“I’m not sitting next to Jaden and Trey watching this, that’s for doggone sure,” joked ‘Girls Trip’ star Jada Pinkett Smith in a recent interview about the prospect of her kids seeing her new film. “[Willow] wanted to go to the premiere and I said, ‘Oh no. We won’t be doing that. Nah.’”
‘Girls Trip’ is, without doubt, for adults: a funny and filthy mix of dick jokes, bar fights and public urination that sees lifelong friends Ryan, Sasha, Lisa and Dina (AKA the Flossy Posse) travelling to New Orleans for Essence Festival, an annual celebration of black sisterhood. After five years of not seeing each other, they hope to rekindle friendships that careers, partners and babies have come between with a brash and boozy weekend. What follows is a riotous flick that breathes fresh life into the tired bachelor genre usually dominated by men in films like ‘The Hangover’, ‘Due Date’ and ‘Wedding Crashers’.
Pinkett Smith shines as Lisa, the buttoned-up single mother with a wild past. Queen Latifah is on form as the gossipy Sasha. Regina Hall’s Ryan is a high-powered celebrity trapped in a sham marriage.
The star of the show, however, is newcomer Tiffany Haddish as fierce, sex-obsessed Dina. One jaw-dropping set-piece sees her suspended on a zip wire 15 feet above Bourbon Street, her bladder bursting at just the wrong moment. These grosser gags may put some off, but most will cry with laughter. When these four share the screen, sparks fly and the chemistry is perfect.