Scott Moore and Jon Lucas build broad comedies around groups behaving badly. Their premises are inviting, but Spa Weekend leaves us doubtful about their willingness to demand better jokes from themselves.
Fi1m perspective
In Spa Weekend (2026), four friends take a spa break and make wellness culture the target of their misbehaviour. Scott Moore and his writing and directing partner Jon Lucas have a workable starting point, but do too little with it. The situations remain familiar even after the disruption begins. We were bored by the predictable wellness jokes, which give the performers so little fresh to do.
Moore and Lucas broke through as screenwriters with The Hangover (2009). Moore made his directing debut alongside Lucas with 21 & Over (2013), followed by Bad Moms (2016), its sequel in 2017 and Jexi (2019). Groups escaping their usual responsibilities recur in their work, from bachelor parties to parental rebellion. These are useful starting points for ensemble comedy: gather people who know one another, remove a few restraints and see what happens.
Since Lucas shares the writing and directing, there is little sense in trying to separate their contributions on the evidence here. Both have to answer for the gap between the cast's abilities and the material. In Spa Weekend, Leslie Mann, Michelle Buteau, Anna Faris and Isla Fisher manage scattered laughs, giving us a reason to keep watching. But the characters are broadly drawn, and the writing has not earned the affection it later asks for.
The weakness is not one that cinematographer Danny Ruhlmann, production designer Michelle McGahey or composer Philip White could reasonably be asked to repair. More elaborate spa surroundings would not make the satire sharper, and White's music cannot make these friendships matter on its own. Moore and Lucas show little curiosity about why their characters want what self-care promises them. They need not give us a lecture about wellness, but they do need to notice something beyond the obvious.
Moore has described the partnership's writing process: “We spent a lot of time on the phone arguing with each other. Then we go off and write.” There is nothing wrong with keeping the ambition modest and the comedy broad. Before the next outing, we would like them to be less forgiving of the jokes.
Biography
Scott Moore is an American screenwriter and film director. He has collaborated with writing and directing partner Jon Lucas for over two decades.
Moore was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is an alumnus of Punahou School and the University of Colorado Boulder. With Lucas, he wrote The Hangover (2009), The Hangover Part II (2011), The Hangover Part III (2013), The Change-Up (2011), Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009), 21 & Over (2013) and Jexi (2019). They also wrote and directed Bad Moms (2016), A Bad Moms Christmas (2017) and Spa Weekend (2026).
The pair created the ABC series Mixology (2014). Moore and Lucas received Writers Guild of America and BAFTA nominations for Best Original Screenplay for The Hangover.
