One of the surprise smash hits of the summer Girls Trip arrives home on DVD and Blu-Ray just in time for Christmas! Taking a cue from the likes of The Hangover and Bad Moms in which a group of friends ends up in increasingly ridiculous, and often lewd situations. This group focuses on a group of 40-something black women, friends from college who have drifted apart over the years and come together for a trip down to The Big Easy for the Essence music festival.
The group, who call themselves the Fosse Posse, are made up of Ryan (Regina Hall) a successful self-help author who has been made the keynote speaker of the Essence Festival, Sasha (Queen Latifah) who is a struggling celebrity gossip blogger, Lisa
(Jada Pinkett-Smith) an uptight single mum of two, and Dina (Tiffany Haddish) the free-spirited member of the group who is often difficult to reign in. This trip will bring the fore buried down tensions, as well as reveal secrets that the girls have been keeping to themselves. But don’t worry, there’s also plenty of dick jokes.
Girls Trip is the only comedy this year to have made over $100 million at the domestic US box-office, and it is not hard to see why. While it is riddled with clichés across its tad-too-long runtime of 122 minutes, there is a freshness and an energy to the proceedings which makes it feel very unique amongst the crowd of fellow R-rated comedies.
Much of why Girls Trip feels so fresh has to do with the central Fosse Posse. All four of the lead actresses take roles that could’ve felt two-dimensional and strengthen them through a chemistry that feels very genuine; you believe that there is a history of hijinks, laughter, and tears between these four women. Pinkett-Smith plays against type, delivering a performance that feels very sweet and down to Earth, while Latifah is as strong a screen presence as she has ever been, delivering warmth and charm in equal measure. Regina Hall is a surprisingly strong lead, delivering the performance that has the most depth across the group. The real surprise, however, is Tiffany Haddish, proving to be a comedic force to be reckoned with, with Dina being responsible for the most outrageous laughs across the film.
Girls Trip dedicates itself to a brand of crude humour that sets up a situation and keeps pushing it and pushing it to mine it for all it is worth. Just when you think that certain set up can’t give anymore, the writer’s will bring it down into a realm of humour that is often hilariously filthy. The film uses its New Orleans setting to optimum effect, leading to a number of memorable set pieces in a year where other Hollywood comedies such as Baywatch and Snatched have failed to produce anything all that memorable.
Girls Trip won’t win any prizes for originality, and you can tell how all the threads will end up. But that doesn’t stop it from being a fun ride with endearing characters who, for the most part, all grow and learn something across the runtime in a manner that is very crowd-pleasing, marking Girls Trip as a refreshing, charming and often very funny getaway with the girls!
Bonus features: Feature commentary director Malcolm D. Lee, Deleted scenes (with optional commentary with Lee), Outtakes, Extended performance ‘Because of You’ by Ne-Yo, Featurettes: Planning the trip, Outrageous Moments, The Essence of NOLA
Girl’s Trip is out on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital Download now.
