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Mike’s Movies: Overboard

Mike reviews Overboard, the remake of the 80s comedy hit with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell

Overboard, or Hombre Al Agua as it has been released here in Mexico, is a remake of the 1987 comedy starring real life Hollywood couple Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. The plot is basically the same as the original but with one major twist – the gender reversal of the two main characters.

The film starts out with Kate (Anna Faris) working two jobs while studying to be a nurse. Her mum lets her down at the last moment after promising to help with childcare for the next month, which heaps extra pressure on an already stressed Kate. One of these jobs leads to Kate working on spoiled Mexican playboy Leonardo Montenegro’s (Eugenio Derbez) yacht. After a clash between the pair, Leonardo throws Kate’s cleaning equipment into the water which not only gets her fired but plunges her into debt. Shortly after, Leonardo falls off his yacht and washes up on shore with amnesia. Kate, after being egged on by her pal Theresa (Eva Longoria), decides to get the son of the third richest man in the world to pay his debt to her in a unique way – she goes to the hospital and “claims” him so he can do all her household chores while she is studying for her exam. She also lands him a job working in construction for Theresa’s husband Bobby (Mel Rodriguez). Somewhat predictably, he becomes close to Kate’s three daughters as he is tricked into believing this is his family.

The strength of the film lies in the fact that Eugenio Derbez (the Mexican actor-producer-director) and Anna Faris, who resembles Goldie Hawn, work well together. Also, most of the characters are likeable, and for this type of film, are well developed.

The weaknesses are the aforementioned predictability throughout the film and several plot holes. Having said that, I still enjoyed the film on a fittingly wet Sunday afternoon – after all, this is a remake of a lighthearted 1980s comedy, not Hotel Rwanda. A good working knowledge of Spanish would help make the most of this film as a lot of the dialogue is in Spanish when Leonardo is working at his construction job and with his real family.

The only plot-point you might not get is that one of his sisters is scheming to take over his father’s company, but the rest is mainly fun stuff. This week’s star of the show in this gentle comedy is Derbez who ably plays both rich playboy and regular working Joe. 7 out of 10

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