Title – Bad Trip (2020)

Director – Kitao Sakurai (Aardvark)

Cast – Eric Andrew, Lil Rel Howery, Tiffany Haddish, Michaela Conlin

Plot – Part prank film, part narrative, follows the adventure of long-time friends Chris (Andre) and Bud (Howery) as they set off on a road trip to New York City to start a new life and find the girl of Chris’s dreams.  

“We are about to embark on the trip of a lifetime”

Review by Eddie on 01/04/2021

Make no mistake, Bad Trip is not highbrow cinematic entertainment.

What it is, is a film very much at home at what it is and what type of experience it wants to provide and in that sense, Eric Andre’s first big feature length experiment works some wonders to become a film that you can’t help but laugh along with.

Famed for his work on cult TV show The Eric Andre Show and significant amount of pranks that fall into its repertoire, Andre and his off-sider Lil Rel Howery mix a dosage of real life set-ups around a very generic road trip buddy comedy/romance as they and game star Tiffany Haddish create a series of situations that are far from PC but never the less highly hysterical should you care to throw your inhibitions out the window.

As Andre’s no-hoper Chris and Howery as his best/only friend Bud set off to New York to find the girl of Chris’s dreams, all the while being pursued by Haddish’s criminal sister of Bud, they and director Kitao Sakurai are able to throw a number of extremely awkward scenarios in front of the pair that often involves the participation of unsuspecting everyday citizens.

From run ins with zoo animals, mall singalongs, smoothie shop mishaps and even daring prison escapes, Bad Trip is filled with some fairly inventive set-ups that allow its comically gifted cast members time to shine as they play off the situations that evolve around them to deliver some real nuggets of gold.

Not since the heyday of Jackass has comedy of this kind worked so well on the big screen, no doubt helped by the fact Jackass head honcho Jeff Tremaine was on board here as producer and on-set guide, and while the comedy is most certainly not for everyone and audience members should know if this is there style by now, for those that want this form of comedic entertainment, Bad Trip is a trip they’ll want to be taking.

It’s a testament to the set-ups and how well they strike a good balance that there are able to overcome the extremely weak story that ties it all together, can Andre and his cronies work harder next time at managing to create a better strand at their antics core, they’ll likely create a genuine masterpiece of pranks and crazily designed set-ups.

Final Say –

For acquired tastes no doubt, fans of Andre will be pleased to know the feature space has done nothing to dampen his wild spirit with Bad Trip a crazy 80 minutes of solid material, proving to be more entertaining than most straight up narrative comedies released at present.

3 blenders out of 5