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“Another Simple Favor” calls for a barrage of cinematic comparisons. The murderous, more-than-a-little-kooky cousin of “Mamma Mia.” “Romeo and Juliet,” if Juliet was a wine mom with a criminal backstory. “The Godfather,” but the movie starts and ends at the wedding. The luxury locale and mounting death count of “The Glass Onion” — plus questionable fashion choices, a fraught female friendship, and an incest subplot no one asked for. Mix these all together, and voila! You’ve created “Another Simple Favor.”

The film starts where its predecessor left off: Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) has won the day. After sending her ex-best friend Emily Nelson (Blake Lively) to jail for arson, fratricide, more attempted murder, and some good old fashioned con-artistry, Stephanie is moving forward. She’s cracked a growing list of true crime cases, written a book about her tumultuous friendship with Emily, and tried to put the past behind her. But it turns out the past never really stays buried — or at least never stays behind bars.

When Emily is freed from jail and turns up at Stephanie’s book signing to announce her impending Italian nuptials and ask Stephanie to be her maid of honor, Stephanie is forced to make a choice. She can resign herself to her vlog’s lagging numbers, her book’s poor performance, and her son’s humiliation over her very public misadventures — or she can follow Emily to Capri for one last showdown. What could possibly go wrong?

In the words of Emily herself, “If I do try to murder you, it will make an amazing sequel.”

Unfortunately, “amazing” may be an overstatement.

The first film, “A Simple Favor,” although indisputably bizarre, had a knife-sharp satirical edge and delivered an incisive commentary on female friendship and the noir genre. Seemingly innocuous suburban single mother and mommy vlogger Stephanie turns out to harbor a tendency toward infatuation and a talent for prying open skeleton-filled closets. Effortlessly cool Emily — with her brilliant and sexy husband, glamorous career, and house straight out of a magazine — has a heart frostier than the martinis she’s constantly chugging and a secret worth killing to keep. The women appear to be polar opposites. But at the end of the day, it turns out they’re two sides of the same coin — steelier and far more complex women than meets the eye.

“A Simple Favor” is based off the book by Darcey Bell, whereas the sequel, “Another Simple Favor,” is an original screenplay by Jessica Sharzer and Laeta Kalogridis. The sequel maintains all of the bloodlust, banter, and intrigue of “A Simple Favor.” But somewhere along the way, the substance of the first film disappears. Gone is the biting social commentary, the wry feminist critique, the flirtation with genre conventions. What remains is an opulent, booze-soaked girls trip to Capri that tilts into unhinged territory faster than you can say “I do.”

This sense of underwhelming may in part be a result of the fact that the element of surprise has been lost. The reveal that suburban mothers — so seemingly stereotypical that they may as well be caricatures — can also be criminals, detectives, and maybe a little bit of both is well behind us. We know to expect the blood, the scheming, the long-lost siblings, and the seemingly impossible resurrections. There are plot twists, yes, and good ones — but, by now, we already know that a ticking bomb is waiting. This time, the plot twists won’t make you question gender norms, they’ll just make you rethink your vacation plans. What once felt subversive and shocking has flattened out into a breezy vacation gone wrong.

It’s entertaining, certainly. The unflagging sunshine, beachside views, and gorgeous floral arrangements are a feast for the eyes. And the plot twists, which make the ordinary murder plot of the first film seem like child’s play, will keep viewers on their toes. But at the end of the day, the film falls into the same trap that has thwarted so many sequels before it: “Another Simple Favor” is no match for its precursor because of its lack of original substance.

There are moments when the spark of the first film flashes back to life. Kendrick delivers a performance of Stephanie that is comedic, charming, and endearingly cringe-inducing as ever. Lively shines as Emily, freed from playing house in suburbia. The friendship — if indeed it can be called that — between the two women remains center stage, and Kendrick and Lively inject it with friction, humor, and chemistry. If anything, “Another Simple Favor” is a testament to the fact that not even a deranged storyline can thwart the acting chops of the film’s stars.

Ultimately, “Another Simple Favor” is a film that has unapologetically detached itself from any semblance of realism or self-seriousness. And as long as you’re willing to overlook the substance that drives the original “A Simple Favor,” the film seems to work. Because, unlike the original, substantive meaning is besides the point of the sequel — this time around, the point is plot twists that will have your jaw on the floor, quippy one liners, and stunning Italian vistas.

On those notes, at least, the film does its audience a simple favor and delivers.

—Staff writer Makenna J. Walko can be reached at makenna.walko@thecrimson.com.