The Kissing Booth 3 movie review (2021)

More tiresome still are some of the shenanigans these Gen Z kids get up to. The annoying list of friendship rules are back with an addendum: a list of random summer activities essentially cooked up by Elle to make Lee happy. For reasons I cannot explain, this includes a contest to see who can drink the most frozen drinks the fatest and survive the ensuing brain freeze, a helium-induced karaoke number that somehow brings the house down and orchestrating a choreographed flash mob, which feels like a blast from the past decade –– which could be same for many of the movie’s needle drops. The only set piece that manages to be more creative than exhausting is a go-kart race based on the video game Mario Kart, but only if you’re alright with the fact the kids, as they do in the game, throw items to make their competitors crash. Gentlemen, learning a TikTok dance was right there. 

King, who normally tries her best to sell Elle’s growing pains of young love, looks a little more checked out this time around. She left behind the wide-eyed optimism of the previous chapters for an Elle who seems so tired by it all, she can do little more than cry or snap at the new woman dating her dad. Elordi’s cool hot boyfriend shtick also seems similarly tired. His character’s macho posturing is less about connecting with Elle than being too insecure with her. Courtney seems to be the only one fully committed to his character, which unfortunately, doesn’t seem to have matured much from when he first protested over his best friend dating his brother. Even perennial scene saver Molly Ringwald, who plays the boys’ mother Mrs. Flynn, isn’t around for most of the movie to smooth over ruffled feathers and bruised egos.  

It’s hard to believe the cinematography of these movies could get worse, but believe me, they do. Likely due to the pandemic or a tight schedule, a number of close-ups of Elle, Lee and Noah are clearly green screened, which looks about as unnatural as many things do in the story. There’s one climatic showdown that takes place at the Hollywood Hills sign that really defies any sort of reason. It’s not so much spectacle or camp, just silly. Perhaps for this last go-around, Marcello has committed to the series’ cheaply saccharine premise and only half-heartedly tried to make it look better than an old Aéropostale from the aughts, focusing his camera on mostly white young people (except for Marco and Chloe) against the backdrop of a coastal sun-soaked California. “The Kissing Booth 3” has about as much depth as one of those ads. After the sand has been shaken out of shoes and final smiles have been pointed at the camera, there’s not really much more to the movie. Just a boy, a girl and the looks they trade with each other.

On Netflix today.