One of the reasons many films tend to get dismissed as minor efforts is that they possess strong premises, but fail in the execution of their interesting ideas. One of the most unfortunate examples of this in the past year is Queen Bees, which is a film that certainly deserved to be better than what it was. Michael Lembeck’s audacious attempt to make a comedy that is essentially a geriatric version of Mean Girls had an abundance of promise, as well as a very gifted cast of fantastic actors, nearly all of whom were willing to go to any lengths to bring these characters to life. Yet, whether it be in the badly written script or the heavy-handed direction, the film fails to reach even close to a satisfying crescendo, squandering nearly all of its promise as a result of nothing but sheer laziness. Comedy takes a lot of work, and some cheap jokes and awkward scenarios are simply not nearly enough to qualify a film as being effective in making audiences laugh – and while he may be amused at first, this goodwill rapidly starts to be eroded by the grating execution and complete disregard for the ensemble, who deserved a much better showcase for their gifts as actors. There are few ways to look at Queen Bees and have one’s opinion veering towards the positive, since even if it doesn’t deserve all of our hatred, since there is a genuine sense of wanting to entertain the audience, viewers are likely going to leave this film entirely unconvinced and, quite honestly, incredibly bored, which is certainly not a quality one would expect from a film that boasts as much promise as this one, proving that even the most interesting of ideas can be banal when not executed correctly.

It isn’t that Queen Bees is bad so much that it is dreadfully boring – there really isn’t much about this film that the view can hold onto, especially not when it comes to commenting on deeper issues like love and desire in the golden years of one’s life, which seems to be the ultimate intention of the film, but also the most overwrought of all the messages. It isn’t even a matter of the film being helmed by someone without experience – Lembeck may not have an air of prestige behind his name, mainly having made mindless comedies, but he certainly has been working in both film and television for long enough to know what works and what doesn’t when it comes to humour (in particular, Connie and Carla is deeply underrated, and was exactly what this film should have aimed to be, both in terms of its story and how it approaches comedy). This is just an imbalanced and unfunny attempt at deriving comedy from a few vaguely offensive jokes about ageing strung together by a weak romantic subplot, which is in turn punctuated by some of the flattest and lifeless commentary on friendship ever committed to film. The film quite frankly seems to lose its way even before it begins – there are some genuinely funny moments at the start, but it just falls into the same pattern of going for the low-hanging fruit, and while this can be amusing at first, it becomes troubling when it seems that the film is incapable of doing anything else, which only makes it more excruciating, since there are some moments where nothing seems to be making sense, and the jagged tone just doesn’t do the film any favours in clarifying its aims, leading us to question whether anything contained in this film was all that necessary in the first place.

There have been many recent efforts to bring star-studded films to life through casting legendary actors, with films like Last Vegas and Book Club being relatively entertaining efforts that put their ensembles to great use, reminding us that even those in their twilight years can still have the energy and vivacity that they did at their peak. The problem is that no one in this film seems to be all that invested in doing the same, instead just plodding along as anyone tasked with bringing as subpar a script as this to the screen. Ellen Burstyn is such a magnetic presence on screen, she comes very close to making this film worth watching, almost managing to elevate it beyond the mediocre execution. However, even the most talented actresses can only do so much to improve a film, and the material just doesn’t serve her, outside of a few moments where her feisty nature shines through. Solid work by James Caan, Jane Curtin and Loretta Devine do help the film maintain a level of sincerity that prevents it from being entirely awful, but once again, there’s a limit to how much they can carry the film, and they soon start to feel the burden of the poorly-conceived script, which does very little (if anything) to showcase their extensive range of talents. It goes without saying that no one will venture into Queen Bees and expect to see all these iconic performers doing the most amazing work, but the film seems not to be interested in even trying, which is a much bigger problem than anything else that surrounds it.

For some reason, the director failed to realise that a film like this doesn’t need to have a distinct emotional heft – when you’ve assembled a cast as good as this, it’s perfectly appropriate to just allow them to have fun, rather than forcing commentary that simply doesn’t exist. There’s a heavy-handed approach taken in the construction of the film that feels misguided and entirely inappropriate. Once we’ve reached the verge of madness after we experience one joke about how these characters are frail but virile too many, we start to notice how emotionally stunted the film actually is – there’s a romantic subplot shoehorned in that feels entirely out of place, done to convey the message that it is never too late to fall in love (despite the film saying exactly the opposite in the big reveal, which is about as predictable as it is in poor taste), and that even those standing on death’s door can have one final marathon of passion, granted they find the one person in their surroundings that is both mentally and physically stable (with those who are not the embodiment of great health being relegated to the margins as comedic relief, as is the case of someone like Christopher Lloyd, who is almost offensively underused). It would be revolting if the intentions were not so clearly decent, which makes the fact that Queen Bees is so misguided as a comedy all the more troubling, making us yearn for the better versions of this story, which Hollywood has shown very little hesitance in making – after all, there are a myriad of older actors who are raring at the chance to play romantic characters once again.

Queen Bees is, quite frankly, an absolute bore of a film, one that may have good intentions, but skates dangerously close to being insulting to its legendary cast, mishandling them in a way that would be troubling if there wasn’t at least some marginal evidence that this film was a labour of love. We can’t dismiss Queen Bees for at least trying to come up with a fun idea, since the premise is certainly interesting, if not wholly unoriginal. There are very few saving graces in this film – the humour is jagged and unconvincing, and the jokes begin to fall flat after a while, especially when it becomes clear that they were just the product of thinking of the most obvious stereotypes related to the elderly and their experiences. Ultimately, Queen Bees is a film about senior citizens made by and for the much younger generations, since its almost impossible to imagine anyone from this age group (outside of the actors, who seem to be teetering on being part of a hostage situation by the looks of it) actually thinking that these jokes or storylines were in any way indicative of the reality of growing old, or that these ideas would actually be entertaining to anyone who had experienced the process of ageing and becoming frail. It’s simply an unquestionably dull and pointless endeavour that has its heart in the right place, but lacks any semblance of logic, which forces the film to become something of a slog to get through, which is quite strange for a story that would otherwise be an absolute delight had it been handled with more precision and respect, both of which are sorely missing from this mediocre film.