The Lovebirds

The Lovebirds

By James Davidson

“The Lovebirds” is an action-comedy film that debuted exclusively on Netflix in May of this year. It stars Issa Rae and Kumail Nanijiani as Leilani and Jibran, a couple who have hit somewhat of a rough spot in their fairly new relationship. The two break up on the way to a dinner party, and immediately after they break up, Jibran hits a bicyclist with his car. The man quickly gets up and runs away before the couple can see if he is alright. A strange man then comes up to them claiming to be a police officer and takes their car and proceeds to run the cyclist over several times before running away.

Jibran and Leilani, believing that they will be blamed for the murder of the mysterious cyclist, run away and begin to unravel the mystery of the the cyclist and the strange, mustachiod man that actually committed the murder. The recently estranged couple quickly find themselves relying on each other as they find themselves in increasingly hilarious and dangerous situations.

I was a bit skeptical of this movie at first. Based on the name, I originally thought it was going to be a cheesy romantic-comedy, My pessimism was quickly put to rest, however, once the movie started and I totally enjoyed myself throughout this film. I was worried that the comedy would be a little too kitsch and the plot would be a little too unambiguous.

The comedy turned out not to be too cheesy at all, I was quite impressed with the jokes and found myself laughing through most of the movie. The jokes were original and actually had some depth to them. I didn’t feel like I was being pandered to like I do in some comedies, all of the laughs were earned and there weren’t any cheap jokes without only substance.

The plot itself was fairly entertaining. While it was fairly simple there was some substance to the story. I did think that the plot was very predictable. Even though the plot was a bit conventional, I ended up becoming engrossed in the story nonetheless. I did guess some of the “surprise” endings pretty early on in the movie though. Even though the plot was predictable, the comedy kept the movie fresh and light and I was able to overlook the formulaic nature of the plot.

The acting added a bit of complexity to the movie as well. The chemistry between Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani was incredible. I really believed that they were a couple having issues but still harbored feelings for one another. I really enjoyed watching the scenes where the two of them got to feed off of one another, they really did a n excellent job together and it added more complexity to the film.

This movie is rated R for sexual content, language throughout, and some violence. While this movie is hilarious and would be a great movie for couples to spend an evening in with each other watching, you might want to make sure the kids are out of the room for this film. There is a lot of adult language and adult situations that would make it inappropriate for families with young children. If you are ok with movies with those sorts of things in them, this might be a good movie to watch with older teenagers however and could be an entertaining night.

“The Lovebirds” is a hilarious movie with some fantastic acting, the main characters have incredible chemistry together. While the story is very entertaining, it can be quite predictable and a little unoriginal, but this movie really makes up for that with the comedy. This movie will have you rolling on the floor laughing with your significant other or group of friends. I would definitely watch this movie again and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good, funny, light comedy. It earns 3.5 out of 5 stars.