Jack Goes Confidential: Streisand & Rogan—a Guilty Pleasure? NOT

When it comes to THE GUILT TRIP, Barbra Streisand as a mom takes Jewish Mother Stereotyping about as far as it can go in an adult targeted comedy…

A little of that neurotic, over the top nagging and miserly attitude almost wore me out.

Sure Streisand delivered similarily as mother (Roz) Focker in those earlier family outings. But there she was surrounded by a heavy talent pool.

Here she’s the nagging, widowed mom of down on his luck chemist/inventor son Seth Rogen who invites her along on his cross-country road trip. A business trip to pitch his newly invented cleaning product to the likes of Costco and K-Mart.

Not only does mom drive him nuts, the sales pitches at these company headquarters are going nowhere.

That is until his next to last stop in Las Vegas where he auditions for the Home Shopping Network—and floors them.

Rogen’s last stop is to be San Francisco, but there’s nothing to pitch there. Instead it’s where he traced mother’s first love and he’s hoping to reunite the two.

Do they? You’ll have to buy a ticket to find out.

But boy, oh boy can it be painful finally getting there as this odd-coupling of Streisand and Rogen makes crinching stops along the way that had me wondering why either party ever wanted to be part of this movie in the first place?

They even co-executive produced it!

If you’ve seen the trailer for THE GUILT TRIP you may think you’ve seen this picture, and in a sense you have. Except for its often (almost) painful pit stops and melancholy finale.

A 3,000 mile, week long guilt ridden, Jewish road shtick.

From New Jersey to the City by the Bay. All captured in an hour and a half of meddling, whining and over protective mother and son fashion.

In all fairness there were some smiles and light chuckles for this reviewer. But that 95 minute running time sure felt longer. A LOT Longer.

Streisand fans will probably gush at how well she still looks while Rogen fans may come away by asking themselves ‘What The F***?’ This is definitely not HIS standard fare.

For me? I had low expectations for the comedy—many of which were met.
In all fairness though, things get a bit better as the road trip progresses towards its sentimental goal.
Best part of the movie? Probably the outtakes during the end credits.

THE GUILT TRIP—Raising 2 out of 5 forced fingers.

JACK GOES TO THE MOVIES: On Radio / On Cable-TV / On-Line.