Girls Trip

Showing "black women being carefree and having fun just like everybody else." That's what Tracy Oliver, co-writer of "Girls Trip" (R, 2:02), wanted to accomplish with this movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "I think we need to show all aspects of black lives," Oliver said. "I love 'Moonlight', I love 'Hidden Figures', but I also want to see some people who are having fun and just showing female friends hanging out." After all, minorities are becoming not just the stars, but the subjects of more and more movies these days, and not just in historical dramas. But even contemporary films with predominantly black casts have been, more often than not, comedies, focusing mostly on one character or couple (for example, 2013's "Baggage Claim"), mainly featuring one black star (2015's "The Wedding Ringer") or with a large ensemble cast (2016's "Almost Christmas") of mostly men. But what about the girls? In the same way that movies mostly about white women explore their friendships, family relationships and show they can be just as funny and raunchy as the men ("Bridesmaids", "Sisters", "Bad Moms", "Rough Night", etc.), 2017 offers up "Girls Trip" to represent – and entertain.

Similar to "Rough Night", this movie features four close college friends who have drifted apart over the years, but who long for a reunion – and a chance to recapture their lost youth, if only for a weekend – and make some fun new memories along the way. Regina Hall plays Ryan Pierce, a self-help guru whose book, "You Can Have it All", has made her a brand of her own and who is enjoying riding that wave with her husband and business partner, ex-NFLer Stewart Pierce (Mike Colter). Sasha Franklin (Queen Latifah) has achieved some fame too, but doesn't seem very proud of using her journalism degree as a celebrity gossip writer whose blog "Sasha's Secrets" is starting to fizzle. All four of the main characters miss having fun together, but maybe the two who need it the most are Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith) who has become a loving, but overprotective single mother who has forgotten what it's like to have fun, and Dina (Tiffany Hadish), a hot-head who just lost her job due to her significant anger management issues.

When Ryan is invited to be the keynote speaker at the annual Essence Conference in New Orleans, she decides to turn the trip into a much- needed reunion for her three best friends. But when they get together, problems soon develop. It quickly becomes clear that Ryan's media-perfect marriage isn't quite a perfect as it looks. Ryan and Sasha still harbor hurt feelings from the way a joint business venture turned out five years earlier. Sasha is under a lot of pressure to post a big celebrity news item by the end of the weekend. Lisa is in desperate need of a good time and, when things get frustrating, well… did I mention that Dina has anger issues? As the girls try to support Ryan in her marital troubles and help Lisa reawaken her inner wild child, they all enjoy New Orleans, the perks of Ryan's celebrity and the concert events at the conference, while flirting with men, drinking and just being crazy, including getting involved in a dance-off with a younger group of girls, a bar fight and an ill-advised zip-lining incident. Meanwhile, Ryan learns that a producer is in town to talk to her about starting a talk show and clothing line with her husband and, as all these tensions build, Ryan's conference address starts to look like the time and place for all of these issues to come to a head and/or resolve themselves, one way or another.

"Girls Trip" accomplishes its goals quite impressively. It shows black women cutting loose and also getting past their differences, overcoming the distance that time has placed between them and strengthening their friendships. The disparate characters we get from co-writers Kenya Barris (TV's "Black-ish") and Tracy Oliver (both of who also wrote "Barbershop: The Next Cut") provide great opportunities for story-telling and comedy. Malcolm D. Lee ("Barbershop: The Next Cut", the "Best Man" movies, "Undercover Brother", "Scary Movie 5") makes great use of those opportunities – and the talents of his accomplished stars. This movie is also a celebration of music by black artists, what with performances by Common, Sean Combs and Ne-Yo, among others. Cameos by Mike Epps and Ava DuVernay are also a lot of fun and supporting players like Kate Walsh (as Ryan's ditzy manager) and Larenz Tate round out the cast wonderfully. This may not be the most original comedy of the year and some gags are a little over-the-top, but "Girls Trip" has heart, addresses an underserved segment of the movie-going population and should be great fun for Movie Fans of all backgrounds. "A-"

Ryan Pierce (Regina Hall) has the perfect life. She married her nice college football player boyfriend Stewart. She wrote the book "You can have it all". The couple is on the verge of a big media deal to be the next cultural icon. She has drifted from her longtime friends "The Flossy Posse" and decides to bring them on her speaking trip to New Orleans. Sasha Franklin (Queen Latifah) has abandoned her journalistic dreams and is struggling as an internet gossip columnist. Lisa Cooper (Jada Pinkett Smith) has turned into a safe stay-at-home mom. Dina (Tiffany Haddish) is a wild crazy girl. Sasha gets a tip that Stewart has cheated on Ryan.

This could have been a standard black girls' wild out on their lives fitting into the BET rotation with countless others. It's elevated by a couple of factors. The first is the wild performance from Tiffany Haddish. She's a comedian working her craft and getting some notice as a supporting character in The Carmichael Show. She's the wildly inappropriate character every broad modern comedies need but she does it with a smile and an inner joy. She's half clueless and half callous. The fruit fellatio scene is hilarious. The second is the writing from Kenya Barris, Black-ish creator, and Tracy Oliver. This creates some compelling characters which these experienced actors are able to inhabit. It is a broad comedy with heart. It's got the gross-out, highly-inappropriate jokes which really works here. The actors bring a humanity to their roles. They are ready to come out and set it off.

"Girls Trip" is another "women can be raunchy too" comedy, one that from the trailer didn't look funny at all, but hey…at least they don't kill a stripper in this one (Rough Night).

Here, best friends who have only grown further apart since High School are hoping to reconnect at the Essence Festival in New Orleans.

They're all basically types. Regina Hall has the most to work with as the one who only thinks she has it all together. The rest are the crazy one (Tiffany Haddish), obsessive one (Jada Pinkett), and gossipy one (Queen Latifah).

Through it all the girls will be brought on stage to dance with Puffy, have a dance-off with another set of girls, get into many fist fights and all kinds of other trouble.

It will also go for the most R-rated and nasty of crude jokes.

People I saw this movie with laughed through out at all of it and for their part, all four of these women embarrass themselves and get down and dirty very well.

Particularly this Tiffany Haddish, who will either annoy you or be your favorite part. She goes to some darkly funny places here the characters in Suicide Squad could only dream of.

But for all this talk of women in comedy, doing the same dick jokes men have been doing for so long really shouldn't be the apex. This is really just conquering a mole hill.

And please no more comedies that go over 2 hours long, particularly one like this where the plot suddenly has to kick in in the last half hour and it's just as generic as every other comedy about friendship.

On the one hand this is all really flimsy stuff which I got kinda tired of after 90 minutes, but it's also fun, tries hard for laughs, is very well cast and Hall has some good scenes in the last half.

I'd give it 6 out of 10 but I think if you can get past the clichés and you like toilet humor for a more than necessary period of time, you'll enjoy it a bit more.

If you liked this, please check out Craig James Review on Youtube for more.

I had been anticipating watching this movie since I first saw the trailer. I love this movie!! I saw it with my closest girl friends and we laughed out loud throughout the entire movie. I will definitely watch this again and again. The story was great and the characters were a lot of fun to watch. The cast was absolutely perfect and I don't think they could've done a better job casting this movie. I had no idea Tiffany Haddish was so funny! I appreciate a great FEEL GOOD story like this one and I love that the bond of the characters is one that inspires women to stick together and support one another. Well done!

So glad I did not waste my money going to the theater to see this. Most of the cast I like, but most of the movie was just over the top stupid. I really hope that save their money and not make a Part 2.