Marcus (Lil Rel Howery, from “Get Out”) and Emily (Yvonne Orji, from the show “Insecure”) are a fairly straitlaced, upwardly-mobile couple who get engaged on their vacation in Mexico. Ron (John Cena) and Kyla (Meredith Hagner) witness the proposal and offer to help these complete strangers celebrate. The couples could not be more different. Marcus and Emily, who are black, plan everything carefully, considering the consequences of everything they do. Ron and Kyla, who are white, fly by the seat of their pants, assuming everything will work out. With their laid-back attitudes and their cocaine-laced margaritas, they help Marcus and Emily relax and really enjoy their vacation. The couples wind up becoming as close as you can on a one-week vacation.
Then, it's back to the real world and the lead-up to Marcus and Emily's wedding. The affair is fraught with the usual family stresses. In this case, Emily's family disapproves of Marcus, who comes from a poorer, less refined background, even though he has worked hard and built his own construction company. Despite the tensions, the wedding is set to go off without a hitch until, you guessed it, those old vacation friends show up. Hijinks ensue!
A friend once told me he would love to see a movie where a wacky white person invades the world of a bunch of straitlaced black people and teaches them how to be cool. We've seen the flip side of that a million times, often starring someone like Eddie Murphy or Chris Tucker. “Vacation Friends” is the movie that goes there, flipping the racial script on a familiar story that isn't really about race at all.
Does it work? Yeah, actually, despite the usual ludicrous plot points that we expect in a film like this, “Vacation Friends” winds up being a fun time. That's largely on the merits of the excellent cast, especially John Cena. Anyone who is surprised that professional wrestlers make good actors has never seen professional wrestling. Cena is just the latest in a long line of wrestlers to go from acting in the ring to acting in movies, and I have to say, the guy has a lot of personality. His sheer joy at being alive invites us to drop our expectations and just laugh at the ridiculousness of this otherwise hackneyed film.
“Vacation Friends” was filmed in fits and starts during the pandemic. Given the ongoing worldwide shitshow, they just released it straight to streaming this summer, which wound up being perfect! I would have found the movie underwhelming in a cinema, and under a normal release schedule, I probably would have forgotten about it by the time it hit the streaming services. As it was, seeing the trailer online and then getting to watch it immediately in the comfort of my home? Perfection!
I'm always looking for a deeper meaning in movies where none exists, and “Vacation Friends” made me think this: Maybe a vacation shouldn't just be an escape, destined to end in one or two weeks with a return to the same rut you were in before. Maybe getting away from the house and job should be a chance to change and grow. Maybe what happens on vacation shouldn't stay on vacation!
3 stars out of 5
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