Girls Trip

The art of gross out comedies have the difficult challenge of satisfying audiences in how they must find ways to be creatively amusing in the jokes they use, the comedic timing in certain situations, and the chemistry of the leading actors. They typically use predictable familiar plots and must be smart in the humor (both physical and verbal) to make up for it as they use tropes its audiences easily recognize such as using jokes about genitalia, wacky drug induced sequences, cheesy dialog, crazy parties that go over the top with alcohol consumption, cheesy predictable dialog, a scene stealing character with great one liners, hilarious sex scenes implicitly implied or explicitly revealed, and funky music throughout misadventures. There's an abundance of films within the genre that vary in terms of their quality. It's difficult to find the good ones due to so many terrible wannabes that can overcrowd them. The genre has been forming and learning how to succeed since 1978 with National Lampoon's Animal while struggling to keep their material fresh in the industry in the recent decades. My personal favorites include Animal House, a number of Judd Apatow movies, 21 and 22 Jump Street, and Bridesmaids. This year has been challenging in finding a good gross out comedy film considering the laziness of Rough Night, Baywatch, and Snatched. Recently a good amount of buzz has been going on about a recent comedy that's been out in theaters that past few weeks (at this point), Girls Trip. I haven't seen any advertisements for it and wanted to find something that will make me laugh hard. I went into the pack theater ready for a fun time after a long day with work and left it ecstatic over finally discovering a great comedy film this year...we just needed to wait until July for it to be rewarded to the public after so many duds that have come and gone (still proves there's hope for the genre after all).

Please note that any of the parts that I liked or didn't like about this or any of the films reviewed on this blog won't be covered on their individual posts but will be place on the yearly retrospective page that will be posted at the end of the year due to possible spoiler content.

Plot: The plot of Girls Trip follows a posse of four close friends reuniting for an Essence conference in New Orleans to celebrate their time together while dealing with each of their own personal issues. There are a couple of arcs to keep keep track of but the story manages to blend them fairly well for the most part. It's very predictable with an abundance of cliches but the manner in which the comedy is used here makes the most out of them. Most of the aforementioned tropes are on full display here but due to the likable lead characters, a great portion of those jokes are hilarious. One way to describe this movie would be taking an episode from the Netflix show, Marvel's Luke Cage, and making it more cheesy and raunchy while making Mike Coulter a side character (to those of you who have seen the show and/or know about that character, try to come up with funny quips about that Luke Cage in regards to the actor's attractiveness throughout the film). Outside of the comedy, it makes time for some melodramatic moments between the characters and their storylines. Some of those tend to lose some of momentum a bit and drag a little but not by much. The funny skits that drive throughout the experience help distract from that issue and can bring the audience into laugh out loud while bringing an inspirational message towards the end of it that completes the viewing experience on a high note. Overall the plot of Girls Trip falls prey to common stereotypical plots but manages to be enjoyable due to successful comic relief supported by the talent cast of characters interacting with each other and their environment.

Characters: The characters to focus on are Ryan (Regina Hall), Sasha (Queen Latifah), Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith), and Dina (Tiffany Haddish). The beginning of the film lets the audience know the archetypes each character depicts in this comedy. One thing to keep in mind is that these actresses share great believable chemistry with one another throughout their exciting misadventures. Ryan is an popular self help author who has been invited to be a keynote speaker at Essence while struggling with issues involving her husband. Regina gives a good performance with her relatable role of trying to have a perfect balance with her life in an imperfect world while having some good amusing chops as she wants to celebrate with her longtime friends. This does contribute to one of the weaker elements of the film with overused plot lines from her character but it doesn't detract from the overall quality that much due to the actress's portrayal. Sasha is a celebrity gossip blogger doing whatever she can to earn money, which comes to conflict with Ryan and the morality of her decisions. Queen Latifah gives a good performance but her character role doesn't give her the memorable moments the other leads and, similar to Regina, falls into those weaker overused tropes (though to her credit she actually has some surprisingly enjoyable scenes in utilizing her humorous chops). Lisa is a single mom who has lost her fiery spark to be as risky as she had kids and is cajoled by her friends to get her groove back. Jada provides a great performance as she tries to watch out for her girls while finding herself in unexpected erotic situations with some goofy results (being adorable in the process...which probably indicates why Will Smith fell in love and married her). Dina is a carefree party girl with great loyalty for her posse to have fun and an abundance of stellar one-liners. Tiffany Haddish is not only having a great time in this role but she's the raunchy MVP of the group with excellent timing on her physical humor, naughty gestures (including one involving a certain fruit that must be seen to be believed), and the ready for action kind of upbeat attitude. While everyone else in the group has an arc, Dina is exempt from having one due to her scene stealing ability without a care in the world (this includes an airplane scene which doesn't follows the rules of reality involving them in our current time). Overall while they fall into stereotypes expected for these movie, the cast and characters of Girls Trip show their great comedic range and chemistry throughout the silly gross out extravaganza in their posse.

Overall Consensus: Girls Trip is an R Rated comedy with a great cast of characters demonstrating their comedic range and charming chemistry in their raunchy reunion abundant of hilarious gags and cliched stereotypes. ⭑⭑⭑⭑🍿

Reasons to watch it: You like any of the aforementioned actresses. You want to watch a good R rated raunchy comedy. You and/or your buddies, significant other, girlfriends want to have a silly fun time at the movie theater (try to watch it in a crowed auditorium for a better experience). You like films with sexually explicit content and wacky drug induced sequences. You don't mind expected cliches in comedies as long as the great gags overcome them. You like movies that takes place in New Orleans. You like feel good silly films where the cast has great chemistry with each other. You like comic relief that takes place in parties and bars.

Reasons to avoid it: You don't like any of the aforementioned actresses. You don't watch to see an R rated raunchy comedy. You hate expected cliches in comedies as long as the great gags overcome them. You don't like films with sexually explicit content and wacky drug induced sequences.

Coming up next: This will likely be the only film in theaters that I will review for this month unless something comes to mind. There are a few upcoming movies in September that will be covered here but for the time being Screening Spectacles with take a break from the cinemas and will be open for input on any underrated movies to be mentioned after viewing them here. If you have any ideas on that type of topic and would like some validation on its quality that hasn't been given enough attention, please go to the Facebook page for Screening Spectacles and message me from there with entries both old and new that shine above those overrated foes. Update: The review following this will be the recently released drama, Detroit.

Comments

Popular Posts