Vacation Friends (2021)

By: Mike Ward on Thursday, September 02

R Running Time: 103 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

  • John Cena plays to his strengths - charismatic, with great comedic timing - in an over-the-top movie and performance.

  • Though completely predictable and a movie you have seen 1,000 times before, Vacation Friends has a number of funny moments that make this is a raunchy, but harmless diversion.

  • A bit of a throwback to movies from a different era, Vacation Friends feels like it should have been made 15-20 years ago. This will appeal to some viewers.

NO

  • For some viewers, these set-ups and jokes will feel lazy and tired in execution.

  • The script is really lacking and the cast do all they can to try and elevate this material. And it often shows.

  • I have no idea how you sit through this if you don’t find Cena and Lil Rel Howery, Yvonne Orji, and especially Meredith Hagner, amusing and funny.


OUR REVIEW

Pushing the boundaries of how far great comedic timing can take a subpar script, Vacation Friends takes a lazy premise of two couples who meet for the first time in Mexico, with one extremely clingy and the other standoffish and tightly wound, and continuing to end up in circumstances together.

When Marcus (Lil Rel Howery) and Emily (Yvonne Orji) head to Mexico for what Marcus has planned to be an engagement proposal getaway, a chatty hotel manager (Carlos Santos) and an unfortunate jacuzzi leak, has ruined their arrival. Stumbling upon Ron (John Cena) and Kyla (Meredith Hagner), a wild and carefree couple who represent everything they are not, Marcus and Emily are offered space in their presidential suite when it is determined that Ron and Kyla’s jacuzzi was responsible.

From the initial moments, Ron and Kyla are wild, unhinged, and lack social discourse. After Marcus’ plans are ruined and Emily realizes the purpose of the vacation, she decides to throw caution to the wind and go all-in with Ron and Kyla’s penchant for cocaine margaritas, cliff jumping, and lavish, ridiculous decision-making.

Vacation Friends is as predictable a movie as one will ever find. Marcus is not good enough for Emily’s well-to-do family. Ron and Kyla have zero social graces. First-time director Clay Tarver just works page-by-page, setting up scenarios and executing them in a workmanlike manner, relying on the comedic intuition from his four main stars to elevate the material.

Cena is really in his wheelhouse, delivering lines in a snappy, often hilarious manner. Hagner steals the show with her exuberance and childlike wonder at literally everything, while Howery and Orji are left to play the characters who set-up most punchlines and over-the-top moments within the script. Both are very good at executing what they are tasked to do.

Credited to five (?!) writers, the screenplay is really nothing great. The jokes are telegraphed from a mile away and the payoffs obvious. Keeping this afloat is the balance and chemistry the four main characters give to one another, going all-in on the absurdity and silliness on display.

Arriving in theaters and on the Hulu streaming platform, Vacation Friends is a raunchy, throwaway of a film that will probably appeal to interested audiences, offer a fair amount of laughter, and make 104 minutes fly right on by. This isn’t a good movie, per se, but it's entertaining enough, with just the right amount of heart and engaging performances to make this vacation not the worst decision you have ever made when looking for something to pass the time.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Lil Rel Howery, Yvonne Orji, John Cena, Meredith Hagner, Robert Wisdom, Lynn Whitfield, Andrew Bachelor, Tawny Newsome, Barry Rothbart, Kamal Bolden, Anna Maria Horsford.

Director: Clay Tarver
Written by: Tom Mullen, Tim Mullen, Clay Tarver, Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley
Release Date: August 27, 2021
Hulu