The crew behind the JACKASS movies took pranking to a new level with their compilations of on-camera gags at real people’s expense and bizarre, dangerous stunts. The new movie BAD TRIP evokes the madcap spirit of those and similar movies, while at the same time using those pranks as real plot points for a singular narrative-driven movie. Starring Eric Andre, Tiffany Haddish and Lil Rel Howery, the first red-band trailer teases a story about two friends going on a road trip, with all three getting into dangerous pranks that get real people’s blood boiling or anxiety levels skyrocketing.
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Directed by Kitao Sakurai (THE ERIC ANDRE SHOW) and written by Andre, Sakurai and Dan Curry, the movie follows Howery and Andre’s characters as they go on a cross-country road trip with the former’s sister’s car, played by Haddish. When she breaks out of prison – in a prank done in front of real on-lookers – she goes on a manhunt for the two of them.
The story itself isn’t quite as catching as the pranks, which involves Andre getting his clothes sucked off while vacuuming a car, Howery getting trapped in a porta potty, Haddish stealing a cop car, and her hanging Andre off the side of a building. It seems odd the real people on the other end of these pranks don’t seem to recognize the stars of movies like GET OUT, GIRLS TRIP and other hit movies, but it also stands to reason that it’s hard to recognize Haddish when she’s flipping you the bird while driving a door-less cop car or emerging from a hole in the ground.
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The movie is produced by Jeff Tremaine of JACKASS and BAD GRANDPA, Ruben Fleischer (VENOM), David Bernad, and Andre himself, and while we've seen pranks weaved into story-driven movies like GRANDPA, and Sacha Baron Cohen's BORAT and BRUNO, I can't quite recall the pranks themselves being all so key to the story as BAD TRIP's. It's a fun premise to play with and should provide some nice shock laughs before a new movie season of blockbusters and Oscar dramas kicks in.
BAD TRIP is in theaters October 25.