Joy Ride (2023) is a movie that my wife and I caught in theaters today. The storyline follows an orphaned Asian young lady who grew up with an Asian best friend. She grows up to be a successful lawyer and is asked to go to China 🇨🇳 and close a mega deal that will lead to a significant promotion. Her childhood best friend agrees to go with her and her best friend from college is already in China and agrees to meet her too. As the girls try to work together to close the deal everything goes wrong.
This movie is directed by Adele Lim, in her directorial debut, and stars Ashley Park (Beef), Sherry Cola (I Love Dick), Sabrina Wu (Doogie Kamealoha, MD), Stephanie Hsu (The Path), Timothy Simmons (Don't Worry Darling) and Kenneth Liu (The Midnight Club).
This movie is way better than I anticipated and actually reminded me of The Hangover. The casting for the characters was well done and fit perfectly. There's a good mix of different personalities within the storyline that are fun to watch mix. There's also some worthwhile and deep sub plots. The comedic content is fantastic, raunchy and very well written. The conclusion leaves you wanting a sequel.
Overall, this was a fantastic addition to the comedic genre that's absolutely worth your time. I would score this an 8/10 and strongly recommend it.
