John Cena was for many years the great star of WWE, the company of wrestling behind what for many years we knew in Spain under the name of ‘Pressing Catch’. However, wrestling has taken a back seat to him for years, focusing his efforts on a promising acting career.
Just a few weeks ago we could see him embroidering it as Peacemaker in the great ‘The Suicide Squad’ and now he returns with ‘Passenger friends’, an irreverent comedy that comes to Spain this friday august 27 hand in hand with Disney +. It’s not that it’s a memorable movie, but it does know how to manage to get the viewer through an entertaining time seeing her.
The humor from the contrast
The premise of ‘Passenger Friends’ is simple, since part of two radically different couples from each other they meet during a vacation and start an unlikely friendship, having a great time. The problem is that one of those couples have no intention of maintaining contact with the other when it comes to returning to real life, something that will be complicated during the days leading up to their own wedding.
The humor of ‘Passenger friends’ is mainly based on the contrast. On the one hand we have Cena and Mederith Hagner giving life to a couple who seem to know or respect no limits, while the leading duo formed by Lil Rel Howery, who we can also currently see playing Ryan Reynolds’ best friend in ‘Free Guy’, and Yvonne Orji he tends more to maintain order and lead a somewhat more squared way of life.
The script effectively manages that dynamic so that ‘Passenger Friends’ always has a certain spark. It is true that there comes a point where one can already anticipate what the next problem will be that arises derived from that apparent unpredictability of Cena and Hagner, but by then the good work of its four protagonists makes one already welcome with sympathy the different unforeseen events that arise until everything ends up jumping through the air.
To have a good time
One of the successes to achieve this is not to tiptoe through that vacation stage, since the film takes its time to establish the differences between the two, the fact that they end up connecting flows and then it is understood that Howery and Orji simply want to leave all that behind. I don’t remember exactly how long that phase of the movie lasts, but It is essential to lay the foundations for what will come next, also notably defining its protagonists.
In addition, ‘Passenger Friends’ does not stop more than necessary in any situation or specific joke, opting instead to always move forward without giving up that humor is a (more or less) natural consequence of the personality of its protagonists. There the director Clay tarver he knows how to keep things from getting out of hand and keep the story in the right direction.
It is true that that reduces to some extent the surprise capacity of ‘Passenger Friends’, as it is quite clear how everything is going to be solved. However, the objective of the film is not that, but to play with that contrast that I mentioned before for the enjoyment of the viewer. For this reason, the outbursts are actually quite measured and the good work of its cast is trusted so that the film connects with the public, and also to give a certain emotional charge that suits the film quite well.
In short
‘Passenger friends’ is an effective comedy who knows very well what tricks he has to entertain the viewer. An irreverent humor without falling into unnecessary excesses and a good job from its protagonists, who also have enough chemistry to avoid imbalances that would have done a disservice to the final result.