'Vacation Friends' Review
R: Drug content, crude sexual references, and language throughout
Runtime: 1 Hr and 43 Minutes
Production Companies: Broken Road Productions, 20th Century Studios
Distributor: Hulu
Director: Clay Tarver
Writer: Clay Tarver, Tom Mullen, Tim Mullen, Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley
Cast: John Cena, Lil Rel Howery, Yvonne Orji, Meredith Hagner
Release Date: August 27, 2021
Hulu
Straight-laced Marcus and Emily (Lil Rel Howery, Yvonne Orji) are befriended by wild, thrill-seeking partiers Ron and Kyla (John Cena, Meredith Hagner) at a resort in Mexico. Living in the moment, the usually level-headed couple lets loose to enjoy a week of uninhibited fun and debauchery with their new "vacation friends." Months after their walk on the wild side, Marcus and Emily are horrified when Ron and Kyla show up uninvited at their wedding, creating chaos and proving that what happens on vacation, doesn't necessarily stay on vacation.
John Cena has come such a long way to be the irresistible, charismatic, comedic leading actor that he is today. To think that decades ago he was just that wrestler who starred in those Fred movies and now he’s a bonafide movie star who dominated this summer by being in ample studio movies. For someone who can’t be seen, John Cena is pretty inescapable. This also goes for Lil Rel Howery, who has been in so many movies this summer, and the way he and Cena top it off with this film where they play an odd couple is effective. Though the material is paper-thin, Howery and Cena’s commitment to their roles makes you completely invested in their budding, but frustrating, relationship.
The way Cena portrays characters whose ice-cold sternness can easily be warmed is adorable. In Vacation Friends, he’s the most vulnerable he’s been since Blockers. He’s like a giant teddy bear, man. On paper, Ron and Kyla might come across as the most annoying and obnoxious couple who lack any sort of self-awareness or privilege, but it’s Cena and Meredith Hagner’s sweet-natured performances that make them so likable. Don’t get me wrong, their early-20s-type behavior gets under your skin when they arrive unannounced to Marcus and Emily’s wedding party, but when the film becomes a mash-up of Meet the Parents and What About Bob? you sort of side with them. Marcus and Emily are caught between a rock and a hard place having to deal with her insufferable boujee family and these free-spirited, uninvited wedding crashers. At least Ron and Kyla have sweet-natured intentions.
The film genuinely starts as a fun time as these two couples from vastly different worlds and lifestyles cross paths, and the adventure they share on their Mexico trip is inviting as far as both raunchy hijinks and quality of production. They put money into the production to make it look like they went all out on a vacation in Mexico. I don’t know if they actually went there since this was shot during the pandemic, but as far as the scenery and shenanigans go, it makes you wanna be on vacation with them.
Listen, there’s a reason this movie is being dumped on Hulu as an exclusive film instead of playing in theaters. Well, there’s the fact that Disney doesn’t consider mid-budget studio movies worthy enough to garner a theatrical profit, and movies of this type are slowly dwindling, but also Vacation Friends simply doesn’t have the legs to stand on its own as a fluent idea. This shit has been in the trenches of development hell with various drafts and casting options since 2014 and it shows. Five dudes wrote this one comedy with a fairly simple premise that feels like an amalgamation of other comedies that were also sub-par. If you’ve seen any R-rated Fox comedy from the past decade, ranging between the likes of Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, Why Him? or Stuber, then you’ve already seen Vacation Friends.
The movie is completely derivative in both concept and execution as its narrative plays the studio comedy handbook without any freshness to its name. You got all the greatest hits, including the “everybody get blackout drunk” montage, the hallucinatory drug sequence, the insufferable but quirky family member, a comical brawl scene, weird comical slapstick regarding a CGI animal, annoying characters with in-your-face crassness and vulgarity that are desperately played for laughs… every ingredient in the R-rated studio comedy soup. While the cast runs laps over the screenplay itself, elevating the film’s quality with their charm, it all feels so lazy, resulting in the soup having a salty taste.
The film doesn’t commit to its simple premise, for it forces two opposing concepts into one hodgepodge of a film. It begins with the vacation in Mexico where Marcus and Emily meet wild and loose Ron and Kyla, and it’s a blast. But 30 minutes after that, the film deliberately becomes Meet the Parents/Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates but without any wit to pique your interest. The way that Ron and Kyla are reintroduced into their lives after a seven-month period feels forced and the humor is even more so. As the film meandered, hitting lazy tropes that have been done to death, I kept thinking how it took five dudes to write this dull film. It has its funny moments due to the comedic timing of the cast, but it kept falling short due to lazy writing and sitcom-like behavior from all of the side characters. While it’s mostly the Howery and Cena show, Yvonne Orji and Meredith Hagner get the short end of the stick. Both have proven to be hilarious and while Hagner gets to do a lot due to being part of the wild couple, Orji’s character doesn’t get much of an individual personality. It’s a shame because the majority of the story is centered around her crazy family and the film tries to position everyone to get more screen time than her.
What irked me the most about Vacation Friends, aside from its laziness, was its poor execution of a plot element that could’ve been somewhat intriguing but is overall uncomfortable to witness. Not to give too much away, but during Marcus, Emily, Ron, and Kyla’s escapades, Marcus gets blackout drunk in the shared suite with the other couple. He wakes up to see his girl on top of him, riding him. When he comes to briefly, unable to move, he sees Kyla on top of him riding him while he’s out cold. You know exactly what it sounds like and where this shit goes is uncomfortable to witness, especially when it skirts around what you assume the act is in the first place. I hate how they try to make it sound like the events of that night were consensual when, in regards to the depiction from the film’s lens itself, they were not. I give it this, though: it was horrifying to watch as a Black person. Sorry Candyman, but Vacation Friends is the most stressful Black horror flick this year because it sets up a fucked up premise that’s dark, uncomfortable, and deranged that’s played for comedy when in reality it is not. Unfortunately, that’s the only fresh thing that the film has going for it.
Vacation Friends manages to thrive and provide adequate entertainment thanks to the central cast and their sweet-natured and committed performances, but its overly familiar plotting ranges between ill-conceived and forced to downright lazy and generic. It’s a studio comedy meant for theaters but was dumped on a streaming platform. What else can I say? It took five dudes to write this bland and mediocre ass comedy. Well, at least it’s on Hulu for your viewing pleasure.
