★★★★
Starring Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tiffany Haddish, Larenz Tate, Mike Colter, Kate Walsh
Directed by Malcolm D. Lee
2017 / 122 Minutes / Universal Pictures
Girls Trip is the surprise comedy of the summer!
Four lifelong friends take a trip to New Orleans for the annual Essence Festival and all party hell breaks loose. The cast absolutely surprised me with their comedic timing and hilarious performances. Tiffany Haddish steals this movie with the majority of the laughs. Her over the top performance and antics make all the cliches and a typical storyline that better. I think we’ll see a huge career boost into lead comedic roles after this. She’s brilliant! The other scene stealer for me was Kate Walsh in a small supporting role, but every time she was on screen I laughed out loud. We’re not used to see her in comedic roles and that’s what makes her so great in this. They nailed the casting here and it’s because of that and the chemistry between these characters that the movie works. This could have been a complete disaster.
Not to giveaway anything, but there is a 10-15 minutes scene in the middle of the movie when the girls go out for the night that had me bursting out loud. Even though we’ve seen similar situations in movies involving hallucinogens it’s this cast and a very well directed scene that makes this one of the most memorable and hilarious scenes of the summer. There is also a scene involving a banana you’re not going to be able to forget.
Girls Trip was so much fun! My expectations were low going into this because I’m not a big fan of Queen Latifah’s past comedies so I was a little concerned this would follow the same path. Even though the movie isn’t perfect and suffers from an inflated running time, it’s the cast that makes this one of the most fun experiences at the theatre I’ve seen this summer. This is a trip you’re going to want to take! (Yep, I just typed that).
Grade B
