Title – Joy Ride (2023) 

Director – Adele Lim (feature debut) 

Cast – Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, Sabrina Wu

Plot – Four Asian American friends find themselves in a range of wild situations when they go on a adventure in China as part of a business trip and a request to find one of their birth mothers. 

“Four friends. One Trip. No Luck”

Review by Eddie on 26/01/2024

With Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen along for the ride as producers, it’s no surprise that the vulgar and often immature Joy Ride is the film that it is and while there is nothing wrong with humour that keeps its mind mostly in the gutter, debut director Adele Lim’s film is not as funny as it needs to be to gloss over the fact there’s very little weight or originality in this big screen dud outside of its Asian based material and cast. 

Budgeted somewhere in the vicinity of around $30 million dollars not including an extensive marketing campaign that heralded in the films cinema release, Joy Ride only managed an extremely poor sub-$14 million dollar return at box office booths around the world, another sad story to the struggles of big screen comedies in the marketplace right now but despite many reviewers getting behind the film the simple truth is Lim’s film lacks a strong flow of jokes and becomes a film that may produce the odd mild chuckle but nothing else on the 90 minute journey. 

Starring an array of talented performers that are championed by Ashley Park and recent Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu as well as the guidance of Lim who has been involved in the likes of Crazy Rich Asians and Raya and the Last Dragon, Joy Ride has some serious talent attached to it and it’s refreshing to see Hollywood get behind such a diverse comedic outing that is like Bridesmaids done with a China backdrop, making it such a shame the cast, story and film as a whole weren’t able to combine to give us a comedic winner in a global marketplace that’s crying out for another winner in the girls gone wild comedy genre. 

You can sense a strong feeling of playfulness and chemistry from the cast here, with Park and Sherry Cola as long term friends Audrey and Lolo playing off one another well while the supports of Hsu as the adventurous Kat and Sabrina Wu as the awkward “McLovin” like Deadeye should have been utilised better here but across a generic story that speaks to finding oneself, run ins with drug mules, dalliances with basketball teams and K-Pop disguises, all performances and potential winning moments are squandered around poor execution and delivery that makes this trip more of a time passer than a pleasant and memorable outing. 

One can only hope the poor financial and audience reception to Joy Ride doesn’t further halt Hollywood’s keenness to support original comedic and escapist outings but if more future efforts turn out like Joy Ride, the day and age of the adult oriented cinematic comedy will be gone before we know it.

Final Say – 

A rude, crude but mostly just bland comedy that forgot to pack the laughs on the trip, Joy Ride is a disappointing utilisation of talent that will be soon forgotten. 

2 questionable pieces of art out of 5