The movie was not shown to press here ahead of release.
Unfortunately, Joy Ride is one of those movies that has arrived in Ireland with little to no local promotion. It arrived in the States in early July where it was quickly named by many as the funniest movie of 2023 so far, with a very impressive cast and crew behind it, including being produced by Seth Rogen, written by one of the best Family Guy scripters, and a cast including Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once), Ashley Park (Emily in Paris), Annie Mumolo (Bridesmaids) and Timothy Simons (Veep).
But the movie is distributed by Lionsgate, who don’t always give their movies a big push for Irish audiences, so sometimes their releases can fall through the gaps. But don’t worry, we’re here to fix that!
The movie’s official plot synopsis is as follows: “Four Asian American friends bond and discover the truth of what it means to know and love who you are, while they travel through China in search of one of their birth mothers.”
Admittedly, that doesn’t sound particularly funny, but just check out this trailer and tell us you don’t cackle through the majority of it:
With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 91%, it is rare that a comedy will have the vast majority of critics agreeing with each other that, yes, actually, it is very funny, but that is exactly what has happened here:
Indie Wire – “Joy Ride is easily the golden standard for progressive, raunchy comedy and the need for more diverse stories being told on screen.”
The New York Times – “Joy Ride processes all of its familiar ingredients into a sustained, sometimes near-berserk, barrage of jokes, interspersed with epic set pieces.”
Slashfilm – “Joy Ride is the big, broad, studio comedy to beat this year, an incredible directorial debut with one of the funniest scripts in a while, and a cast that should get all the praise in the world because they just became the dynamic quartet to watch.”
Joy Ride is showing in a select number of cinemas around the country from today, Friday 4 August.
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