Sommerleigh Pollonais, Senior Writer
Plot: A couple meets up with another couple while on vacation in Mexico, but their friendship takes an awkward turn when they get back home.
Review: So here’s a funny little coincidence. A lot of the time my score for a movie will line up with the score found on IMDb. Okay so it’s not “ha-ha” funny, but it always puts a little smirk on my face as I write my reviews before checking out the site just to make sure I’m not being swayed in any way. It happens about eight out of ten times, but Vacation Friends is most certainly NOT one of those times as I found this to be one of the worst films I’ve seen for the entire year.
Let’s get the Peacemaker out of the room from the get go. John Cena has proven time and time again he’s a funny guy and his most recent role as Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad is by and far one of his best to date. But in Vacation Friends the poor man’s talents are wasted on some of the worst jokes I’ve ever heard. Let me take that back, some of the worst lines I’ve ever heard, because calling them “jokes” is an insult to jokes. I sat through this entire movie and didn’t crack a smile once.
Then there’s the other actors involved here, Lil Rel Howery as Marcus, Yvonne Orji as Emily, Meredith Hagner as Kyla. Not only do they make little to no impression but every single performance comes across as uncomfortable and awkward. These are supposed to be four people who meet while on vacation and end up forming an unlikely friendship, yada yada yada, but zero chemistry between the lot of them makes it impossible to believe these people would ever hang out, even as strangers on vacay.
The rest of the movie is no less terrible with your typical, predictable beats and can we talk about the the fact this movie is trying SO hard to not be racist, it feels racist as hell! I’m not saying wealthy black families don’t exist; that would be stupid. But I’m pretty sure they don’t spend time going on actual fox hunts. I mean, do rich white people even do that anymore? There were so many other ways this could’ve been portrayed, but the role reversal of the poor white hicks and the rich black family feels so forced it’s actually painful to watch.
There are lots of other John Cena movies you can check out if you’re a fan of the man. Take my advice and just skip Vacation Friends. Go watch Blockers instead, a movie that’s a thousand times funnier than this nonsense could ever hope to be.
Sommer’s Score: 3 out of 10
And you can check out more cautionary comedy reviews from RMR below:
Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes.
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