By: Andrew Wing

Vacation Friends is a 2021 American buddy comedy film directed by Clay Tarver (co-showrunner and an executive producer of Silicon Valley), who co-wrote the screenplay with Tom Mullen, Tim Mullen, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley. It stars Lil Rel Howery (Get Out, Uncle Drew), John Cena (Trainwreck, The Suicide Squad - see full review here), Yvonne Orji (Insecure), Meredith Hagner (As the World Turns, Palm Springs), Robert Wisdom (The Wire, Prison Break), Lynn Whitfield (A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, Madea’s Family Reunion), and Andrew Bachelor (better known as ‘King Bach’).

The film follows Marcus and Emily (Lil Rel Howery and Yvonne Orji) who are on a vacation in Mexico where they run into the wild and carefree Ron and Kyla at their resort. Living in the moment, the usually level-headed Marcus and Emily let loose to enjoy a week of craziness with their new “vacation friends.” Months later though after returning from Mexico, Marcus and Emily are horrified when Ron and Kyla show up uninvited at their wedding, creating chaos and proving that what happens on vacation, doesn’t always stay on vacation.

Vacation Friends was released on Hulu on August 27, 2021.

THE GOOD

I won’t lie, upon seeing the trailer for Vacation Friends I immediately said to myself “this movie is gonna stink!” I just thought the trailer looked really dumb and corny, and it seemed like they were just bringing two really funny actors together in Lil Rel Howery and John Cena and hoping that would be enough to make a good comedy flick. Well, if that was their original plan, it worked! Don’t get me wrong, the film has its fair share of dumb and corny moments, but overall I really enjoyed Vacation Friends.

Hands down the best part of the movie in my opinion was the back and forth banter and surprisingly great chemistry between the stars Lil Rel Howery and John Cena. As I said earlier, I knew going into this that both actors were funny, but I was skeptical that they would be good together but they proved me wrong right from the start. I absolutely loved Lil Rel in his feature film debut Get Out in 2017 as the comedic relief character in that very thrilling film, and he has only continued to make me laugh more and more in his numerous film roles since that. Probably my favorite thing that he does as a comedic actor is when he gets angry and completely freaks out which leads him to completely ramble on and on and he does that a couple times thanks to Cena’s character’s foolish ways.

As for Cena, the summer of Cena continues and I am loving every second of it! In my review for The Suicide Squad, I highlighted that he was my favorite part of that insanely amazing superhero movie and I don’t know, I just love seeing this guy on the big screen! He just cracks me up in every scene with everything from his facial expressions to his nonsensical but still hilarious dialogue that just leaves you laughing at the top of your lungs. Being a WWE legend, he obviously is cut from the same cloth as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and while I’m not saying he is at that upper echelon of movie-star just yet, if he can follow up the amazing year he is having in 2021 with a few more just like it, John Cena could be right up there with “The Rock” because he just knows how to put a smile on your face and that is very important to me as a viewer.

I also really liked the performances from both Yvonne Orji and Meredith Hagner as the wives of the main characters in this movie. I had no knowledge of either of them going into this and I can certainly say that I am already a big fan of both of them and am looking forward to checking out more of their work in the future. Andrew “King Bach” Bachelor was really funny too in this as the annoying younger brother who disapproves of his sister’s husband which led to some pretty great moments between his and Lil Rel’s character. There isn’t much more to say, I had a great time watching this movie and I was very pumped to see that 20th Century Studios already announced that a sequel titled Honeymoon Friends is already in development, with the main cast and director set to return!

THE BAD

I’m not going to write a dissertation on this, but despite how much I enjoyed the movie, it is extremely far from a perfect comedy. As I said earlier, similar to films like Grown Ups and The Benchwarmers, it is certainly stupid in so many ways but that doesn’t make it an overall bad film. There were definitely a few jokes that missed and it sometimes felt like overkill when it came to the idiotic nature that is the Ron and Kyla couple, but Vacation Friends knows exactly what it is. It’s main purpose is to entertain and that is exactly what it did for me.

THE VERDICT

Although it is far from the perfect buddy comedy film and the laughs aren’t always in a steady supply, Vacation Friends is a turn-your-brain-off movie that you can stream without any serious reservations as it is thrusted forward with some great performances from a terrific cast led by two of the funniest actors in the industry today in Lil Rel Howery and John Cena.