‘Joy Ride’ Review: A Hilarious but Heartfelt Female Buddy Film That Hits All the Right Notes

Jessica Kiang Watch any of the films that made Jackie Chan a legend and you notice that so much of his graceful, goofball charisma comes from simply having one more move up his sleeve. Whether changing position while sliding down a plate-glass skyscraper or falling off a clock face onto a series of awnings or dispatching multiple assailants with his witty brand of bendy, aerobic kung-fu, only to end on a silly eye-poke or a gymnastic semi-levitation, the star-making flourish is so often the extra thing he does when anyone else would be finished. But what do you do when, nearing 70 and with almost 150 movie performances behind you, there aren’t that many one-more-moves left? Maybe you make something like Larry Yang’s “Ride On,” a sappy but enjoyable slice of family fun that has a nice horse doing wacky tricks for the younger viewers and for parents and older fans, is a gently meta, valedictory canter through the paddock of Chan’s previous achievements. 

Beyoncé and Jay-Z are celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary on 4 April, and the powerhouse couple are nothing if not honest when it comes to talking about the highs and lows of their relationship. Given that they met in 2000 when Beyoncé was 18, and 12 years Jay-Z’s junior, the odds of their relationship lasting so long were stacked against them.They might be two of the most successful recording artists of all time, but they’ve faced multiple challenges, from Jay-Z’s infidelity to family fallouts and their struggle to have children.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Santa Fe D.A. Mary Carmack-Altwies will step aside in the prosecution of Alec Baldwin for the fatal shooting of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, and has named two lawyers to take over the case. Carmack-Altwies appointed Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis as special prosecutors on the case. Both are private attorneys based in Albuquerque. The move comes after Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer ruled on Monday that Carmack-Altwies could not continue to prosecute the case if she appointed a special prosecutor. Baldwin and “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed were charged in January with involuntary manslaughter for the death of Hutchins. Gutierrez Reed mistakenly loaded a live round into Baldwin’s gun. Baldwin was holding it when it fired — he has denied pulling the trigger — killing Hutchins and wounding the film’s director.

Mike Myers apparently doesn’t like people looking him in the eye.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer A judge on Monday blocked the Santa Fe district attorney from appointing a new prosecutor in the “Rust” case, marking another setback for the prosecution. Mary Carmack-Altwies, the elected D.A., said at a hearing Monday that the office is in “dire straits” due to a manpower shortage, and needs an outside lawyer to help prosecute Alec Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed for the October 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. But Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer ruled that the D.A. could not appoint a “special prosecutor” unless the D.A.’s office plans to recuse itself entirely from the case.

Richard Kuipers The third feature directed by Vietnamese superstar Ngo Thanh Van — better known to western audiences as actor Veronica Ngo in “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and “The Old Guard” — lives up to its title with a furious display of female revenge set in the seedy streets of late-’90s Ho Chi Minh City. Despite a routine plot and some abrasive tonal shifts, this tale of a motherly mentor turning three damaged young women into deadly assassins is packed with exciting action and boasts fine performances from four killers bound by blood, bullets and all manner of deadly weapons. Following a series of rowdy screenings in SXSW’s Midnighters section, “Furies” will stream worldwide as the first Vietnamese Netflix original feature on March 23.   

to evade constitutional protections for accused criminals, “this was this global war on terror where we were allowed to open this gulag.” “They were torturing people there to try to make them say that Iraq was involved,” Reid continuing, by which she meant involved in the 9/11 attacks. “And they weren’t.

The stars of Joy Ride will receive at Comedy Ensemble of the Year Award at CinemaCon next month. Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu and Sabrina Wu will be honored April 27 during the confab’s Big Screen Achievement Awards at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Adele Lim’s debut film, Joy Ride, will make you cry your eyes out, in addition to showing the audience that women know how to party hard.

When it comes to R-rated comedies, no other film festival can hold a candle to SXSW. The Austin-based film festival is often the jumping-off point for some of the year’s highest-profile comedies; previous premieres have included films like “Knocked Up,” “21 Jump Street,” “Keanu,” and the work-in-progress debut of “Bridesmaids.” This means a stop at SXSW is an absolute no-brainer for any film resulting from the Judd Apatow producing tree.

The stars of Joy Ride are hitting the red carpet!

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic In 1993, “The Joy Luck Club” made Hollywood history, proving to a skeptical — and let’s face it, racist — industry that there was mainstream demand for a culturally sensitive Chinese American ensemble drama. Three decades later, along comes “Joy Ride,” throwing sensitivity to the wind en route to obliterating any remaining barriers. Like “Girls Trip” with an all-Asian-American cast, the Seth Rogen-produced, hard-R road movie follows small-town besties Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lolo (Sherry Cola) to Beijing, where they tackle everything from taboo tattoos to a devil’s threesome with all the gusto you’d hope or expect from “Crazy Rich Asians” co-writer Adele Lim’s directorial debut.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor When Teresa Hsiao (“Family Guy”), Cherry Chevapravatdumrong (“Family Guy”) and Adele Lim (“Crazy Rich Asians”) set out to write “Joy Ride,” the aim was to develop a story that they wished they could have had seen in their twenties. “Joy Ride” sees Lim transition from writer to director in this “Girls Trip” meets “The Hangover” ride of a film where Stephanie Hsu, Sherry Cola, and Sabrina Wu follow Ashley Park’s Audrey across the world on a business trip to Asia. Things go awry when she has to track down her birth mother to close a huge business deal. The writers wanted a film that would show young Asian women having fun and being messy, smashing past narratives of Asian women as exotic fetishes. This was a story they wanted to tell on their terms.

Joy Ride is definitely one of our most anticipated movies of the year!

'Ashley Park and 's Sherry Cola seek the answer to that question in their raunchy new comedy,, which makes its premiere at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas, on Friday. In the film, directed by  co-writer Adele Lim, Park stars as Audrey, a young woman who was adopted from China as an infant. When she sees a business trip to Asia as the opportunity to find the birth mother she never knew, she recruits help from a few unlikely allies -- her foul-mouthed hot mess of a BFF, Lolo (Cola), her college friend-turned-Chinese soap star, Kat (Stephanie Hsu), and Lolo's eccentric cousin, Deadeye (Sabrina Wu) — to turn the experience into an epic journey.The comedy — which features some explicit translation errors, a drug-addled train ride and the group disguising themselves as K-pop stars — also stars Ronny Chieng.

Can friends make a miserable experience better? Audrey is about to find out in Lionsgate’s new comedy “Joy Ride.” The film sees its lead character — played by “Emily in Paris” star Ashley Park — on a business trip gone bad. She goes to a childhood friend, a college pal, and a cousin to make it through.

How could a trip to the motherland go so hilariously, disastrously wrong? The quartet at the heart of Adele Lim’s “Joy Ride” – Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu and Sabrina Wu – have no idea what they’re in for at the top of the trailer, which Lionsgate released Friday ahead of the film’s premiere at SXSW.The trailer begins with the origin story of Audrey (Park) and Lolo’s (Cola) friendship, when they meet at a park as young kids. Lolo punches a white boy in the throat after he calls Audrey a racist slur, sealing the deal on their lifelong friendship.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Lionsgate has released the first trailer for Adele Lim’s “Joy Ride,” a comedy feature starring Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu, Ashley Park, Sherry Cola and Sabrina Wu. Premiering March 17 at SXSW, the film is set to be released in theaters July 7. “Joy Ride” tells the raunchy and fun story of how four best friends embark on a once-in-a-lifetime international adventure. In the film, Audrey (Park) has to go to Asia on a business trip to close a massive deal. Things go drastically wrong when she searches for her birth mother with her childhood best friend Lolo (Cola), her college friend turned Chinese soap star Kat (Hsu) and Lolo’s eccentric cousin Deadeye (Wu). They also nearly end up in a Chinese jail for doing drugs.

Broadway revival of “Parade,” Jason Robert Brown’s sorrowful if flawed musical about the 1915 anti-Semitic lynching of Leo Frank, is youth.Playing husband and wife Leo and Lucille Frank, Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond come across strikingly young (and at 23 years old, Diamond really is), like a faded photo of your great-grandparents that you discover in a drawer. The subjects neither smile nor frown, but behind their neutral stares is so much promise and fear.2 hours, 30 minutes, with one intermission.

Charna Flam The so-called “crackberry” is back. IFC Films has released the first official trailer for the upcoming comedy-drama film, “BlackBerry,” which provides a peek into exactly how the handheld device revolutionized the cell phone industry. Director Matt Johnson, along with co-screenwriter Matthew Miller, adapted Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff’s book “Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry” for the big screen. Johnsonplays BlackBerry co-founder Douglas Fregin in the film, alongside Glenn Howerton as chair and co-CEO Jim Balsillie, Jay Baruchel as co-founder Mike Lazaridis and Cary Elwes as Palm CEO Carl Yankowski. The cast also includes Saul Rubinek, Michael Ironside, Rich Sommer, Michelle Giroux, Mark Critch and SungWon Cho.