“Bad Trip” fun but pointless
★★¼5
First, let me acknowledge that “Bad Trip” — a hidden-camera road-trip comedy starring the talented trio of Eric Andre, Tiffany Haddish and Lil Rel Howery that’s just slammed into your Netflix feed — would be best enjoyed late at night.
Watching “Bad Trip,” on a computer and drinking only coffee, I found it to be a fairly entertaining ride — if an only occasionally hysterically funny ride — that I suspect won’t stay in my memory for long.
This kind of comedy takes bravery to pull off — to go head-first into some outrageous gags in the presence of real folks who aren’t in on the joke takes real commitment — and pull it off Andre and companydo.
For me, though, it pales when compared to the work of Sacha Baron Cohen, who reminded the world of his incredible gift for this type of work last year with “Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm.” Last month, the sequel to his 2006 “Borat” effort won the Golden Globe Award for best motion picture – musical or comedy.
It’s hard to see “Bad Trip” contending for film-industry awards because, unlike Baron Cohen’s work, it has almost nothing in the way of social commentary. This movie simply is out to have a good time, and it doesso.
Its loose premise has best pals Chris (Andre) and Bud (Howery) working dead-end jobs in Florida, and Chris’ sister, Trina (Haddish), released from prison but required to wear an ankle monitor.
As you’d expect, the opening few minutes set quite the tone, with car wash employee Chris having an extremely unfortunate encounter with a vacuum cleaner while his dream girl, Maria (Michaela Conlin), happens to be nearby.
Meanwhile, Trina pays Bud a visit at the store where he’s working the counter. She shakes him down for cash and pulls some from the register, and makes small talk with some customers, saying she likes to mix Pepto Bismol with Hennessy cognac.
She also removes the ankle gizmo and gives a few nearby women some of the cash on her way out the door.
“That’s for you,” she says. “Keep your mouth shut.”
This prologue of sorts — with perhaps the exception of Andre’s backside — is “Bad Trip” at its tamest.
A year later, Chris encounters Maria while he’s working — with remark
ably unsanitary habits — at a smoothie bar. She gives him her card and says if he’s ever in New York City, he should visit her Manhattan art gallery. Time for a road trip!
But Chris and Bud have not one car between them, so the former convinces the latter they should borrow Trina’s ostentatious and colorfully named automobile. Even though
Bud is terrified of her, she’s now back in prison, so he reluctantly agrees.
Trina soon breaks out, of course, and, enraged when she finds out what’s happened, pledges to kill the lads and hits the road herself in a borrowed vehicle.
As the three crawl up the East Coast in two cars — the boys have four days until the gallery’s new show opens — they make various stops and have multiple encounters with the unsuspecting.
Sometimes, the scenarios cooked up for “Bad Trip” are relatively clever and/or laugh-out-loud funny. At others — such as an encounter Chris has with a gorilla at a zoo — they are so filthy that they feel merely sophomoric.