By John Corrado

★★½ (out of 4)

The Book Club ladies are back in Book Club: The Next Chapter, a sequel to the 2018 film that finds elderly best friends Diane (Diane Keaton), Vivian (Jane Fonda), Sharon (Candice Bergen) and Carol (Mary Steenburgen) – who first bonded over reading Fifty Shades of Grey – taking a trip together to Italy.

Director Bill Holderman (who also helmed the first one) reintroduces these characters during a prolonged opening sequence that takes place over Zoom, with the ladies having moved their book club online during the pandemic.

And it’s really the only part of The Next Chapter that centres around the book club, with this sequence mainly serving as exposition to catch us up to where the characters are in their lives. Sharon has just retired from her esteemed career as a judge, Diane is facing life as a widow while navigating her relationship with Mitchell (Andy Garcia), and Carol is worried about her husband Bruce’s (Craig T. Nelson) health.

When the never-married Vivian finally gets engaged to her wealthy old flame Arthur (Don Johnson), whom she connected with in the first film, the quartet takes it as a sign to finally embark on their long-planned trip to Italy for the bachelorette party. From here, Book Club: The Next Chapter basically unfolds as a light and fluffy travelogue.

Much of this sequel takes place in Italy, where the women get into the most innocent of debauchery as they enjoy the wine, food, and men that the country has to offer, while cracking a constant stream of cornball jokes and double entendres. The screenplay, once again co-written by Holderman and Erin Simms, takes them through a number of predictable scenarios, and the film is often content to play out at a sort of sitcom level with its humour. Not all of it works, and there’s hardly any weight to any of it, but the film is elevated slightly by the picturesque backdrop of having been shot in Italy.

This is basically the senior version of a hangout movie. It’s light on plot and offers a series of tropes that we can see coming a mile away, but the cast is having so much fun that it’s hard to really care. We are in the hands of four very talented actresses, who have more than earned the right to make a movie for the sole purpose of hanging out together in Italy (kinda like how Adam Sandler makes movies with the boys). It’s a puff piece through and through, but just sit back and enjoy the light banter and Italian scenery.

Bonus Features (Blu-ray):

The Blu-ray includes three featurettes. A regular DVD is also included in the package, which ships with a standard slipcover.

• Book Club: Back in Session (6 minutes, 4 seconds): The cast members talk about reprising their roles from the first film and how well they get along in real life.

• Still Stylish (5 minutes, 21 seconds): Fashion designer Stefano De Nardis talks about dressing these four iconic women.

• The Women in Italy (5 minutes, 29 seconds): The cast and crew talk about filming in Rome and Venice, utilizing historic locations.

Book Club: The Next Chapter is a Universal Pictures Home Entertainment release. It’s 107 minutes and rated PG.

Street Date: July 25th, 2023