Outrageous couple comedy is now an established if not reliable genre. “Vacation Friends” has a quality advantage in the casting of couples; Lil Rel Howery, Yvonne Orji, John Cena, and Meredith Hagner are all guaranteed laughter generators.
Howery and Orji are Marcus and Emily; Marcus is a button-down planner whose surprise offer to Emily is canceled pretty much as soon as they arrive at a posh Mexican resort. Their own suite, which had been festooned with rose petals, is flooded upon arrival. The culprits are the neighbors upstairs, Ron and Kyla, who left their hot tubs running before going out for a jet ski.
Interpreted by Cena and Hagner, the couple embody a spontaneity pushed to psychopathy. These two line their margarita glasses with cocaine. In less than 24 hours, they wreck both a jet ski and a yacht. Ron initiates an act of William Tell with his automatic. And then things get sloppy.
Seven months later, Marcus and Emily are due to get married in Atlanta. Components designed to sabotage a serene union include the posh father of the bride, her hostile brother, a pair of heirloom rings that Marcus must keep safe, and more. Ron and Kyla literally crash the event. True to the sub-genre, the ensuing chaos also contains mutated “life lessons”.
Clay Tarver, a veteran of the “Silicon Valley” TV series (and founder of postpunk band Chavez) leads with an eye and an ear way above what you usually get with that kind of fare. (A scene in which Marcus and Ron hallucinate on tree mushrooms is inventively lo-fi.) What Kyla says about the cocaine-margarita shot – “it does the job” – can be applied to the film as a whole.
Holiday friends
Rated R for Outrageous Couple Comedy Scandal. Duration: 1 hour 47 minutes. Watch on Hulu.
