Artnewspress :
Bad Trip, a movie I remember seeing trailers for in theaters over a year ago, is finally being released – on Netflix. The hidden camera comedy featuring Eric André, Lil Rel Howery, and Tiffany Haddish, was once slated to arrive in theaters in 2019. Then it got pushed to 2020. And then, of course, the pandemic got in the way. At one point, the film dropped onto Amazon Prime Video – even though it wasn’t supposed to be there. It was promptly pulled from that service, and now it’s officially headed to Netflix next month.
Once upon a time, when we all went to movie theaters, trailers for Bad Trip played on the big screen. I can’t remember exactly when I first started seeing them, but I know it feels like a long time ago. I’m sure you saw them, too, but if not – here’s a reminder.
The comedy flick was originally set for an October 2019 theatrical release date – but that didn’t happen. It then moved to February 2020. That, too, did not come to pass. There were plans to debut the movie at SXSW in March 2020, but SXSW ended up being canceled. Finally, an April 17, 2020 release date was announced. But as we all know, the pandemic made such a release kind of impossible since movie theaters had to shut down.
Then something strange happened: Bad Trip popped up on Amazon Prime Video on its intended theatrical date, April 17. The Amazon release was an accident (somehow), and the movie was quickly pulled from the streaming service (but not quickly enough to keep it from leaking onto torrent sites). By May of 2020, it was announced that MGM had sold the film to Netflix. Now, we finally have a Netflix release date: March 26, 2021. Here’s a synopsis:
This hidden camera comedy follows two best friends as they go on a cross-country road trip full of hilarious, inventive pranks, pulling its real-life audience into the mayhem. Bad Trip stars Eric Andre, Lil Rel Howery, Tiffany Haddish and Michaela Conlin. The film is directed by Kitao Sakurai from the minds of Dan Curry, Kitao Sakurai, and Andre – and produced by Andre, Jeff Tremaine, David Bernad, and Ruben Fleischer.
I’ll confess I’m not big on this hidden camera-style comedy, so I’ll probably be skipping this. However, Bad Trip is bound to find an audience looking for some laughs, so I’m sure it’ll go over well when it hits Netflix next month.
