The Kissing Booth 3
NETFLIXBy the time the third entry in NETFLIX’s smash-hit romantic comedy series The Kissing Booth arrives, no words can truly do it justice at this stage. After the second film released in 2020 with the ludicrous clock time of nearly two and a half hours, it seemed that the only way for the final film in the trilogy to go was up – and not just in length. Despite sharing essentially the exact same flaws as its predecessor, The Kissing Booth 2 somehow manages to take itself so seriously that it cancels itself out, with the second film being so overblown that it is hard not to have some fun with it. Nevertheless, The Kissing Booth 3 opts not to go the full mile and hit the three-hour mark as some were ironically hoping for. Instead, it scales back to a rinse and repeat do-over of the previous two entries.
Picking up just after the last film concluded, Elle (Joey King) continues her struggle of not being able to choose what college to go to – not out of any conflict of what school will provide better resources or best fit her aspirations, rather she must decide if she wants to be closer to her on and off boyfriend Noah (Jacob Elordi) or her long term best friend Lee (Joel Courtney). With her relationship with Noah continuing to be on the rocks, Lee – who is also having his own relationship struggles with his girlfriend – is beginning to feel abandoned by his friend as summer comes to a close. Elle must learn something or other about herself and hopefully begin to wake up from this nightmare she has created and move on with her life, away from her psychotic relationships.
It really is more of the same, and that is not exactly a surprise – nor a bad thing, per se – yet with the third entry here, director Vince Marcello struggles to keep it all from feeling redundant, especially in the last few acts. While the opening moments manage to bring that same chaotic migraine-inducing energy from the last entry, the last near enough hour of the finale is impressively repetitive. Credit is due to Joey King: she has nothing more to do for the majority of this film other than have heart-to-hearts with every character in the franchise and ultimately walk away in tears. Yet she remains the only performance in the series that is remotely enjoyable, while everyone else around her seems they would rather be doing anything else than be on this set.
Taylor Zakhar Perezas as Marco, who brought the Twilight Team Edward vs Team Jacob in the last film, returns here and is once again there to fill a similar purpose of adding a wedge between the two romantic leads. Once again, such a theme only adds to show that Elle and Noah as characters are plainly horrendous for one another, breaking up what must be three times within a single film, yet still expecting the audience to shed a tear for them during their most hokey moments towards the final scenes. All the while, Marco and Elle have genuine chemistry with one another that is quickly swept under the rug.
While this may seem to be pretty ludicrous criticisms considering the target audience here, it all serves to highlight how horrendous the entire script is, being brought to life with some of the worst visuals in a major NETFLIX released in quite some time. At some point, it becomes a game trying to work out what scenes were shot on a green screen, with some bloopers during the credits hilariously confirming suspicions.
Listing how many baffling choices there are in The Kissing Booth 3 would be an essay in itself, yet what is worse here is how every choice is seemingly in effort of absolutely nothing. The film feels like a teen Snapchat story extended into a nearly two-hour feature – there is next to no plot here despite the film throwing everything it has at the wall, hoping it sticks. Ultimately, droning on and on until it finally ends on a note that will ultimately make fans happy. The Kissing Booth 3 is awful, but it would be hard to get angry if NETFLIX decided to keep going with this.
