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Movie Review: Bad Trip

Mike Tyrkus

In the vein of films like Jackass and Bad Grandpa, the new (ahem) comedy Bad Trip, follows best friends Chris (Eric André) and Bud (Lil Rel Howery) as they travel haplessly from Florida to New York in a misguided quest to reunite Eric with Maria (Michaela Conlin), the supposed love of his life. Along the way, of course, the pair are shoe-horned into one awkward misadventure after another while Bud’s prison-escapee sister (Tiffany Haddish) relentlessly pursues them after she learns they have stolen her prized Pepto Bismol pink car for their odyssey.

There is little more to the plot than this, and the less the better as nothing of any substance is accomplished with what is present anyway. The film is rife with childish and often grotesque humor, such as André being raped at a zoo by a gorilla in front of horrified onlookers, or the pair getting their penises entangled together in a Chinese finger trap and wandering around seeking help from anyone unlucky enough to be within the vicinity. The worst though is that none of these incidents feel even remotely organic, they play strictly as scripted pranks designed to annoy and disgust the public and not entertain the audience in the slightest.

Only Haddish survives relatively unscathed from this hot mess as she relishes the role of pseudo-psychotic sister to her screw-up brother Bud. However, that reprieve only goes so far, as the film never lets up from its onslaught of gags until even Haddish is taken down along with the rest of the film.

Lil Rel Howery and Eric André in “Bad Trip.”

In short, there is nothing to recommend here, nor is there anything remotely funny about a frightening majority of Bad Trip. Which, is a shame as it frequently feels as though there might have been a heart-felt tale of lost, then found, love and enduring friendship trapped somewhere within the mishmash of gross-out, juvenile humor that never got to see the light of day.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

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