Following in the footsteps of Bridesmaids and Trainwreck, Girls Trip embraces female comedy in its most unfiltered and unashamed form. This is not a sweet story of four best friends who find themselves in madcap situations; this is full-frontal gross-out comedy. The girls rekindle college friendships on a trip to Essence Festival in New Orleans where they drink more than seems humanly possible and discuss everything from relationship problems to giving each other sexual advice (you’ll never want to eat a grapefruit again).

With an undeniably strong ensemble cast headed up by Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett Smith, it’s Tiffany Haddish as Dina that’s the real star of the group. Much like Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids, her wild and unleashed character steals the show in almost every scene. Truly unpredictable and incredibly funny, Haddish is the one delivering the biggest of the film’s jokes. And while the big jokes and sharp one-liners are genuinely tear-inducing, it’s a real shame that some of the bits in between fall very flat.

For all of the completely gross-out, hilarious scenarios that the girls find themselves in, there are sappy back stories and cheesy clichés to put up with. Outside of the all-out comedy scenes the writing is a real let-down, with moments that were written with the intention of being empowering coming across as forced and unnecessary. While it’s great to see a group of women on a voyage of self-discovery and celebrating womanhood in all its forms, the film strives to have a real moral backbone that the writers massively fail to achieve.

Girls Trip is a great two hours of pure escapism with some disgustingly hilarious and joyful moments, but we could really have done without so much schmaltz being piled on top.

RATING: 3/5

INFORMATION

CAST: Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tiffany Haddish

DIRECTOR: Malcolm D. Lee

WRITERS: Erica Rivinoja, Kenya Barris, Tracy Oliver

SYNOPSIS: When four lifelong friends travel to New Orleans for the annual Essence Festival, sisterhoods are rekindled, wild sides are rediscovered, and there’s enough dancing, drinking, brawling, and romancing to make the Big Easy blush.