“… Fifty Shades of Grey was really only a jumping-off point to the postmenopausal sexcapades that the movie was really about.”

Yesterday I took my book club to see Book Club becasue we kind of had to, you know? Book Club is a movie about a bunch of, let’s face it: old women who, for their book club, decide to read through the Fifty Shades of Grey series.

Now I wasn’t really a fan of Book Club to be perfectly honest. I saw the movie for the novelty of saying that my book club went to see Book Club, and that was really all the movie as good for. First of all I found the story to be a mess. We essentially have four main characters in Book Club, and that means we have four different plots that all have to go through their own progression. This really slows things down particularly at the beginning and the end of the film when we are essentially seeing the same thing four times over.

The only thing that made this issue somewhat palatable was the cast of esteemed actresses portraying these four leads. As a matter of fact, even outside of the main characters this movie was filled with recognizable faces. Book Club featured the epitome of a star-studded cast, but I’m not exactly sure why. The script wasn’t that great, and I thought it was taboo in Hollywood to be old, so why these actors would all be clawing for a part wherein they’re essentially geriatric perverts is beyond me. But either way the likes of Andy Garcia and Richard Dreyfuss made the film a touch more enjoyable.

I was also rather disappointed in how little the ‘book club’ aspect actually played into Book Club. There were scenes which were hilarious that featured these characters tearing books to shreds, but those were few and far between. The use of Fifty Shades of Grey was really only a jumping-off point to the postmenopausal sexcapades that the movie was really about. And this isn’t to say the film was dull all the way through. There were actually quite a few moments that offered legitimate laughs, but those seemed like an exception rather than the rule.

Overall Book Club was a tired ploy to get old people to go to the movie theatre, and it’s filled with “jokes” that your mother would laugh at, and in turn make you uncomfortable. I’m not saying that Book Club doesn’t have an audience, I’m just saying that I’m not a part of it.

I give Book Club a D