Mark Reviews Movies: BAD TRIP

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | March 26, 2021

The gimmick of Bad Trip is intriguing. It's basically a road-trip comedy, in which two long-time friends travel from Florida to New York City, with one of the buddies looking for unlikely love at the end of the journey. That basic plot is scripted, as well as familiar and clichéd, but that's part of the more essential joke of this movie.

The central gag is that all of these scenes play out in front of unwitting observers and occasional participants. Screenwriters Eric André (who also stars), Kitao Sakurai (who also directed), and Dan Curry basically have orchestrated an elaborate series of pranks on unsuspecting people, who watch with curiosity, amusement, and befuddlement as scenes from an over-the-top comedy play out in front of them. They don't appear to notice, and indeed, a reel of footage plays out next to the end credits, as those folks learn that multiple cameras have been recording the scene and, almost as importantly, their reactions the entire time.

One of the pleasant surprises of this movie is that the gags aren't mean or insulting or intentionally confrontational toward these innocent bystanders. They may not be in on the joke, but that doesn't mean they have to be the joke. The punch line is almost always aimed at André or one of his co-stars, and there are moments in which the actor (who has had a few years' worth of experience doing similar things on television) is gentle and courteous toward the people who don't know they're part of the joke.

With his character Chris rushing to get to work one morning, André trips over a garbage can outside a store, and a woman is stunned and momentarily terrified by it. André gets up, apologizes, and proceeds to hold the door open for her. This isn't a great joke, obviously, but it is a surprisingly sweet moment, firmly establishing the tone and comedic approach almost immediately.

A few of the unknowing participants turn out to be pretty nice people, too. In the movie's opening scene (easily the funniest of the whole movie), Chris is working at a garage, cleaning a stranger's car. He's shocked, though, with the sudden, unexpected appearance of Maria (Michaela Conlin), on whom he had a crush in high school and who has returned home from New York to visit family.

In his distraction, the vacuum catches hold of his clothing, and we'll just leave the ensuing embarrassment to be discovered. The stranger, though, steps up in a big way, offering some cover, helping to hide Chris' shame, and even trying to get Maria's phone number for the poor guy, who's currently cowering in the stranger's car.

There are other such moments, as well as some less-helpful ones (It's not surprising, although a little disappointing, how many people record some of the more "dangerous" pranks on their cellphones), and André and Sakurai (who also has directed most of the episodes of the actor's TV show) don't mock this unexpected generosity or judge people's dismay, curiosity, or refusal to become involved in the weird things happening in front of them. Pranks aren't usually seen as kind-hearted, but the filmmakers here come about as close as possible to making that happen, making the exceptions to that rule stand out quite a bit.

The story is mostly unimportant, but basically, Chris and his best friend Bud (Lil Rel Howery) decide to drive to New York, so that Chris can make a big, romantic gesture to Maria. They take a car belonging to Trina (Tiffany Haddish), Bud's sister, who's supposed to be in prison but escaped (The scene of that, with a stranger simultaneously trying to cover for Trina and himself, is an inspired bit of farce). She spends the rest of the movie chasing the two.

Some of this, especially in the beginning (the vacuum bit, the prison escape, and an impromptu musical number on the street and in a mall food court), works quite well. A lot of the pranks feel spontaneous, as if the filmmakers had to come up with something on the spot for the plot or a given location, and some of them, such as a trip to a country-Western bar where Chris drinks himself into a stupor, seem to be hoping for a reaction from the onlookers that never arrives.

Throughout the shenanigans here is some satire, aimed at the clichés and conventions of the big-studio comedy. How unrealistic and unnatural and improbable, after all, are such moments as the public apology between friends, some sudden violence or confrontation, and the big, romantic gesture at a person's place of employment? How would ordinary people in the real world react to things that are so commonplace in our movies?

Here, they react with a lot of confusion, some annoyance, mostly evasion (either looking away or putting a cellphone between them and the action), a few acts of some relative courage, and occasional kindness. André, who shows himself to be as respectful as a professional prankster can be, and Sakurai don't want these strangers to be the joke, but this assemblage of hit-or-miss pranks (with a lot of hits early and an increasing frequency of misses as the movie progresses) never quite figures out its comedic intentions. The joke of Bad Trip may be on the actors and the story, but it's never entirely certain what the actual joke is.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products