Loucas em Apuros

Joy Ride (2023) is a raunchy and crude road comedy film directed by Adele Lim and starring Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, and Sabrina Wu. The film follows four friends -- Audrey (Park), Lolo (Cola), Deadeye (Wu), and Kat (Hsu) -- as they travel across Asia in search of one of their birth mothers.

The film is a complete and utter mess. The humor is juvenile and offensive, the characters are unlikable and underdeveloped, and the plot is nonsensical. The film also has a serious problem with tone, veering wildly between crude comedy and serious drama.

The film's only saving grace is its cast, who do their best to make the material work. However, even their efforts are not enough to salvage this train wreck of a film.

Overall,Joy Ride is a terrible film that is not worth watching. I give it 1 star out of 10.

Here are some of the specific problems with the film:

The humor is juvenile and offensive. The film relies on cheap sex jokes and stereotypes, and it never seems to understand what is funny.

The characters are unlikable and underdeveloped. The four friends are all one-dimensional stereotypes, and they are never given any real depth or development.

The plot is nonsensical. The film's story is completely unbelievable, and it makes no sense.

The film has a serious problem with tone. The film veers wildly between crude comedy and serious drama, and it never seems to find a consistent tone.

If you're looking for a good comedy, I would recommend watching something else. Joy Ride is a complete waste of time.

I have to admit that I wasn't really harboring much of any expectations to this 2023 comedy titled "Joy Ride" since the synopsis wasn't really all that interesting. But with it being a movie that I hadn't already seen, then of course I opted to give the movie a fair chance.

And luckily so, because writers Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, Teresa Hsiao and Adele Lim put together a script and storyline that was as entertaining as it was funny and enjoyable. I was genuinely surprised and entertained by director Adele Lim's 2023 movie. And I am glad that I opted to sit down and watch it.

The storyline is a nicely written one of friendship and also coming to learn about oneself and one's heritage. Actually there are several layers to the script and storyline, and they compliment one another quite nicely, and the writers really collaborated quite well in compiling a rather enjoyable comedy here.

There are some really good and genuinely funny moments throughout the course of the movie, and director Adele Lim had me laughing several times.

Not only was the storyline nice in the movie, but th character gallery as well. The four main characters in the movie, Audrey (played by Ashley Park), Lolo (played by Sherry Cola), Kat (played by Stephanie Hsu) and Deadeye (played by Sabrina Wu) were well-written characters with interesting characteristics and traits to them. I really enjoyed these four characters and their interactions and the situations they find themselves in throughout the course of the 95 minutes that the movie ran for.

The acting performances in "Joy Ride" were great, and the four main actresses Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu and Sabrina Wu were not only well-cast for the roles and characters, but they also carried the movie quite nicely throughout the entire movie. And a lot of the overall enjoyment of the movie definitely rest on their accomplishments throughout the narrative of the movie.

If you enjoy comedies with a solid storyline as well, offering more than just cheap slapstick comedy, then director Adele Lim's 2023 movie "Joy Ride" certainly is well-worth taking 95 minutes to sit down and watch.

My rating of "Joy Ride" lands on a seven out of ten stars.

Finally, a film this summer with the joy of Crazy Rich Asians and the raunchy absurdity of a Judd Apatow comedy or Bridesmaids or The Hangover. Why not? Because Joy Ride is produced by Seth Rogan, who knows absurd raunch, and directed by CRA's writer, Adele Lim.

The four stars of the film (Ashley Park as Audrey, Sherry Cola as Lolo, Sabrina Wu as Deadeye, and Stephanie Hsu as Kat) set out on a journey to Asia to help Audrey the lawyer do a job to guarantee her promotion and ultimately find her birth mother. The acerbic Lola goes to help her best bud, Audrey, who doesn't know Mandarin and Lola does. Deadeye has serious K-pop knowledge, and Kat, now a China screen star, is engaged to an attractive but very Christian co-star (Desmond Chiam).

Holding the chaos in check, Audrey, who orchestrates most of the comedy while retaining her laughably prim attorney vibe, is in a role easily evocative of Kristen Wig's in Bridesmaids. Deadeye plants the film firmly in the current gender identity arena.

Along the way they joke about both Asian and American stereotypes with the joie de vivre of healthy young women having a little fun far away from political correctness and decorum. Perhaps the best of the wildness comes in a reworking of the Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion big hit, "WAP." Catchy and inventive, that song has legs.

Amid the off-color jokes and absurd sexual situations is a theme of finding out who you are amidst the cultural pulls of Asia and America. Stereotypes of Asians and Asian Americans are rampant with attending laughs-nothing is off bounds for this satire.

The genius of Joy Ride is the consistently funny, ribald dialogue (Kat says, "My vagina is the devil and she's here to stay!") and rapid set ups that are hilarious and culturally relevant. Watch the Asian response when a family has a group hug: "White People." Enjoy your summer by starting out with this satisfying international work of comedic art.

Not, like, a FLOOD of movies like this, but a couple more every now and then would be great. It's funny, it has heart, and it has good performances by the co-leads.

**ALSO, IT'S A COMEDY THAT'S RATED R, IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT THAT ENTAILS THEN THAT'S ON YOU**

Yes, the humour is lewd. Yes, there's a lot of sexual references. Yes, there's even a vagina on full display! What else would you expect from an R rated comedy than adult humour like this? Granted, you might not expect a vagina to be on full display, but it's there. Deal with it.

Also, yeah sure, some of the acting (Sabrina Wu specifically) may not be 'professional' but this was their first actual acting gig and even Meryl Streep wasn't *Meryl Goddamn Streep* in her first role! The important part is that they absolutely nailed their role, especially the scene where they were explaining the "Deadeye" nickname. The rest of the cast were a joy (pun intended) and the chemistry between the four leads was awesome. Hell, the movie itself is awesome! It only lost a point or two because the last minute or so kinda felt really out of place to me...

Joy Ride has become a hilarious film, but occasionally crosses a line that is not really necessary. It ensures that the film is pure underpants fun, with the further course following the standard pattern that we have seen so much in these types of films. Still, the film definitely guarantees a fun evening and you will occasionally burst out laughing. The nicest figure in the film remains Deadeye, Lolo's niece who is crazy about K-Pop groups and is secretly in love with Audrey, but does not dare to come out publicly. There is a perfect pace in the film, the humor is largely genuinely funny and fun and the story itself can get on with it. This is perhaps the nicest banal comedy we've seen since The Hangover movies in this genre.