marriage with a little role play at a hotel, David discovers Emma’s secret assassin life when another assassin spots her, both are forced to survive what’s to come. Less than 2 weeks into 2024, the film is already a top contender for the most instantly forgettable titles of 2024. It very well had the potential to be a fun action comedy in the vein of something like 2005’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith, however, it fails at nearly everything it sets out to do, Regardless of what it may or may not do, the lack of chemistry of its two leads essentially renders it dead on arrival.

Cuoco is a talented actress with some great comedic timing who deserves the absolute best in Hollywood. While it is great to see her finally get lead roles in films, this film unfortunately does not do her any favours. Though not necessarily bad here, she feels incredibly miscast as Emma. She sells the action well enough, but this just isn’t her finest hour and the material she has to work with doesn’t help either. Meanwhile, Oyelowo fares much better and is actually fun to watch as David, despite the lack of chemistry between he and Cuoco. It’s a shame that he isn’t getting offered better scripts, but in a refreshingly different role for him and the few laughs the film does provide come solely from his performance. In supporting roles, Nighy and Connie Nielsen aren’t given a ton to do, but they provide some marginal entertainment whenever they happen to appear on screen.

Without sounding too harsh, Role Play simply doesn’t succeed at virtually anything it attempts too. The action is completely unmemorable and not very exciting to watch. Almost every single attempt at comedy falls flat on its face, offering no more than the occasional chuckle. The plot is painfully generic, derivative, and overly familiar to the point where it becomes easy to spot all the similarities to the countless other films it is riffing off of. Along those lines, it is also super predictable as most audiences are likely to literally see every single plot reveal and subsequent story beat coming from a mile away. Ultimately, the worst part of the film is that even with its narrative issues, it still attempts to surprise audiences in its so-called big moments in spite of the fact that most audiences have almost certainly already figured out every twist and turn it had to offer early on.

At the end of the day, Role Play is a generally harmless and inoffensive watch that is nowhere near the worst that streaming titles have to offer. That being said, those aren’t exactly glowing compliments nor anything close to a ringing endorsement. A film with the makings of a fun little action comedy, at least on paper, with its two likeable leads at the helm. However, the end result failed to even come close to accomplishing that. In the end, for those who enjoy these types of streaming titles, they are better served by just watch one of their favourites because this one beings absolutely nothing new to the table.

still courtesy of Prime Video

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/