Vacation Friends - Hulu Review

Starring John Cena, Lil Rey Howery, Yvonne Orji, Meredith Hagner, Robert Wisdom, Lynn Whitfield and Tawny Newsome.

Written by Tom Mullen, Tim Mullen, Clay Tarver, Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley.

Directed by Clay Tarver.

★★★

Is sincerity making a comeback in comedy? Maybe so. The eternally optimistic Ted Lasso swept the Emmys, and here comes a raunchy comedy that manages to combine The Hangover and Wedding Crashers and still reveal a heart the longer it goes.

Lil Rey Howery, scene-stealer in supporting roles in everything from Get Out to Free Guy, gets to be a lead here, in the uptight straight-man role as Marcus, who takes his girlfriend Emily (Yvonne Orji) to Cancun where he plans to pop the question. Unfortunately their room is flooded because the couple upstairs left their jacuzzi water running.

That couple are Ron (John Cena) and Kyla (Meredith Hagner), a wild, irresponsible pair who live life to the fullest. At first Marcus & Emily resist, but they eventually get on the same YOLO wavelength and allow themselves to get crazy. They part as vacation friends, but Marcus & Emily are determined to never see them again.

Wellllllllll, seven months later, at Marcus & Emily's wedding, guess who decides to show up and keep the party going?

John Cena has demonstrated his strength is in comedy (Blockers, The Suicide Squad) and he doesn't disappoint here, and he has great odd-couple chemistry with Howery, not to mention he and Hagner make a great crazy couple. Orji probably is given the least amount to do of the four but she has her moments too.

I've heard they've already greenlit a sequel. Great. I hope they pull an unsuspecting third couple into their orbit next time.

73rd Emmy Award Winners

How was the show?

I enjoyed the show. It certainly put the Oscars to shame. I liked the 'Just A Friend' parody with Cedric the Entertainer, LL Cool J, and then more surprises, then all 100-ish join in. Like a fun high-school reunion. (Still weird to think Biz Markie is dead.) I liked Seth Rogen calling out the crowd for not social-distancing (then Cedric letting everyone at home know everyone in attendance is vaxxed). Cedric showed why comedians should always be hosts of shows like this. There was some #EmmysSoWhite hanging over it when we were halfway through the awards and I realized the only non-white people who'd won so far were members of writing teams. But then you had RuPaul, Michaela Cole...

Favorite moments:

Seeing in general how tight the Ted Lasso cast and crew are.

- Juno Temple bawling through Hannah Waddington's speech

- Hannah squeeeezing Brett Goldstein before he could get to the stage

- Brendan Hunt's old-school gent outfit

Kerry Washington's moment for Michael K. Williams.

Lorne Michaels' nod to Norm MacDonald.

The support circle for non-Emmy winners (Scott Bakula, Jason Alexander, etc).

Jean Smart's tribute to her husband who died six months ago.

DEBBIE ALLEN.

Anything Conan O'Brien did.

In Memoriam.

Low-point:

Old white man Scott Frank (director of The Queen's Gambit) refusing to get played off three times, acting like his reading of his windy two-page speech deserved more air-time than Debbie Allen.

==COMEDY SERIES==

BEST TV COMEDY - Ted Lasso

BEST ACTOR - Jason Sudeikis, Ted Lasso

BEST ACTRESS - Jean Smart, Hacks

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR - Brett Goldstein, Ted Lasso

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS - Hannah Waddington, Ted Lasso

BEST WRITING - Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs & Jen Statsky, Hacks

BEST DIRECTING - Lucia Aniello, Hacks

==DRAMA SERIES==

BEST TV DRAMA - The Crown

BEST ACTOR - Josh O'Connor, The Crown

BEST ACTRESS - Olivia Colman, The Crown

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR - Tobias Menzies, The Crown

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS - Gillian Anderson, The Crown

BEST WRITING - Peter Morgan, The Crown

BEST DIRECTING - Jessica Hobbs, The Crown

==LIMITED SERIES/MOVIE==

BEST LIMITED SERIES/MOVIE - The Queen's Gambit

BEST ACTOR - Ewan McGregor, Halston

BEST ACTRESS - Kate Winslet, Mare of Easttown

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR - Evan Peters, Mare of Easttown

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS - Julianne Nicholson, Mare of Easttown

BEST WRITING - Michaela Cole, I May Destroy You

BEST DIRECTING - Scott Frank, The Queen's Gambit

==VARIETY==

BEST VARIETY TALK SHOW - Last Week with John Oliver

BEST VARIETY SKETCH SERIES - Saturday Night Live

BEST COMPETITION PROGRAM - RuPaul's Drag Race

BEST VARIETY SPECIAL LIVE - Stephen Colbert's Election Night 2020

BEST VARIETY SPECIAL PRE-RECORDED - Hamilton

BEST VARIETY WRITING - Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

GOVERNOR'S LIFETIME AWARD - Debbie Allen

The Voyeurs - Movie Review

Starring Sydney Sweeney, Justice Smith, Ben Hardy, Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Katharine King So.

Written & Directed by Michael Mohan.

★★ 

This low-budget thriller now on Amazon Prime is somewhere between a Hitchcockian wannabe and a Skinemax throwback. It builds suspense slowly then it slams its foot on the gas for a psychotic convoluted Act III that defies logic while making you want to hide your eyes.

Young couple Pippa (The White Lotus' Sydney Sweeney) and Thomas (Detective Pikachu's Justice Smith) have moved into a spacious studio apartment, and they quickly notice their neighbors Seb and Julia across the street like to have sex in their kitchen, in their living room, etc., with no curtains drawn. At first it's amusing voyeurism on their part, but the more they watch, the more they see suspicious activity. Seb brings a mistress home, and Pippa is torn if she should say something to Julia, a woman she's never met in person.

They start playing with fire when they see Seb & Julia are having a Halloween party, so they put on face-hiding costumes and crash it, trying to learn more.

The build is deliberately paced, sometimes ploddingly so. Hey, more time for nude scenes if you take your time with the main plot. The big twist that gets the ball rolling for the second half is shocking, and it shows that it's not just going for genre thrills here; this movie is unafraid to go to some dark places. But as things ramp up to a rapid pace, with more danger and a couple dead bodies, the thin logic holding everything together vaporizes. There's more than one time with more than one character where I wanted to yell "Why aren't you calling the cops?!"

It has some vague morality-play messaging about overreliance on technology and some "curiosity killed the cat" finger-wagging, but I don't think I could say it's a good movie. It's not one you forget as soon as the credits roll either. I suppose I can tip my hat to it on that level, anyway.

What's Opening in September 2021

September 3

SHANG-CHI & THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS with Simu Liu, Tony Leung and Awkwafina.

(lim) WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING with Lisette Alexis, Pat Healy and Vinessa Shaw.

(Amaz) CINDERELLA with Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel, Pierce Brosnan and Billy Porter.

(Netf) WORTH with Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci, Amy Ryan and Tate Donovan.

September 10

THE CARD COUNTER with Oscar Isaac, Tye Sheridan and Willem Dafoe.

MALIGNANT with Annabelle Wallis, Maddie Hasson and Mckenna Grace.

(lim) DATING & NEW YORK with Francesca Reale, Alex Moffat and Jerry Ferrara.

(lim) LANGUAGE LESSONS with Mark Duplass, Natalie Morales and Desean Terry.

(lim) QUEENPINS with Kristen Bell, VInce Vaughn and Kirby Howell-Baptiste.

(Amaz) THE VOYEURS with Sydney Sweeney, Justice Smith and Natasha Liu Bordizzo.

(Netf) KATE with Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Woody Harrelson and Michiel Huisman.

September 17

CRY MACHO with Clint Eastwood, Dwight Yoakam and Fernanda Urrejola.

THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE with Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield.

(lim) PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND with Nicolas Cage and Sofia Boutella.

(lim) BLUE BAYOU with Justin Chon, Alicia Vikander and Mark O'Brien.

(Amaz) EVERYBODY'S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE with Max Harwood and Richard E. Grant.

September 24

DEAR EVAN HANSEN with Ben Platt, Kaitlyn Dever, Amy Adams and Julianne Moore.

(Netf) THE STARLING with Melissa McCarthy, Timothy Olyphant and Chris O'Dowd.

(Netf) MY LITTLE PONY with the voices of Vanessa Hudgens and James Marsden.