Rating: 8.3
Joy Ride is one of the funniest films I’ve seen in years. Easily the best comedy of 2023! So many outrageous laugh out loud moments right off the bat I lost count. Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu and Sabrina Wu’s chemistry and comedic timing are flawless. Comparisons to other raunchy ensemble comedies are inevitable, but this very much has its own identity and a surprisingly strong emotional core and should be celebrated as such. An absolutely hilarious film!
Film Info:
Premise: Follows four Chinese-American friends as they bond and discover the truth of what it means to know and love who you are, while they travel through China in search of one of their birth mothers.
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Lionsgate
Directed by Adele Lim
Screenplay by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong & Teresa Hsiao
Story by Teresa Hsiao & Adele Lim
Cast: Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, Sabrina Wu
Runtime: 1hr 32min
Rating: 18A
Comedy
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IMDb Rating: 7.0/10
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%
RT Audience Score: 82%
RT Critic Average: 7.5/10
RT Audience Average: 4.1/5
Metacritic Score: 75
CinemaScore: B-
Letterboxd: 3.4/5
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Fun Fact: Adele Lim’s directorial debut.
Review:
written by Tyler Park
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Until I saw Joy Ride, I thought No Hard Feelings was a comedic breath of fresh air. I thought it was going to be the comedy of the year and hailed it as the best comedy film since the days of The Hangover or The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
I really spoke too soon. Little did I know an even better comedy flick would be coming mere weeks later.
No Hard Feelings is dead to me. Joy Ride is easily the best comedy film of the year!
Joy Ride is one of the funniest films I’ve seen in years! There are so many outrageous laugh-out-loud moments right from the start that I lost count! It’s truly hysterical, especially thanks to the amazing ensemble cast! Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, and Sabrina Wu’s chemistry and comedic timing are flawless. This is one of those perfect casts that couldn’t possibly have turned out any better!
Comparisons to other raunchy ensemble comedies are inevitable, it does fall into some typical cliches, but thanks to some great writing and direction from Adele Lim and her team, this film very much has its own identity and should be celebrated as such. If you’ve seen Crazy Rich Asians, you know Adele Lim is good at writing comedy with lots of emotion woven in, and she does that yet again here! I was surprised to see how strong of an emotional core the film had despite how raunchy and laugh-out-loud funny it was!
Trust me, Joy Ride is an absolutely hilarious film that you cannot miss in theatres! It’s raunchy and isn’t afraid to shock you with some of its gags, but it makes for such a fun viewing experience!
I know this review isn’t as in-depth as I usually go, but I’m resting myself up for Barbenheimer this weekend! This movie really is super funny and worth a watch! Just trust me, go see it! I was laughing until I was red in the face!
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