Voicemails for Isabelle

Netflix

Netflix has found one of its best romantic comedy hits ever, Voicemails for Isabelle, which boasts a rare 91% Rotten Tomatoes audience score. The film sat at the top of Netflix’s top 10 list since its debut, but now a new comedy has come along to unseat it.

The movie is Little Brother, starring John Cena, Eric Andre and Michelle Monaghan. Here’s the synopsis:

“An uptight realtor has it all: thriving career, loving family, pristine Porsche. And nothing escapes the rowdy return of his outrageous ‘little brother.’ ”

I’m not 100% sure why little brother is in quotes there, but I suppose we’ll have to watch the movie to find out. While Eric Andre has been a comedic force for ages, John Cena has dipped back and forth between action and comedy for a while now, succeeding in the latter more so than the former with movies like Blockers and shows like Peacemaker.

Checking the review scores, I am perhaps not shocked to see the film has a 53% Rotten Tomatoes score. It just didn’t seem like a movie that would score much higher, given the previews. Though it has debuted at number one, and there is clearly some interest. Still, comedies struggle to put up huge numbers for Netflix. On the top 10 of all time list, only one outright comedy, Don’t Look Up, makes the cut.

Voicemails for Isabelle remains a big win for Netflix, second only in views to the huge True Crime hit Maternal Instinct, which topped the charts for two full weeks. Voicemails is not set to get a sequel due to its storyline and the fact that it took seven years to get made in the first place. Though I would not be surprised if Netflix recruits writer/director Leah McKendrick for further projects.

The latter half of the list is almost entirely kids' movies: GOAT, Minions: Rise of Gru, Home, Despicable Me 3 and of course, KPop Demon Hunters, continuing its now over a year-long record of making it into Netflix’s top 10 list every single week. We will see how long Little Brother remains on top, and if the star power of John Cena in particular may help it stay there, but unless word of mouth spreads, I doubt it will be there for all that long. The next few days will let us know, and I would not be surprised to see Voicemails for Isabelle regain the top spot soon.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.