‘Joy Ride’ Review: Adele Lim’s Asian ‘Girls Trip’ Gives Four Women of Color a Chance to Cut Loose

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic According to legend, the chupacabra is a fearsome, blood-sucking beast — a lean and intimidating animal you wouldn’t want to come across feasting on your livestock at night. Not so the cub three kids nickname “Chupa” (Spanish for “sucker,” short for its species) in Mexican director Jonás Cuarón’s family-friendly Netflix movie. This one looks like a fuzzy-wuzzy baby lynx, with inquisitive amber eyes and a pair of awkward azure wings it still hasn’t learned how to use. A single glimpse of this oversized kitten and you’ll want one for your own, if not the plush version to snuggle up with at night. That’s a pretty radical reimagining of a mythical monster usually discussed in horror terms, but an inspired way to bring a sense of Amblin-esque wonder south of the border, attempting to do for a legendary Latin American creature what films like “E.T.” did for extra-terrestrials — which is to say, turn something typically perceived as a threat into everyone’s new fantasy best friend. Cuarón doesn’t exactly hide his influences here, paying overt homage to Steven Spielberg throughout. He even goes so far as to tack a “Jurassic Park” poster on the wall of 13-year-old Alex’s (Evan Whitten) all-American bedroom.

Village Aye resort in Thailand, catered to each of these demanding divas’ needs, from killing bugs in their room to fulfilling outrageous orders. Before each of the women arrived in Phuket, Pepsi FaceTimed with them individually to prepare them for the trip.“I was worried for him,” Alexia Nepola told TheWrap. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, he’s not gonna be able to handle all of us! But guess what, thank God we had him and he was totally able and capable.

Descendants: The Rise of Red.” Montalban will play the role of King Charming, reuniting with Brandy as Cinderella after they stared as the dynamic royal duo in ABC’s 1997 “Wonderful World of Disney” TV movie “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.”  “The Rise of the Red” comes as the latest installment in Disney’s “Descendants” franchise.  

left you wanting more, it's time to get packing.  Coming back with a new all-star cast, season 3 is moving out of Dorinda Medley's Blue Stone Manor and taking the drama to lush and beautiful Thailand. Eight past and present members of franchise will collide when the reality TV juggernaut series premieres Thursday, March 23 on Peacock.It's the drama you'd expect from Real Housewives and more during.Season 3 of  will feature eight beloved — or be-loathed —Housewives, including Gizelle Bryant and Candiace Dillard Bassett of Heather Gay and Whitney RoseofLeah McSweeney of Alexia Nepola and Marysol Patton of  and Porsha Williams from We can rely on these housewives to bring the theatrics we know and love from their respective series. There is fighting and yelling over the dinner table, paranoia, a scary visit to the emergency room and so much more.

Reading between the lines? Lala Kent broke down how a moment in season 10 of Vanderpump Rules may have pointed to Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss‘ affair.

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.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Americans spend tens of billions of dollars on basketball sneakers every year. Sure, everybody needs shoes, but it shouldn’t matter if your choice bears the Nike swoosh, Adidas’ three stripes or the Converse star. In most cases, consumers aren’t simply buying footwear; they’re investing in the fantasy of walking in someone else’s shoes — a sports star or personal idol — of believing that switching one’s kicks has a direct impact on your potential for greatness. As the Nike marketing gurus in Ben Affleck’s “Air” put it, “A shoe is just a shoe until someone steps into.” If you’ve been alive on earth in the last 40 years, then you already know what happened when a rookie named Michael Jordan let Nike put his name and likeness on their shoes. But “Air” isn’t about convincing the greatest basketball player in the history of the game to sign with Nike, although a “Jerry Maguire”-desperate Matt Damon — as paunchy, flop-sweating Sonny Vaccaro — might trick you into thinking this is just the (admittedly very entertaining) anatomy of a landmark business deal.

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.

do go sideways in Adele Lim’s laugh-out-loud hilarious directorial debut “Joy Ride,” a sweet mix of a buddy comedy and a girl’s trip film that will have you laughing so much you’ll cry — and then crying for real, and laughing some more. This is such a bold and genuine movie, one that highlights the concepts of found family, maternal connections and doing what makes you happy alongside all of its unrestrained and risque fun.  The boisterous comedy follows Ashley Park’s Audrey, a Chinese girl adopted by white parents in a mostly-white suburban town.

Gizelle Bryant is getting us so excited for the upcoming third season of Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip!

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!

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.

The “Joy Ride” trailer is out now and certainly will take you for one.

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.