| The Kissing Booth 3 is the stupidest instalment of the Kissing Booth trilogy, and this is coming from someone who kind of enjoyed the first two, but whatever charm there used to be is long gone. I hope the filmmakers and actors enjoy their Netflix money, because the audience isn’t going to. In other words, if you haven’t started the series yet, you don’t have to worry about finishing it. | | 2021
Directed by: Vnce Marcello
Screenplay by: Vince Marcello and Jay S. Arnold
Starring: Joey King, Jacob Elordi
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It’s an unenjoyable mess of a movie that chose to highlight all of the characters’ worst traits. I have universally loved Joey King from her bratty middle school appearance in New Girl, to her coming of age in Wish I Was Here to her dark thriller turn in The Lie. She’s beautiful but unconventional and always adds an interesting layer. Including her likable and fun turn in The Kissing Booth. But all that warmth and quirkiness is gone, and Elle is now an annoying girl who unintentionally but knowingly pisses people off over and over again.
The Kissing Booth 2’s problem was too much plot, just cramming too much into a teen rom com. Problem solved: this time there is no plot. Elle’s big decision of what university she’s going to go to (ie, which boy she’s going to follow) is essentially solved in the first 10 minutes. There is a lot of montages, way too many montages, and rehashing old themes. If Elle spends time with Noah, Lee’s upset, if Elle spends time with Lee, Noah’s upset. Then Marco shows up, just to reignite the whole Noah jealousy thing again. No relationship was in a good place for even a minute of the movie, it’s just very unpleasant, unromantic and not fun – kind of the opposite of a good teen rom com.
The money has become obscene. In part two, Elle was suddenly poor and needed to win a big dance competition. But we’re right back to money is no object and now the Flynn’s are even richer? A big conflict is that the family is selling the beach house and the boys don’t want to. But here’s my problem: I don’t get it. The Flynn’s beach house is a really large house on the beach. Their main house is a really large house on the beach. I guess one really large house on a beach is not enough?
It was not revealed to Elle that she could (not only should, but that it’s possible) to choose a university based on what she wants to study and what the university can offer her (instead of which boy she wants to live with) until the very end. She used to be a smart girl who made bad decisions, now she’s just a stupid girl who is nothing more than Noah’s girlfriend, and they’re even going to take that away from us.
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