Queenpins

Queenpins
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Aron Gaudet Gita Pullapilly
Written by	Aron Gaudet Gita Pullapilly
Produced by	Linda McDonough Nicky Weinstock
Starring	Kristen Bell Kirby Howell-Baptiste Paul Walter Hauser Bebe Rexha Vince Vaughn
Cinematography	Andrew Wehde
Edited by	Kayla Emter
Music by	Siddhartha Khosla
Production companies	AGC Studios Marquee Entertainment Red Hour Productions
Distributed by	STXfilms
Release date	September 10, 2021 (2021-09-10) (United States)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$20 million [1]
Box office	$1.2 million [2]

Queenpins is a 2021 American comedy film written and directed by Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly. It stars Kristen Bell, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Paul Walter Hauser, Bebe Rexha, and Vince Vaughn. Ben Stiller serves as an executive producer under his Red Hour Productions banner.

It was released in the United States on September 10, 2021 by STXfilms.

The film received mixed reviews from critics and underperformed commercially, grossing only $1.2 million.

Plot[]

Dejected and frustrated suburban housewife Connie Kaminski has followed the conventional life path set for her by society ever since she was young. Her sacrifices have never been appreciated and she has been overlooked by her husband Rick, her loved ones and the rest of society. Alienated by her uninspiring existence, Connie joins forces with her best friend, JoJo Johnson, and the duo comes up with an illegal coupon club scheme. Connie and JoJo end up scamming large corporations out of millions of dollars. Their ingenious scheme eventually gets too big to remain a secret, attracting the attention of law enforcement authorities, who begin to track them to bring down their illegal empire. Leading the investigation are determined U.S. postal inspector Simon Kilmurry and hapless loss prevention officer Ken Miller, who both have their own reasons for bringing the scammers to justice.

Kilmurry and Miller do not catch Connie and JoJo until after the pair have defrauded over 240 companies of tens of millions of dollars. The pair are facing 40-years-to-life, but the largest of the victims clandestinely press the courts to go easy in order to avoid bad press, resulting in one year of probation for JoJo and 11 months incarceration (parole eligible in eight) for Connie. Though most of their fraudulent earnings have been confiscated, the pair have hundreds of thousands of dollars from their illegal dollars stashed away, and immediately restart the scam from a non-extradition country.

Cast[]

In addition, the scenes when making the gun sale include short appearances by the co-director's brother, Nick Gaudet, as a barista, as well as actor and director Nick Cassavetes as the leader of the group buying the guns.

Production[]

In May 2019, it was announced Kristen Bell and Leslie Jones had joined the cast of the film, with Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly directing from a screenplay they wrote.^[3] In July 2020, it was announced Paul Walter Hauser and Vince Vaughn had joined the cast of the film.^[4] In September 2020, Kirby Howell-Baptiste joined the cast of the film, replacing Jones, with Ben Stiller joining as an executive producer under his Red Hour Productions banner, with STX Entertainment set to distribute.^[5] In October 2020, Bebe Rexha joined the cast of the film.^[6] In December 2020, Dayo Okeniyi, Joel McHale, Nick Cassavetes, Michael Masini, Paul Rust, Eduardo Franco, Marc Evan Jackson, Lidia Porto, Greta Oglesby, Jack McBrayer and Annie Mumolo joined the cast of the film.^[7]

Principal photography began in October 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[8]

Release[]

In June 2021, Showtime and Paramount+ acquired U.S. pay TV and streaming rights to the film for about $20 million.^[1] It was released on September 10, 2021.^[9]

Reception[]

Box office[]

In North America, the film was released limited expansion alongside Malignant and the limited expansion of The Card Counter . Other box office grosses include Russia ($326,012), Ukraine ($221,109), Netherlands ($200,244), United Arab Emirates ($123,281), Hungary ($88,609), Croatia ($41,810), Lithuania ($18,354), Iceland ($11,774), South Africa ($5,900) and Portugal ($5,501).^[10]

Critical reception[]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 47% based on 55 reviews with an average rating of 5.50/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Lowbrow humor and inconsistent storytelling undercut Queenpins' talented cast, making this coupon-clipping comedy a disappointingly poor bargain."^[11] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 42 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".^[12] Hauser's performance as fraud specialist Ken Miller received praise from critics who praised his onscreen chemistry with Vaughan while noting that the film established him as a comedic actor after his breakthrough role in 2019's Richard Jewell.^[13]

References[]