Review: The Lovebirds

Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise that The Lovebirds – originally scheduled as a theatrical release in April before being pulled because of Covid-19 and its rights sold to Netflix – never made it to the big screen, because it would have been a box office bomb.

As a streaming movie, however, it quietly finds its place amid Netflix's library of middling, forgettable and disposable rom-coms.

Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae play a feuding couple who get unintentionally embroiled in a murder mystery minutes after breaking up with each other.

Their journey to clear their names takes them from one shambolic shenanigan to the next, as they wade through racial profiling jokes and a black tie sex cult ripped right out of Eyes Wide Shut.

The Lovebirds is intermittently amusing, but ought to be less lazy and pack in more lunacy.

Nanjiani and Rae are commendable comedians on their own and are a refreshing Hollywood romantic pairing, albeit not a terribly believable one.

It is just really hard to care for characters who bicker and banter so tediously, especially when they are called out - by the real killer, of all people - for being such an "annoying couple".

RATING: M18

SCORE: 2.5/5