Vacation Friends – A Generic Comedy That Does Little To Be Memorable

Vacation Friends tells the story of Ron (Howery) and Emily (Orji), a newly engaged couple who befriend Marcus (Cena) and Kyla (Hagner), an eccentric pair, while on vacation. Months later, Marcus and Kyla unexpectedly show up at Ron and Emily’s wedding, resulting in a crazy and dramatic weekend for all those involved.

In the past several years, R-rated comedies have had a hard time finding an audience that results in a big box-office gross, so their consistency has dwindled. Nevertheless, Vacation Friends is the latest comedy hoping to make an impact and thankfully, it has some things are going for it. Its narrative structure of changing up locations was a good idea, as spending an extended period of time in one location has not only been done many times before but gets repetitive after a very short amount of time. This film’s running time felt more justified than most because of this decision.

Regardless of public opinion and choice of projects, Cena has shown in recent performances his willingness to commit to whatever role he is given. Marcus is constantly full of energy but he is more than up to the task. He is complemented by Hagner, his on-screen partner who is admittedly less known to general audiences but brings an infectious and bubbly presence to Kyla that will certainly work in her favor career-wise in the future. Their personalities are surface-level, being nothing more than outgoing and loud, but they make it work as well as they can. As Ron, Howery plays a slightly more uptight version of himself, and even though he is always fun to watch, one cannot help but think that he could try doing something different for a change and that he is capable of more as an actor. As Emily, Orji plays the straight character among the four, which unfortunately results in her being the most one-note and forgettable. Her role could have been played by anybody.

Meanwhile, it’s surprising to find out during the credits that 5 people contributed to the screenplay of Vacation Friends, as the film features very little that has not been done countless times before in countless other films. A character will make an obvious remark about something, and whether it is seconds later or at the end of the scene, the exact opposite has happened. We have also seen these types of characters many times before. Main characters who are relatively reserved meet their polar opposites, resulting in a crazy night full of decisions that will come back to haunt them later on. There are many times where Ron and Kyla pretend to be serious, only to end up laughing hysterically and say that they are joking. Because of that, it is hard to believe anything they say in the rest of the film, and many times, it’s not. This merely lowers the stakes and could have made the film a lot more interesting if it tried to take the characters outside of the box it trapped them in. Instead, the film treats viewers to a thin premise to try and distract them from the fact that nothing else is going on besides the main characters hanging around where hijinks ensued, leading to a cliché climax, with essentially little to show for it beyond that.

In the end, Vacation Friends is an easy and fun watch and an acceptable distraction. However, the film does very little to set itself apart from any of the other adult comedies in recent memory.

still courtesy of Hulu

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Shawn Peer