Mr. Movie | ‘Vacation Friends’ is fun but the plot needs a holiday

The plot of Vacation Friends is a well-worn path.

Two couples, Marcus and Emily and Ron and Kyla meet in Mexico. And to say Ron and Kyla are wild is an understatement.

Marcus is tightly-wrapped and Emily is somewhere in between. As the couples bond, Marcus loosens up and he and Emily start to party like Ron and Kyla.

Something might have happened between the couples on the last night. Maybe.

Then the vacation is over and Marcus goes back to being a bit uptight. Seven months later, Marcus and Emily are getting married. Guess who shows up to the wedding — uninvited.

The “what might have happened that last night” comes into play and things get even more out of control from there.

What’s wrong with “Vacation Friends?” Lots.

Cena and Meredith Hagner, who plays his girlfriend, are so over the top that any semblance of believability gets tossed out the window.

Howery and Yvonne Orji’s, Emily, get a bit better treatment from the team of five screenwriters.

They manage to maintain some appearance of normality.

The negative of “Vacation Friends” is its tired story. You’ve seen a dozen or more films with similar situations. It’s so wrong that it’s close to impossible to know where to start the criticism.

So I won’t bother. Just remember that you’ve seen movies like this a bunch of times.

What makes the movie work is how writer-director, Clay Tarver (4 Primetime Emmy nominations for “Silicon Valley”) and Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley who helped write “Horrible Bosses,” “Game Night” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” and first-time writers, and Tom and Tim Mullen, craft the characters and the laughs.

Most of the scenes are predictably stupid. However, once in awhile one

generates a laugh. Or two. Sometimes three. It is that comedy and the chemistry of the four lead actors, and their co-stars, that make the movie worth catching.

Barely.

In terms of star power, John Cena (“F9”) is the biggest star of the four lead actors. He’s also bigger in more ways than one. Cena constantly shows off his super-buff 6’1” and 250-pound body.

He dwarfs the diminutive, and somewhat rotund, Lil Rel Howery who is 5’6.” The two ladies, Meredith Hagner and Yvonne Orji are about Howery’s height.

Like Dwayne Johnson, and other wrasslers who’ve gone from the ring to the big screen, Cena is a natural comedian. And Like Johnson, and others of his former profession, drama isn’t Cena’s thing. Scenes where he’s serious just don’t work.

But the guy can, and does, generate laughs.

Cena goes all out. His energy is infectious and that energy takes Howery, Hagner and Orji along with him. Though — as noted — the material is limited and limiting, the four main actors and the supporting cast have a blast with what they’re given.

Surprisingly, the fun they’re having is contagious.

Rated R for mature themes, language, drug and alcohol abuse, sex. It’s streaming on Hulu.

Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5

This story was originally published August 28, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Mr. Movie | ‘Vacation Friends’ is fun but the plot needs a holiday."