"A SIMPLE FAVOR"..........GONE GIRL WITH GAGS.....

A Simple Favor (2018)    We admire the hell out of director Paul Feig for the high-wire act he tried to accomplish here..........a tightrope routine so nervy, you couldn't tell if you were watching a thriller loaded up with gags or an all-out comedy sprinkled with dead bodies and outrageous twists......

                 Did he pull it off?    Not quite........cause by the end of the film, when it swings crazily between the laughs, twists and gunshots, you know Feig never really took any of this stuff seriously.......

                 That doesn't make it any less of a hoot 'n a blast to sit through.......

                 BQ visitors know well that we don't waste 18 paragraphs on scene-by-scene plot descriptions........especially with a film like this, where rolling with the surprises supplies half the fun.

                 We will say this much - the set up's delicious........an unlikely, unsettling sort-of-friendship between the oddest of couples........a Type-A, aggressively perky mom (Anna Kendrick) and a dressed-to-the-nines corporate barracuda with a killer wit and wardrobe to match. (Blake Lively, like a younger version of Meryl Streep's 'Devil Wears Prada' viper).

                  Lively drops out of sight, leaving Kendrick to go on the hunt for her.........and that's all you'll hear from us.........other than prepare for a steady stream of vicious one-liners, multiple twists and endless 1960's French pop songs........(our favorite thing in the movie, smearing the whole film with a James Bondish, euro-trashy vibe)

                   The two actresses are in top form.........and when the film starts to wildly wobble between the various genres it's trying to straddle, their stellar work here distracts you from noticing......or even caring.

                    3 & 1/2 stars (***1/2).......maybe no award winner, but hands down one of the most sheer entertaining movies we've seen in this year.  BQ says don't pass it up........(should you come across it on DVD or Blu-Ray, don't miss watching Feig's absolutely bonkers, dance-number alternate ending.....)