We recently had a solid comedy film that leaned toward the raunchy side of the spectrum in No Hard Feelings. Typically, I have never been much of a fan of this type of comedy, but No Hard Feelings exceeded my expectations. Joy Ride is the next film that falls into the same category. It was the second one in a row that I really enjoyed.

Audrey (Ashley Park) was a lawyer assigned by her agency to go to complete a deal in China. Audrey was a Chinese-American who had been adopted as a child by an American couple. She could not speak Chinese so her lifelong friend Lolo (Sherry Cola) was going to go along too. Lolo brought her sister Deadeye (Sabrina Wu) and Audrey was meeting her actress friend she met in college, Kat (Stephanie Hsu), who worked on a TV show in China.

The four of them started on their big adventure in China, which would lead Audrey to look for her birth mother.

As I mentioned, this movie is extremely raunchy and I typically have not be a huge fan of this style of comedy, and, honestly, a lot of the raunchy aspects of the film were the parts that I was not a huge fan of. I am not sure that a lot of the humor worked as well as I wanted, though there were some funny bits. Yet, I enjoyed the film because there was more than just the vulgarity involved.

In fact, the film had four main characters in Audrey, Kat, Lolo and Deadeye and they all were real, well-developed characters that had motivations and were relatable. None of them were just Chinese stereotypes and the interactions between the four of them were outstanding. The cast is easily the main reason for this film to be as successful as it is,

And the movie did not only give us the raunchy humor. There were a ton of character moments that really worked well. Even then, a lot of the bawdy humor really fit with the characters as well, informing us who these people were and their hopes and dreams for their lives.

No spoilers, but I also loved the cameo by Daniel Dae Kin, who played Jin on LOST. It was awesome seeing him once again.

Joy Ride was much more than just a comedy with a lot of swear words and sexual innuendo. It is actually a smart, clever, witty film with the heart centered with the main four characters.

4 stars