Bad Trip (Kitao Sakurai)

[Idioteque Stalker]

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[Idioteque Stalker]

Has its moments, but I prefer Eric Andre in pure sketch comedy mode.

[Henry Gale]

I watched this a year ago when it was accidentally released on Amazon, and as a massive fan of The Eric Andre Show, getting Season 5 of the show, his comedy special (which many don't seem to love but I definitely do for the simultaneously chaotic and defeated tone he creates) and this movie at the same time was pretty blissful after a long drought from him.

Having said that, I would easily recommend that newest season of his Adult Swim show over this movie (similar length actually..), but the movie definitely has some killer moments that make me laugh under my breath just thinking about them, even if I do feel in other places it also finds itself hamstrung by its conceit of needing nearly every scene to have real-world reactions attached to it. Still, it does switch it up enough and even finds a few ingenious twists on it along the way (the dream sequence comes to mind) and all three leads elevate it to feel like something that would've made really a solid "regular" comedy that here just feels like it happens to be performed live in front of civilians more than just a prank movie! [doink sound effect!] searching for a throughline.

And all the new enthusiasm for it and its unexpected success (it was #1 on Netflix worldwide for a couple of days) has made me kind of excited to watch it again, even if it's pretty disheartening that it would be the second April in a row that I'd watch it alone in lockdown instead of with people, as a comedy like this so clearly calls for inebriated company.

[Dukefrukem]

I laughed my ass off the entire ride.

[Peng]

Turns out the familiar set-piece comedy/rom-com tropes get revitalized big time when surrounded by actual normal people and their reactions, amplifying both the comedy and the fascination of seeing how they will be received in real life. Unexpected humanist streak runs through this whole thing as well, as we see some of these pranks bring out the best in everyday people. A few favorite small bits: people actually "awww"-ing at rom-com/buddy moments; military guy taking a deep juul after helping out Eric André; and of course, "I wasn’t ready to be Samuel L. Jackson in The Negotiator!" 7.5/10