← Back to Reviews
in
Bad Trip
Actor/comedian Eric Andre gets an "A" for imagination but his 2021 comedy Bad Trip is an over the top and often offensive comic melding of two different genres that were never really meant to meld, providing the occasional chuckle, but not enough to sustain its economic running time.
Andre directed, co-wrote, and stars in this comedy as Chris, a guy who lives in Florida and has an accidental run in with a girl from high school named Michelle, learning that she now lives in Manhattan. Chris decides that Michelle is his soulmate and decides he has to go to Manhattan and find her. He persuades his best friend, Bud (Lil Rel Howery) to steal his sister's car so they can take a road trip to New York. Bud's sister, Trina (Tiffany Haddish) is a convict who has escaped from jail and hits the road to murder her brother and his BFF for stealing her car.
Andre seems to be going the Borat route here as he presents a standard buddy/road movie, fills it with outrageous physical comedy and places said comedy in the context of a hidden camera television premise and therein lies what's wrong here. The blending of a movie genre and a television genre is a risk that doesn't pay off here the way it did in Borat probably because Andre's writing skills aren't at the level of Sasha Baron Cohen.
The film actually gets off to a good start with Chris' fake musical number in the middle of a mall where shoppers have no desire to be part of a musical number. Unfortunately, Chris' encounter with a gorilla in a zoo, Trina's hassling people about having seen her brother, Bud's battle with a port-a-potty, and Chris' drunken vomit-filled escapade at a bar aren't really as funny as Andre thinks they are.
It wasn't until about halfway through the film that I realized what Andre was trying to do here, and once I did, it didn't make what was going on any funnier, Andre is a funny, energetic guy who shows promise as an actor and a writer, but this vehicle just makes him look like an idiot. Lil Rel Howery just looks embarrassed throughout and Haddish is just ridiculously over the top. Borat fans might have a head start here.
Actor/comedian Eric Andre gets an "A" for imagination but his 2021 comedy Bad Trip is an over the top and often offensive comic melding of two different genres that were never really meant to meld, providing the occasional chuckle, but not enough to sustain its economic running time.
Andre directed, co-wrote, and stars in this comedy as Chris, a guy who lives in Florida and has an accidental run in with a girl from high school named Michelle, learning that she now lives in Manhattan. Chris decides that Michelle is his soulmate and decides he has to go to Manhattan and find her. He persuades his best friend, Bud (Lil Rel Howery) to steal his sister's car so they can take a road trip to New York. Bud's sister, Trina (Tiffany Haddish) is a convict who has escaped from jail and hits the road to murder her brother and his BFF for stealing her car.
Andre seems to be going the Borat route here as he presents a standard buddy/road movie, fills it with outrageous physical comedy and places said comedy in the context of a hidden camera television premise and therein lies what's wrong here. The blending of a movie genre and a television genre is a risk that doesn't pay off here the way it did in Borat probably because Andre's writing skills aren't at the level of Sasha Baron Cohen.
The film actually gets off to a good start with Chris' fake musical number in the middle of a mall where shoppers have no desire to be part of a musical number. Unfortunately, Chris' encounter with a gorilla in a zoo, Trina's hassling people about having seen her brother, Bud's battle with a port-a-potty, and Chris' drunken vomit-filled escapade at a bar aren't really as funny as Andre thinks they are.
It wasn't until about halfway through the film that I realized what Andre was trying to do here, and once I did, it didn't make what was going on any funnier, Andre is a funny, energetic guy who shows promise as an actor and a writer, but this vehicle just makes him look like an idiot. Lil Rel Howery just looks embarrassed throughout and Haddish is just ridiculously over the top. Borat fans might have a head start here.