TheKissing Booth is back with the third installment in the franchise, but does the final act of the trilogy live up to its predecessors? The film sees Noah, Elle, and Lee (Played by Jacob Elordi, Joey King, and Joel Courtney respectively) come back together for the summer holidays - the last summer before Elle []
Movie Review You can’t help you who love. Or so they say. But is that really true? Take Elle and Lee, for instance. They’re best friends … thanks to their mothers, who were also the best of friends. On top of that, Elle and Lee were born on the same day. They love to hang out. They love to dance. They’re best friends forever. And they’ve created a list of rules to make sure that fact will never change. Friendship, of course, is their top priority. But sometimes rules can be bent, can’t they? Especially if your lifetime crush is your best friend’s older brother, Noah. Right? But Noah’s off limits. At least until a kissing booth—one that’s disguised as a school fundraiser—changes all the rules. Suddenly, Elle must decide what’s more important friendship or love. Positive Elements Elle and Lee share a sweetly close friendship. And the rule sheet they came up with when they were young has indeed helped their friendship to thrive over the years. For example, Rule 16 says that your best friend should be able to know what’s going on in your life. And both Elle and Lee are equally protective of one another and try to make each other happy. Rule 18 “Always be happy for your bestie’s successes.” A handful of other guys also have protective attitudes toward Elle. That said, she gradually learns to stick up for herself and tries to get a handle on what’s most valuable in her life as well. Elle also tries to encourage Noah to be a better person. And she faithfully stays by her mother’s side when she’s in the hospital. Lee and Noah’s mother emphasizes the importance of forgiveness. She tells Elle that arguments and disagreements are normal and must be resolved. Noah, for his part, apologizes to his brother and those he has hurt. He also mentions that he’s going to see multiple counselors. Someone chases off bullies for his friend. Spiritual Elements Someone jokes about Miley Cyrus becoming a nun. Sexual Content Despite a few positive moments, The Kissing Booth largely revolves around the theme of teens’ physical relationships with each other. At times, it feels as if Elle is practically looking for opportunities to shed her clothes. At a high school party, for instance, she disrobes down to her bra and underwear. After her pants rip in one scene, she dons a very short skirt that reveals her underwear-clad backside. A guy grabs her there, and Noah crudely quips that she was “asking for it.” She also yells, “My boobs are fantastic!” in a family setting. She’s shown on her bed wearing nothing but a towel. At one point, it almost appears as if she’s unclothed. Elle also struts around in a locker room filled with guys wearing just her bra and a skirt. Noah is also shown wearing next to nothing once, and draped in only a towel elsewhere. His chest is visible. In another scene, he appears to be completely naked, sitting on a chair, and the camera shows everything but his genital region. And we’re not done yet. One morning, Elle wakes up in Noah’s bed and thinks they slept together. He informs her that he slept elsewhere. That scene shows her in his shirt and her underwear. Later, while rolling around on the ground together, she touches his covered crotch, which she says was an “accidental groping.” When Elle and Noah finally begin a relationship, they kiss thanks to the kissing booth and make out a lot. They also take off each other’s shirts and then spend the night together. Elle talks about having had sex with him. They wake up outside covered in blankets. Elle is shown buying condoms. We see her on top of Noah, and it looks as though they’re having sex. There are sounds and movements. Elle steals a security tape that has captured video images of her and Noah presumably having sex at school. Though Elle asks herself a lot of questions about her relationship with Noah, in the end she suggests that she’s OK with being just “another one of his conquests.” Elle casually lies to Lee and tells him she was watching porn, and he asks to watch with her. Girls wear bikinis and other revealing outfits, and guys are seen shirtless and in their boxers. The camera zooms in on a guy’s rear end. Lee jokingly says, “Any excuse to cross-dress, and I’m in.” And in one scene, Lee does wear a dress. Two guys have an obvious attraction to each other and dance together. Close-ups show guys and girls kissing including shots that show tongues entangled at the kissing booth. A guy tells a girl not to grind on her love interest’s genitals. A girl talks about getting her first bra and her first period. A guy is called a “perv,” and he texts something inappropriate but we don’t see what it is. A male athlete’s “sports cup” is mentioned. A girl says that kissing gives you cold sores. Other conversations include references to the male and female anatomy. A girl is called a “slut” and a “ho.” Violent Content Noah gets into multiple fist fights. We see him punch a guy in the face several times. Noah is also extremely controlling and aggressive with Elle; at one point he shouts at her and slams his fists in frustration. Lee accuses Noah of hitting Elle though he doesn’t actually do so. Someone dies from cancer. A young boy breaks his leg as a child. Someone falls out of a window. Crude or Profane Language The f-word is used three times, and the s-word more than 10 times. God’s name is misused about half a dozen times. Jesus’ name is misused once. Other profanities include multiple uses of “a–,” “d–k,” “d–mit,” “d–n,” “h—,” “b–ch” and “douche.” Someone exclaims, “Holy crap!” Drug and Alcohol Content High school students attend numerous house and beach parties and drink hard liquor, beer once doing keg stands and shots. No one in the film seems to care that there is a ton of underage drinking going on. Elle gets very drunk at a party. Someone thinks taking an antacid will help a hangover. Other Negative Elements The parents in the film seem to be virtually absent and completely oblivious to their teens’ reckless choices. Elle hides under Noah’s bed at one point after sneaking into his room. Parents’ voices and opinions don’t matter at all, and they’re never around to guide their children or shape their values. At one point, Elle’s dad makes it clear that he doesn’t approve of Noah but tells the young man that it is Elle’s choice. It’s good that he cares about his daughter’s feelings in this one instance, at least, but the rest of the movie makes it seem as if he couldn’t care less and has absolutely no power to speak into Elle’s life or to establish boundaries for her. There’s a lot of lying going on throughout most of the film, especially by Elle. That said, she eventually confesses some things to her father. And Elle will do anything to fit in. Disturbingly, Noah “doesn’t allow” other guys to be anywhere near Elle, even though they’re not even dating. His controlling behavior is normalized throughout the entire film. Girls are rude to one another. Various characters use others for personal gain. Guys and girls sneak around together. A boy sneezes, and mucus flies into a girl’s face. Someone sets off a stink bomb. A boy gets multiple wedgies and is hit in the face with a soccer ball. Conclusion Let’s cut to the chase The Kissing Booth is a disaster on every level. Not only is it a terrible movie artistically currently at 13% on Rotten Tomatoes, it sets an equally terrible example for teens about what constitutes normal adolescent behavior. I’ve seen a lot of movies. But watching this as an adult made me feel very uncomfortable. I didn’t want to see these teenagers taking off their clothes and having sex. I didn’t want to see Elle buying condoms. I didn’t want to see them getting very drunk as if it was the most natural thing in the world. I didn’t want to see Elle’s pseudo-boyfriend treat her like a piece of property. I didn’t want to hear them continually use harsh profanity. Watching this movie also raised a lot of questions for me. Where are the parents throughout this entire film? Why do they seem to have no clue about what’s going on? Why is Elle always taking her clothes off whenever she has the chance? Why is a guy’s sexual harassment dismissed by school officials with a casual detention? And why does no one other than Lee have a problem with how controlling and aggressive Noah is? Like I said The Kissing Booth is a disaster—especially for the target audience Netflix has aimed this TV-14 at. Suffice it to say it’s not appropriate for 14-year-olds … or, really, anyone else, for that matter. Parents, get practical information from a biblical worldview to help guide media decisions for your kids!
Parentsneed to know that The Kissing Booth 2 is the sequel to The Kissing Booth, Netflix's super-popular movie based on the ebook by Beth Reekles.The story picks up just after the original movie ended, with main character Elle starting her senior year at an upscale private high school while her boyfriend goes off to college.This film is tamer than the original, with less underage drinking
How many movies does it take to tell a story about high school senior Elle Evans Joey King trying to decide whether to honor her friendship to lifelong bestie Lee Joel Courtney or break the “rules” by dating his smoking-hot older brother, Noah Jacob Elordi? If you’re Netflix — the content factory that milked “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” for its full trilogy potential — then the answer is three, obviously. Except the makers of “The Kissing Booth” didn’t have a solid book series to fall back on young author Beth Reekles was 15 when she wrote the original, and the sequels have been afterthoughts, nor a compelling romantic rivalry to stretch across multiple movies. What they did have was the data to suggest audiences wanted more. I too wanted more — less of the same, but a little substance for a change. How great would it be if Elle found enough self-respect to pursue her own dreams, rather than deciding her future according to which of the Flynn bros’ hearts she least wanted to break? Spoiler alert “The Kissing Booth 3” offers some of both — that is, there’s plenty of fan service including a whole new list for Elle and Lee to exhaust, but also a late-arriving sense of identity that gives this junk-food sequel just enough nutritional value to help its young audiences reconsider how to determine their own post-high school priorities. Last time we saw Elle, she had been accepted to two universities UC Berkeley, which she and Lee had always planned to attend, or Harvard, where Noah suggests they get an apartment together. You don’t have to be a geography major to recognize that these two schools are on opposite sides of the country. And speaking of majors, what is it that Elle wants to do with her life anyway? She’s vaguely described as “brilliant” in the series which director Vince Marcello has overseen since the beginning, maintaining a consistently chipper, Disney Channel vibe. But what does that mean? The short answer It means that she ought to have more than snogging Noah to look forward to in her life, and though this franchise may have been conceived as a naive teen fantasy, it’s not too late to give the character some dimension. Mind you, that’s all packed into the last half-hour of a movie that remains stubbornly content to trade in worn-out teen-movie clichés, as Elle finds herself mixed up in one petty misunderstanding after another. After doing the single-dad thing for half a dozen years, Mr. Evans Stephen Jennings — who was barely a character in the previous movies — is trying to start another relationship of his own, but Elle is too self-absorbed to give the woman Bianca Amato a chance. Then again, she has her hands full, having to get a summer job, take care of her younger brother Carson White, etc. It’s the summer before she and Lee are supposed to head off to college, and Mrs. Flynn Molly Ringwald, whose own YA hits millennials would do well to investigate has decided to sell the beach house. The “kids” convince her to let them fix it up over the summer, although no one’s fooled They’ve just been handed the keys to the ultimate party pad, and the movie is too basic to engage with any of the ways that might go wrong. One of Noah’s old crushes Maisie Richardson-Sellers crashes with them, causing Elle to get jealous. She reciprocates by striking things back up with Marco Taylor Zakhar Perez, the boy she kissed in front of Noah in the previous movie. Are we really worried that either of these rivals will upset the couple? This movie has all the complexity of a shampoo commercial. Before the brothers go their separate ways, the close-knit trio is determined to make this the most memorable summer ever — which is a recipe for “The Kissing Booth 3” to cram in everything from skydiving to sumo wrestling all to-do items on the Bucket Beach List that Elle unearths in an old Mario Kart lunchbox. The flash mob and cosplay racing scenes are memorable, but the rest is reduced to montage as the movie essentially acknowledges that these recent grads are peaking before their lives have even begun. With all that fun out of the way, the characters start behaving like adults in the film’s final stretch The pressure’s on for everyone involved to tie things up well, and even if all that’s come before feels generic keep in mind that tweens haven’t necessarily seen the bajillion other TV series and movies Marcello and company so shamelessly recycle, what really matters here is how the “Kissing Booth” movies will end, since that’s what fans will remember. Here, Orson Welles’ adage comes in handy “If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.” “The Kissing Booth 3” could have gone out on a conventional romantic note — say, ending on a kiss — as if to suggest Elle and Noah who have all the chemistry of a pair of telethon co-hosts will grow old and gray together. Instead, the film leaves things surprisingly uncertain, while inventing for Elle a whole list of ambitions that hadn’t even been hinted at until this point. Then it skips forward six years till everyone’s out of school, revealing Elle so transformed that I half-wish the film had been about those intervening years, in which she develops a personality. But maybe it’s enough to know that she eventually managed to find one.
TheKissing Booth 3 | Official Trailer | Netflix. Watch on. Marco (Taylor Perez) shows up to undo much of the likeable persona the last movie built around him, and serves mostly as a catalyst for
Cast & crewUser reviewsTrivia2018TV-141h 45mA high school student is forced to confront her secret crush at a kissing high school student is forced to confront her secret crush at a kissing high school student is forced to confront her secret crush at a kissing production, box office & company infoVideos5Jacob Elordi Receives the IMDb STARmeter AwardMore like thisReview CreepyIt's as if the Hallmark channel tried to make an R rated movie while keeping it 7, 2018Contribute to this pageSuggest an edit or add missing contentEdit pageMore to explore
Despitethe Criticism, Joey King Will "Never Regret" the "Kissing Booth" Movies. 4 August, 2022. by eden arielle gordon. Getty / Axelle/Bauer-Griffin. Joey King is opening up about her
Movie Reviews By Reviewer Type All Critics Top Critics All Audience Verified Audience Prev Next [Noah and Elle's] relationship quickly spirals into one of those classic toxic relationships that populate Netflix's teen dramas. Full Review Mar 16, 2021 A refreshing film in its start but whose interest soon decays to end up being a mediocre movie. [Full Review in Spanish] Full Review Original Score 2/5 Apr 3, 2019 The director seemed to have a strange fascination with the lead taking off her shirt and wearing super short skirts, and the camera lingered on her in ways that made me uncomfortable. Full Review Original Score F Feb 25, 2019 It feels like it was written by someone who simply digested everything she was told "romance" was supposed to be by the patriarchy, and vomited back at us. Nearly every cliché in the film feels cribbed from another movie. Full Review Jan 31, 2019 A smattering of swearing, sexual references and underage drinking means it doesn't patronise its intended audience, and it refreshingly allows the female lead to be the dork, rather than some unobtainable Venus. Full Review Original Score 3/5 Jan 8, 2019 Largely for its pre-teen audience as its flaws will likely stand out like an unwanted cold sore on prom night for those outside of its target demographic. Full Review Original Score 4/10 Jul 7, 2018 I can confirm that it's not a good film. In fact, its themes are at times unsettling. Full Review Jun 21, 2018 In another film, the sentiment would be a romantic one. In The Kissing Booth, it feels like a cage. Full Review Original Score D May 31, 2018 Allusions to The Breakfast Club in the soundtrack and the casting of Molly Ringwald certainly don't help The Kissing Booth look anything other than lazy and amateur next to other teen classics. Full Review May 28, 2018 Quirky romcom has strong language, teen drinking, sex. Full Review Original Score 3/5 May 22, 2018 Tone-shifting "cute" teen rom-com that becomes less young teen suitable and more clumsy and ham-handed, the longer it runs. Full Review Original Score 2/4 May 17, 2018 [The Kissing Booth's] troubling treatment of the female body and unrealistic representation of high school hinders its ability to accomplish anything meaningful. Full Review Original Score 1/5 May 15, 2018 The Kissing Booth is not a good movie. It is a good, drunk, mindless, late night rom-com watch, but it is not a good movie. For that, we say skip it. Full Review May 11, 2018 Prev Next Do you think we mischaracterized a critic's review?
TheKissing Booth 3 could have gone out on a conventional romantic note — say, ending on a kiss — as if to suggest that Elle and Noah will grow old and gray together. Instead, the film leaves things frustratingly uncertain, inventing a whole new list of college ambitions for Elle that hadn't even been hinted at until now.
Netflix’s continued forays into the wide world of romantic comedies — wildly popular with film fans, often overlooked by the studio system — has seen plenty of ups and downs. The streaming giant won acclaim for series like “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” and one-offs like “Set It Up,” but its romcom picks are just as prone to flaming out as setting the world on fire. While Vince Marcello’s 2018 adaptation of Beth Reekles’ YA novel “The Kissing Booth” scored big in terms of viewership, critical appraisals were not so kind; with a 17 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the film is one of Netflix’s worst-reviewed originals. Critics aside, the streamer gave the people what they want. Joey King returns to star in a sequel to the high school romcom —and “The Kissing Booth 2” is better than its predecessor, but that’s hardly a big ask. While the first film was rife with sexist rhetoric, casual slut-shaming, and a “bad boy” lead who never met a put-down or a punch he didn’t like, its sequel tones down the offensive BS, finding something sweeter and far more enjoyable in the process. Even for audiences not turned off by the regressive attitudes of the original, its oddly aggressive tone was never, well, romantic, a misstep that Marcello now attempts to rectify. And yet the greatest strength of “The Kissing Booth 2,” an overstuffed clocking in at a whopping 132 minutes mishmash of genre tropes and tricks, isn’t its many romances; it’s King, who finally gets to spread her wings and her comedic chops. Picking up just 27 days after the conclusion of “The Kissing Booth” — a series of zippy montages catch us up on what’s happened since Noah Jacob Elordi headed off to college after a blissful summer with Elle King — the sequel leans into its change of heart early. Noah is a new man read a dedicated boyfriend who shows no signs of his past history of cheating, trash talk, and getting into fights and is heading off to Harvard, despite his discomfort leaving Elle, who is gearing up for her senior year and already seems alight with more agency and confidence. While “The Kissing Booth” focused on their forbidden romance, mostly steeped in the weirdness of Elle going for her best friend Lee’s Joel Courtney big brother a secret relationship that put a temporary ding in the duo’s lifelong bond, “TKB2” is more concerned with what happens now that their romance is affirmed and accepted. Attempting to be more mature, Elle opts to give Noah his space — but that move keeps the gossip hounds talking, and makes Noah wonder if the pair are really meant to be. Enter a pair of sexy potential rivals Maisie Richardson-Sellers as Noah’s college pal Chloe, Taylor Zakhar Perez as Elle’s new classmate Marco, and the film’s aim seems pretty clear. “The Kissing Booth 2”Marcos Cruz/Netflix “The Kissing Booth 2” also folds in a long and repetitive subplot involving Lee’s girlfriend Rachel Meganne Young, a trip to Boston, drama about which college Elle wants to attend, and an incredibly long section that sees Elle and Marco attempt to win a massive virtual dance competition. Again, with 132 minutes to fill, there’s plenty here. It’s not all good. And then there’s the series of bizarre perspective shifts in which the film is suddenly being told by Noah, or the film’s insistence on yet another titular kissing booth, shoehorned in at the last possible moment. More happens in the film’s first hour than in some full seasons of television, suggesting that “The Kissing Booth” might have fared better as an episodic offering rather than an overstuffed film franchise that never finds its footing. Other missteps will surely be familiar to fans of the first film, including that “The Kissing Booth 2” suffers from a classic case of being a “high school” film oddly populated by stars long out of the school system while King, Courtney, and Elordi are all in their early twenties, many of their co-stars are not, and the effect of seeing obvious adults traipsing through teenage drama is nothing short of bizarre. Even during its best bits, the film never coalesces into a workable whole. At least that allows for some wacky fun, with King getting to flex her comedic muscles a scene in which she waxes poetic about Marco’s body is both out of place and a welcome injection of pure comedy into this lighter sequel. It also makes space for some very big dramas, and the film’s last half is filled with genuinely shocking moments, the kind that land with an enough impact like a wrenching Thanksgiving dinner to suggest that “The Kissing Booth 2,” for all it messiness, might have some sneaky emotional weight to it. “The Kissing Booth 2”Marcos Cruz/Netflix Still, that doesn’t keep the film from being predictable, even as it continues to pile on the complications. While it offers some necessary growth for all of its characters, “The Kissing Booth 2” can never resist looking and acting like dozens of other offerings of its genre ilk, unable to grow beyond basic complications and done-to-death dramas. And yet there are hints that its evolution has a few more tricks left to employ, its winking conclusion only one of them. Minor spoilers ahead. Much like its predecessor, “The Kissing Booth 2” sets up for a sequel. While “The Kissing Booth” offered something of an open-ended conclusion, the latest chapter all but begs for at least one more edition. This time, however, that possibility seems less like a threat, and more of a chance for some rare franchise redemption. Grade C+ “The Kissing Booth 2” is now streaming on Netflix.
Unlikemany other sequels, The Kissing Booth 2 is better than its original. However, this teen romance is not the one to question and to assert its revolutionised ideas, but trying to be a part of contemporary cinema, perhaps recognising how its original lacked and ignored many of the ideas of inclusivity. King and Elordi's chemistry is given
Thisteen romance story returns in full-force with even more drama. "The Kissing Booth 2" picks up right where the first film left off. Elle Evans (Joey King) and her boyfriend Noah Flynn (Jacob Elordi) spend a romantic summer together before it is time for Noah to head back to Harvard and for Joey to start her senior year of high school.
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review film the kissing booth
