Ever since “Joy Ride” had its world premiere at SXSW in March, it’s had the kind of buzz that one should always be wary of.
Why’s that? Because whatever gets raved at SXSW shouldn’t be trusted. That’s my rule. The fine folks over at the Austin-based fest have had a tendency to proclaim many overpraised films as “the next big thing.”
Well, the raunchy “Joy Ride” sadly belongs in that group of films. It comes to us from “Crazy Rich Asians” writer Adele Lim, in her feature directorial debut. It purports itself to be a crowd-pleasing comedy, but fails to bank on that promise.
Don’t tell that to film critics. A 75 on Metacritic and 96% on Rotten Tomatoes means they also took the bait
“Joy Ride,” a by-the-books girls trip flick, made a paltry $5.9 million at the box-office this weekend, playing on 2800 screens — pundits projected $9-$10 million. The budget for this film is said to be around $32 million. Add it all up and it might lose a lot of money.
What happened? Maybe it’s the dull trailer released earlier in the year, the lack of A-list stars in its roster or maybe, most realistically, the tepid audience word of mouth — its CinemaScore is a terrible B-.
“Joy Ride” follows a pack of friends who embark on a trip to China. It was marketed as “unapologetically explicit,” but there’s nothing explicit about the safe theatrics in display here.
The film, more than anything, is about identity, centering on our four friends’ Chinese adventure. Audrey (Ashley Park) is going there on business, she asks bestie Lolo (Stephanie Hsu) to join, an irreverent, childhood best friend who also happens to be a hot mess; she ensuingly asks her weirdo cousin, Deadeye (Sabrina Wu) to hop along for the ride (think Hangover’s Zack Galafanakis). Oh, and they’re all set up to meet Kat, Audrey’s college friend who happens to be a big deal Chinese soap star in the homeland.
Park’s Audrey is a lawyer, a child of adoptive white parents who lives in White Hills, Washington. The fact that this town name is fictional tells you how flat and unimaginative the jokes are in this movie. I maybe chuckled once the entire 96 minutes.
Speaking of the “The Hangover,” Lin basically rips off that movie’s blueprint. The attempt here is for a no-holds-barred experience with four unlikely characters — friendship, belonging, and wild debauchery ensue. The gags are unspeakably terrible, the dialogue is awful, and some of the plot devices concocted here turn out to be fall completely flat.
At least there’s an oral sex scene with two guys cartoonishly eating out Ashley Park’s character at the same time — over the top slurping and moaning can be heard. It’s the most ridiculous scene, in a film filled with them.
This is the adaptation of the nonfiction book by Dan Schilling and Lori Longfritz. It wrapped production in February and has been in post-production ever since. The film test-screened a few months ago.