Bad Trip has had a bumpy ride to its Netflix release: Its 2020 South by Southwest fest debut was scuttled by COVID lockdowns, a few theatrical release dates were axed due to the same and, in April of last year, Amazon Prime accidentally released the movie, not for long, but long enough for it to be digitally pirated (which would explain why it already has 70 IMDb user reviews). As they say, whoopsie. The movie is from funny guy Eric Andre, who put the hidden-camera prank portion of his Adult Swim show into feature-length form, with creative partner Kitao Sakurai directing and Lil Rel Howery and Tiffany Haddish co-starring. Unfortunate circumstance means Bad Trip has to follow (multiple Oscar nominee!) Borat Subsequent Moviefilm in the recent candid-camera sweepstakes, but that likely won’t matter if it simply makes us laugh.
BAD TRIP: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: Chris is a squirrelly goofball, but considering he’s played by Andre, maybe that goes without saying. He works in a Florida car wash. He’s detailing a customer’s Beemer when his high school crush Maria (Michaela Conlin) pulls in. Chris shares his excitement with the customer, telling him all about his longstanding infatuation. Then the poor customer watches in horror as the high-powered vacuum sucks Chris’ jumpsuit right off his bare ass. He feels so bad for Chris, he gives him his jacket and even tries to get Maria’s number for him. You kind of feel sorry for the dude. Not Chris, because he’s not really Chris, and is in on the joke, but the customer guy, because he’s a real customer guy, and so good-natured and maybe a little bit gullible to believe the rather improbable comedy of errors that occurs in front of him isn’t some prankster bullshit.
Meanwhile, in an electronics repair shop, Bud (Howery) fiddles with customers’ busted cell phones when his sister Trina (Haddish) pulls up in her pink Crown Vic with BAD BITCH in gigantic script on the back window. She slaps Bud around and breaks stuff as the customers watch in horror, then rips off her electronic house-arrest tether and hands it to one of the slackjawed witnesses.
Bud is Chris’ best bud, and they’re mutual go-nowheres. In a year, they promise each other, they’ll “go on adventures” together, and end this depressive funk of crap jobs. ONE YEAR LATER, reads a subtitle. Chris is putting in his shift at a smoothie shop when Maria walks in and turns down his offer for a date but gives him the business card for her art gallery in New York and leaves and he’s so excited he sticks his hand in a whirring blender as customers watch, in horror, of course. This is Chris and Bud’s big opportunity for an adventure: They’ll quit their jobs, steal Trina’s ridiculous car — she’s back in prison — and go to New York, allowing them plenty of opportunities to do outrageously violent and disgusting stuff in front of bystanders as they watch (in horror!) and sometimes unwittingly get involved in Trina’s escape, pursuit and inevitable delivery on her promises to murder these two dolts.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: One of the credited producers here is a Jackass guy, so of course Bad Grandpa is a touchstone. And like that movie, Bad Trip is mostly a grossout exercise, and doesn’t boast the ambitious social commentary of the Borats.
Performance Worth Watching: Andre is shameless, just shameless (Howery is mostly his straight man), and you can’t help but admire it a little. But the most consistently funny participant here is Haddish.
Memorable Dialogue: “Pull your pants up, buddy.” — an unnamed observer gives Chris some unsolicited advice because, well, see “sex and skin” below.
Sex and Skin: Andre’s hindquarters and scrotum get a good airing out. Oh, and Andre and Howery get their wangs stuck in… well, I won’t give it away. But I’m pretty sure they were prosthetic wangs.
Our Take: “Don’t’ watch this if you’re stuck up,” goes one of those IMDb user reviews. Couldn’t have said it better myself, since I was about to confess I laughed at Bad Trip frequently and in spite of myself. To call it base in its humor is to render Godzilla a gecko. It makes numerous White Chicks references, features exploits with randy wild animals and checklists bodily fluids, including blood, vomit, ejaculate, dukey-duke and urine, although the latter is saved for the outtakes during the end credits. The characters hop the fence at a zoo, mingle with Southern white folk in a country bar, do what one must do when one is in a movie like this and finds oneself in a fancypants gallery full of fragile and allegedly high-priced art. And so on.
As for the plot, there’s none more ramshackle. It’s sub-basic, a collection of scenes crudely stapled together, an excuse to hit the road and wallow in self-degradation and humiliation, and to spew, spew, spewwwwwwww the contents of one’s miscellaneous innards across the scree — which is a way of saying that it’s not quite as subtle as The Remains of the Day.
Andre, Howery and Haddish (but mostly Andre) mercilessly f— with innocent bystanders, who one hopes were good sports after the fact (the gags wouldn’t work at all if the real-life proprietors of many locations weren’t in cahoots with the filmmakers). An impromptu musical number in a mall and a heartfelt bromantic confessional in front of a busful of travelers are probably the best bits, because they’re more innocent in nature. Other instances are disturbing, possibly traumatic, splashing about in the most polluted slop-puddles of bad taste. I’d take issue with the ethics of Andre’s chicanery if it didn’t often reveal how people can be so funny, empathetic and good-hearted in their most candid moments — but not always, I’d note. The pranks sometimes seem unnecessarily cruel, pulling the rug out from under unwitting folks and making us cringe, cringe, crinnnnnnnnnngggeeee, and thankful we are not them. It’s awful and I hereby apologize to the universe for laughing at it as much as I did.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Bad Trip is stupid, moronic garbage, and if that sounds like your idea of a great time, now you know what you’re getting into.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.