Featured Graphic by Destiny Mizell
Story by Larry Rincon
Though July presents the spectacle of the “Barbie” versus “Oppenhiemer” showdown, there needs to be some movie to help break the tension. Luckily, Lionsgate’s most recent release is a rollercoaster of fun, raunchy humor revolving around a couple of best friends.
“Joy Ride,” starring Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu and Sabrina Wu is the directorial debut of Adele Lim. The story follows Park and Cola’s characters, Audrey and Lolo, when they travel to China to help Audrey solidify a contract for her job. The story, however slowly devolves into a crazy and wacky journey as the four main characters try to track down Audrey’s birth mother.
For what the movie was, it was not the worst movie to come out this year. The humor was definitely meant to be the selling point, but in all honesty I liked the sub themes of self discovery a lot more than the humor.
As the film’s story develops, Audrey struggles to connect to her Chinese heritage since she was adopted by a white family and, is more than anything, a white girl. Her struggles continue until she reaches a breaking point when she discovers that she is not Chinese, but instead Korean.
The film had a very interesting story going in, but unfortunately the humor of the film ends up overshadowing everything.
The sexual themes and humor weren’t necessarily bad, but it did feel repetitive. A lot of it was very well timed and enjoyable, but most times it felt like I was watching 10 minutes of a joke’s set up before getting to the punch line.
It also does not help that the movie is under two hours. A good chunk of the film is wasted on making the scenes so much more dramatic and funny that the humor gets lost the longer the joke plays out. It felt like I was watching the same joke in different fonts.
In fact, the comedy was usually set up in a particular way. The characters would find themselves in a tricky situation with people they’ve just met which results in something bad, usually for their situation. Obviously everything is dramatized for comedy, but nothing is really unique.
The only thing that made this movie worthwhile was the characters themselves, and its thanks to the great performances from the cast.
Starting with Wu, their character, Dead Eyes, is the weird cousin who tagged along with Audrey and Lolo. They have an interest in K-pop, and from my understanding, mostly has internet friends.
They were the character who you couldn’t help but feel sorry for. You can tell that Dead Eyes is trying very hard to fit in with the others and not seem so different, but ultimately they are the black sheep of the group.However, they come in clutch when the group needs them most.
Next, Stephanie Hsu plays Kat, Audrey’s former college roommate. She is a big actress in China and is engaged to a very Christian man. Her character was basically living a double life. The audience knows she’s a sexual woman, but she pretends and acts like she’s never had sex or done anything sinful for the sake of her fiancé.
Kat felt like such a surprising character to throw into the mix, and I am glad that eventually the movie did show what her tattoo was. Being engaged to a Christian man and having the devil tattooed on her was a really good joke.
Finally, best friends Audrey and Lolo are polar opposites that work as a great pair. They support each other’s careers and have each other’s back. Lolo, however, knows so much more about the kind of person she is while Audrey is stuck trying to be someone she is not.
A large portion of the movie only happens because Lolo is a very headstrong friend who wants to help Audrey as much as she can. Most of the time Audrey feels like Lolo is not helping her, but as the story goes on you get to see just how much Lolo does and cares for Audrey.
Like I said before, the themes of friendship and self discovery were really great and they unfortunately get thrown into the back by the humor and the comedy of the movie. The film is still enjoyable for what it is. You can expect to laugh and to have a decently good time.
“Joy Ride” may be an overall basic movie, but it is certainly better than some other comedy movies that have been released this year.
To contact Lifestyles Editor Destiny Mizell, email lifestyles@mtsusidelines.com. For more news, visit www.mtsusidelines.com, or follow us on Facebook at MTSU Sidelines or on Twitter at @MTSUSidelines.
