Vacation Friends 2, 2023.
Directed by Clay Tarver.
Starring Lil Rel Howery, Yvonne Orji, John Cena, Meredith Hagner, Steve Buscemi, Carlos Santos, Ronny Chieng, Arnold Y. Kim, Jamie Hector, Lovensky Jean-Baptiste, Julee Cerda, Hugh Moore, T. Love, Kevin Yamada, Brandon St. Clair, and Olivia Grace Applegate.
SYNOPSIS:
A couple who meets up with another couple while on vacation in Mexico, sees their friendship takes an awkward turn when they get back home.
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, Vacation Friends 2 wouldn’t exist.
Writer/director Clay Tarver returns for Vacation Friends 2, this time without co-scribers Tom Mullen and the screenwriting team of Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (most recently known for the faithful Dungeons & Dragons adaptation), and one can’t help but feel those are vital missing ingredients to balancing the humor with heart and grounding the comedy in observational material about different kinds of couples.
Take the first Vacation Friends, which primarily revolves around an upcoming wedding and concludes with shenanigans and drama threatening to turn something directly correlated to love into disaster. Here, Clay Tarver has opted for a third act involving the search for a large sum of missing drug money that went down near the Caribbean resort the characters are staying at, eventually reaching a tipping point of action and chase sequences in the name of survival. It’s a classic example of a sequel misguidedly feeling the need to go bigger, bolder, wilder, and crazier, losing what made the comedy feel so natural and funny.
A case could also be made that Clay Tarver doesn’t have as firm a grasp on who these characters are and how to present their antics in a relatable way that doesn’t appear annoying. As soon as married couples Marcus and Emily (Lil Rel Howery and Yvonne Orji) and Ron and Kyla (John Cena and Meredith Hagner) are reintroduced, they feel grating, with the latter couple playing obscene pranks on the former couple in an airport that feel a bit mean-spirited. Ron and Kyla are accompanied by their newborn child’s babysitter, Maurillo (Carlos Santos), as they are clearly unfit to be parents.
Meanwhile, Marcus claims that he is “floating” and ready to go with the flow of this vacation, comfortable knowing that when a hotshot CEO flies in to meet with him about granting construction work for a Chicago hotel, the rambunctious Ron and Kyla will be long gone. Marcus also puts out feelings to Emily about making a baby for themselves. Emily reciprocates yes but is nervous to admit that she is not ready to be a parent and might never be.
There are also unnecessary interruptions to the flow of this successful dynamic, introducing a VP (Ronny Chieng) arriving early and meeting with Marcus, assuring him that the company will never approve his plans. Then there is the sudden arrival of Kyra’s incarcerated father let out on good behavior, Reese (the reliably funny Steve Buscemi.) While this allows for more culture clashes during what is supposed to be a relaxing getaway, there’s a consistent feeling that Vacation Friends 2 is trying to do too much. It especially feels as if the wives are shortchanged and don’t get much to do (Meredith Hagler constantly shrieks that her father is a good person, and Emily searches for the right time to confess about not wanting to have a baby.)
There are still some hilarious gags, including a drinking game, and an extended sequence at a casino, but for the most part, Clay Tarver has traded more relatable, human comedy for outrageous peril and over-the-top chaos betraying the spirit of these character dynamics. Vacation Friends 2 has solid performances from the ensemble, and the chemistry is still there, but the narrative goes astray. The results are more exhausting and akin to jet lag this time around.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
