Sisters Blu-ray Review! Does The Latest Tina Fey And Amy Poehler Comedy Deliver The Laughs?

Siblings have been the subject of films for ages, the fights, the struggles, and of course growing up. When it comes to the subject of sisters, you get all of the above, growing up is hard but growing up with a sister can be even more challenging.

In the new film Sisters, out now on Blu-ray comedy powerhouses Tina Fey and Amy Poehler team up once again for an awesome slapstick film that deals with growing up but not wanting to grow old. I don’t know what it is about hitting mid-life but it makes people take stock of their life and look back at where they started. One of those places is high school and the home we grew up in. What’s it like when your childhood home is literally being sold from under you?

Maura (Amy Poehler) is a successful nurse and her not as successful beautician sister Kate (Tina Fey) are heading home for different reasons. Maura knows that her parents (Dianne Wiest and James Brolin) are planning on selling their home but doesn’t know that it’s already sold. Kate who is the live wire of the two is shocked to learn this as she was planning on crashing with her parents for a bit as she tries to reconcile with her daughter and get her life together.

The two sisters have a task and that’s to clean up their respective room. After some ill-fated attempts to stop the sale, the sisters come to the decision that they should give the house a send off like they used to do in the old days. However Maura asks Kate if she can be the fun one for a change and Kate be the sober sister. Kate agrees reluctantly and they “get this party started.”

They invite a bunch of friends from high school including Dave (John Leguizamo), Kelly (Rachel Dratch) and the cute neighbor that Maura has a slight crush on James (Bobby Moynihan). However, Kate refuses to invite Brinda (Maya Rudolph) who is Kate’s nemesis. The night of the party, let’s just say it’s not hopping. Kate tries to get everyone revved up and shake the cobwebs off their lives. Then with a call to the local drug dealer, Pazuzu (Jon Cena) things start to really liven up.

The party is in full swing but Kate relapses to her old ways when she finds out that Maura not only knows the whereabouts of her daughter but has been letting her live at Maura’s house. Drugs get taken, paint gets sprayed about the house, and the party climaxes with the formation of a sink hole under the pool. I don’t remember having a party like that in high school or now for that matter.

All of this is of course fodder for the girls to work out their relationships and past. Both Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have a short hand and their chemistry is stellar. That’s what happens when you work together for almost a decade. They are comedy experts and one of the classic comedy duos of our time. Here their typical roles are reversed with Tina playing the crazy one and Amy playing the straight laced sister. They are hysterical in whatever role they get put in.

While the plot may be over the top and at times so wholly unbelievable you shake your head, the chemistry of everyone in the film is so good it more than makes up for the plots substandard shortcomings. In supporting roles John Cena proves that his role in Trainwreck was not a fluke, and steals every scene he’s in. Bobby Moynihan is excellent as Alex, the girls lame high school friend and Ike Barinholtz does a great job playing the love interest to Amy Poehler.

Sisters arrives on Blu-ray in a fine transfer thanks to Universal Home Video. The Florida location is accentuated by the hyper cheery colors and the outside scenes practically scream with vibrance. The details are excellent throughout especially during the party scenes and this really helps sell the comedy especially in this type of over the top film.

Sisters has a bevy of bonus features including about 20 minutes of deleted and extended scenes and a gag reel.

There are several featurettes including:

The Improvorama – The cast makes up scenes and dialogue on the spot.

How to Throw a Party – Amy and Tina get party advice. This is a short featurette and under two minutes.

Grown-Up Parties Suck – This is a very funny look at awkward moments from a typical “Grown-Up Party.”

The Alex Chronicles – A selection of Bobby Moynihan’s deleted scenes.

The Kate and Pazuzu Chronicles – Outtakes with Tina Fey and John Cena.

A Teen Movie… For Adults – This is the best of the bunch with interviews with the cast and crew and an overview of the full production.

The Original Sister – Writer Paula Pell and her sister Patti talk about the real life inspiration behind the film.

Pool Collapse VFX – This is a really neat breakdown of the pool/sink hole collapse.

And finally there’s an audio commentary with Tina Fey, director Jason Moore, Amy Poehler and writer Paul Pell. It’s fun with some comedy and technical details thrown in.

Overall, I really love both Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and this film, while not a classic is a fun team up. If you let yourself suspend disbelief, I think you’ll really like the chemistry and characters that they bring to the screen. A couple more rewrites might have tightened up the comedy but it’s still a solid effort by the comedy duo.

Sisters is out March 15th on Blu-ray!