Vacation Friends (2021)

Vacation Friends (2021)

 

4/10

 

Starring

John Cena

Lil Rel Howery

Yvonne Orji

Meredith Hagner

 

Directed by Clay Tarver

 

I cannot in good conscience tell you to go watch this movie, because for a lot of reasons, it fails to deliver the comedy and entertainment needed to keep you engrossed. The movie is best described as a lackluster dream that the writer probably had while high on some cheap drugs. Acting-wise, I have to say only John Cena seems to be into the role—everyone else seems to have taken the same drug the writer took.

The movie didn’t just fail to make me laugh; I started regretting trusting every ounce of me that thought a movie starring Lil Rel Howery would be good. I haven’t seen anything this guy has done that I can say is worth watching—even his TV show was whack.

Anyways, he must appeal to some audience, because here’s another movie where he happens to be one of the leads.

Vacation Friends is borderline predictable. It starts with a couple going to Mexico for a vacation. Marcus (Howery) planned everything about this vacation to the teeth because he wanted to turn it into a wedding proposal for his girlfriend, Emily. Everything crashed when the front desk clerk let the cat out of the bag about his proposal. Marcus proposed anyway, but since all his plans were a mess, they couldn’t stay at the hotel they wanted.

That’s where Ron (Cena) and Kyla come into the picture. They’re the reason the couple doesn’t get their dream vacation, but they suggest hosting Marcus and Emily instead. Marcus felt something was off about this couple who were willing to split their presidential suite with them, but Emily thought otherwise.

The movie then plunges into one of the longest flash-forwards I’ve seen. We get clips of all the fun things they got into. When you’d expect a normal movie to condense this into a two-minute montage of crazy antics, this one took its time dragging through their chaotic vacation. By the end, when Marcus and Emily were already regretting making friends with Ron and Kyla, they run into them again at the airport.

They parted ways, but months later, when Marcus and Emily were finally getting married, guess who shows up?

It turns out Ron and Kyla went hunting for their new best friends and finally found them. From here on, you can guess how the movie goes, as this wild couple turns the wedding upside down.

I can think of many better ways to waste time than watching this lazy production on Hulu.