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Girls Trip
In the tradition of classic film comedies like Animal House and Bachelor Party comes a gender reversal of those films called Girls Trip, an expensive comic romp that delivers some solid laughs, despite some cliched writing and general over indulgence.
The 2017 comedy follows four high school girlfriends, who were known as the Flossy Posse, who reunite a couple of decades later to attend the Essence Festival in New Orleans. Ryan (Regina Hall) is a famous relationship expert/author who is denial about her cheating husband (Mike Colter); Sasha (Queen Latifah) is a gossip blogger whose business is fading and is quietly going broke; Dina (Tiffany Haddish) is an unemployed party girl and Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith) is a single mother of two who hasn't had sex in years. As expected, upon arrival in New Orleans, the usual bawdy adventures and eventual personal confrontations scratch their way to this well worn cinematic surface.
Screenwriters Erica Rivinoja and Kenya Barris have brought us the classic buddy movie except that the buddies Involved are African American females who speak with little or no filter and treat men like meat and you know what? In this day and age, it's acceptable to see men objectified for a change, even though most of the male characters in the movie don't have a brain in their head and the ones that do are shoved in the background.
Director Malcolm Lee was definitely given a healthy budget for this one...the film features authentic New Orleans locations and a shout out should go to Paul Hillspaugh's editing , but a big budget doesn't necessarily mean a movie has to go on forever. I wish Lee had spent a little more time looking at the screenplay and finding about 25 minutes of this movie to cut.
Don't get me wrong, this movie brings the funny, but it just needed a little tightening. Regina Hall works hard at being convincing as a New Millenium Oprah and Tiffany Haddish steals every scene she is in as Dina. There is a plethora of cameo appearances including Larenz Tate, Morris Chestnut, Bobby BrOwn, Ne-Yo, Terry McMillan, Michael Blivens, P. Diddy, and Johnny Gill. Despite the expected lapses into melodrama in the final act, the movie does provide laughs, but it just goes on too long.
In the tradition of classic film comedies like Animal House and Bachelor Party comes a gender reversal of those films called Girls Trip, an expensive comic romp that delivers some solid laughs, despite some cliched writing and general over indulgence.
The 2017 comedy follows four high school girlfriends, who were known as the Flossy Posse, who reunite a couple of decades later to attend the Essence Festival in New Orleans. Ryan (Regina Hall) is a famous relationship expert/author who is denial about her cheating husband (Mike Colter); Sasha (Queen Latifah) is a gossip blogger whose business is fading and is quietly going broke; Dina (Tiffany Haddish) is an unemployed party girl and Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith) is a single mother of two who hasn't had sex in years. As expected, upon arrival in New Orleans, the usual bawdy adventures and eventual personal confrontations scratch their way to this well worn cinematic surface.
Screenwriters Erica Rivinoja and Kenya Barris have brought us the classic buddy movie except that the buddies Involved are African American females who speak with little or no filter and treat men like meat and you know what? In this day and age, it's acceptable to see men objectified for a change, even though most of the male characters in the movie don't have a brain in their head and the ones that do are shoved in the background.
Director Malcolm Lee was definitely given a healthy budget for this one...the film features authentic New Orleans locations and a shout out should go to Paul Hillspaugh's editing , but a big budget doesn't necessarily mean a movie has to go on forever. I wish Lee had spent a little more time looking at the screenplay and finding about 25 minutes of this movie to cut.
Don't get me wrong, this movie brings the funny, but it just needed a little tightening. Regina Hall works hard at being convincing as a New Millenium Oprah and Tiffany Haddish steals every scene she is in as Dina. There is a plethora of cameo appearances including Larenz Tate, Morris Chestnut, Bobby BrOwn, Ne-Yo, Terry McMillan, Michael Blivens, P. Diddy, and Johnny Gill. Despite the expected lapses into melodrama in the final act, the movie does provide laughs, but it just goes on too long.