Reinas (Queens) Reviews

Spanish director Manuel Gomez Pereira certainly draws inspiration from his compatriot Pedro Almodovar -- several of the actresses are even Pedro alums -- but the film falls short of Almodovar's usual depth and complexity.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

It feels like [Pereira] just plucked the men themselves from atop a wedding cake and stuck them in his movie, where for the most part they stand decoratively around and watch the women make suds from all this soap.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

[A] frothy, occasionally charming romantic comedy.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5

Pleasantly fluffy but depthless...each story develops a worst-case scenario that proceeds to a too-comforting, too-swift resolution.

| Original Score: 2.5/4

Unfortunately for director and co-writer Manuel Gomez Pereira, all the energy in the world isn't enough to compensate for the superfluous plot lines and outrageous overacting that weigh down this bit of warm-hearted Spanish fluff.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

Queens is distinguished from a hundred other slick screwballers only by virtue of its theme -- the first mass gay wedding in Spain. Otherwise, it's middle-of-the-road formula fare all the way.

Full Review

A dithering but generous Spanish farce, Queens follows the coming nuptials of three gay couples by focusing on their overbearing mothers.

| Original Score: 2/5

With five overbearing mothers and six overshadowed gay sons, this Spanish meet-the-parents ensemble farce aims for Almodóvar but falls far short.

Full Review

A threadbare crazy-quilt of Spanish sex comedies.

Full Review | Original Score: C+

Manuel Gómez Pereira's frantic direction is nonstop and the exhaustion of excess will get to you.

Full Review

There's potential here, but the script is entirely too, shall we say, Hollywood. There's even a dog-poop joke.

| Original Score: 1/4

The frantic artificiality of the script rarely allows the characters to breathe. This is dinner-theater farce, featherweight and juiceless.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

The main problem with Queens is that the many parts never coalesce into a satisfying whole, the result, perhaps, of too many subplots and too many characters to fit comfortably in one small movie.

| Original Score: 2.5/4

An ungainly, broadly played comedy.

Pereira goes in for lots of time shifts and split screens, piling on the contrivances like so many costume baubles when a single string of pearls would do.

Full Review

Pedro Almodovar-flavored but quite tame.

| Original Score: 2/4

Converging in one weekend of sex, sensationalism and silliness, these veteran actresses are like a Category 5 hurricane of maternal mayhem.

| Original Score: B-

We may be deep in Telemundo territory, but that doesn't diminish the glow-in-the-dark charisma of these impressive ladies.

Full Review | Original Score: B-

Reinas approaches homo- and heterosexuals with equal reverence: everyone is cheating, lying, oversexed and undersatisfied -- which does not mean they are not funny.

Full Review