Based on a screenplay by Katie Dippold, who penned the Sandra Bullock-Melissa McCarthy romp The Heat, this odd couple adventure about a mother and daughter in peril in South American jungles is all a bit forced and frantic.

Eastern Daily Press: Goldie Hawn as Linda Middleton and Amy Schumer as Emily Middleton in Snatched. Picture: Twentieth Century Fox UKGoldie Hawn as Linda Middleton and Amy Schumer as Emily Middleton in Snatched. Picture: Twentieth Century Fox UK (Image: TM & © 2016 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Not for sale or duplication.)

Snatched (15)

***

Before seeing Snatched I thought the probability was that Amy Schumer was a mean spirited, over entitled star whose 'ironic' Ugly American persona was only ever going to be strong enough to support one hit film, Trainwreck. And that she would soon be gently, but determinedly, escorted off stage to join the ranks of the formerly famous. After seeing Snatched I think she is a mean spirited, over entitled star who may be good enough for another film or two.

In Jonathan Levine's odd couple adventure self-absorbed, hard-partying dreamer Emily (Schumer) is dumped by her boyfriend (Randall Park) shortly before a non-refundable trip to Ecuador. Unable to persuade one of her female friends to accompany her on the South American odyssey, she turns instead to her sensible, uptight mother (Goldie Hawn).

Once there, they get kidnapped, escape and cause havoc in the Amazon. It's a typical American foreign excursion – blundering around oblivious to their surroundings and getting other people killed.

It's all a bit forced and frantic and the relationship between Schumer and Hawn doesn't really spark but there are enough good lines to keep it entertaining.

The internet is full of people who hate Schumer and Snatched is generating heaps of critical derision. Her inability to recognize that she can be unlikeable (and her effrontery for wearing a bikini while being supposedly overweight) enrages her detractors but they are the key to why the film works.

With her innocent seeming apple cheeks and pale skin she looks a little like a female Will Ferrell, though she hasn't got his comic invention - her jokes generally bludgeon the shortest, most direct route toward a punchline – they both specialise in playing overgrown babies, selfish wrecking balls.

Snatched is in the modern tradition of an American satire about Americans' delusional sense of entitlement that acts as though satire is the last thing on its agenda. Which, I guess, is very appropriate for an age when nobody really knows what is being played for laughs.