In a summer packed with movies that disappointed at the box office, Girls Trip became a surprise hit. With a mere $19 million budget, the flick took in a solid $115 million – or more than enough to ensure we get Girls Trip 2 at some point down the toad.

During college, Ryan (Regina Hall), Sasha (Queen Latifah), Lisa (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Dina (Tiffany Haddish) all belonged to the same sorority. Though best pals back then, they grew apart over the years.

Media icon Ryan receives an invitation to speak at the Essence Festival in New Orleans, so she uses this occasion to revive the old friendship. She invites the other three women to come to Louisiana too – with crazed results.

Ever since Bridesmaids became a hit in 2011, we’ve seen “ladies gone wild” imitators. 2016’s Bad Moms did well financially – with a budget and gross almost identical to Trip’s – but 2017’s Rough Night flopped.

Moms did little for me, but I hoped Trip might provide the laughs it failed to generate. Unfortunately, the movie sputtered and gave us nothing more than a lot of cheap, tacky stabs at humor with no originality.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as director Malcolm D. Lee has made the same kind of comedy over and over again throughout his career. He goes for easy choices and never challenges the audience – or his actors.

Trip comes with a good cast, none of whom encounter characters the film ever allows to rise above the level of one-dimensionality. No cliché goes left unturned, as the various roles lack nuance or personality.

For the most part, Ryan and Sasha come across as nearly identical roles, while Trip uses Dina and Lisa as opposites. It does so solely for attempts at comedy, for it makes no sense that the crude, over the top Dina and the subdued, introverted Lisa ever liked each other.

But the movie wants its “odd couple” vibe, so it pushes their extreme personalities against each other. This doesn’t work, mainly because we never view Dina or Lisa as real people – they’re movie clichés and nothing more.

It doesn’t help that nothing else about Trip threatens to evolve in a creative manner. Every “plot twist” comes at us from a mile away, so zero surprises emerge.

This might not bother me if the film offered actual laughs, but very few effective comedic beats make it to the screen. Instead, Trip confuses crass gags for actual humor.

As such, characters change personality to serve the movie, and the film stretches to cram in jokes where they don’t belong. If you’ve seen movies in the genre, nothing here will surprise or seem clever – we end up with nothing more than a long collection of comedic clichés.

And I do mean long, as Trip stretches to an interminable 122 minutes. I doubt the film would work at a more concise 90 minutes or so, but with a running time that goes past the two-hour mark, it wears out its welcome well before the credits roll.

Trip got good reviews, but I can’t figure out why, as the movie lacks even a hint of originality or real comedic spark. Profane and tedious, the film offers a largely laugh-free dud.

Footnote: a sticker on the package’s front cover may leave the impression the Blu-ray offers an unrated cut of Trip. Nope – it includes unrated deleted scenes and outtakes. Yes, the sticker mentions those, but given that “UNRATED” takes up so much of its space, it doesn’t seem illogical to expect an alternate version of the film.

Girls Trip appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a pleasant presentation.

Sharpness was almost always positive. A minor amount of softness crept into a couple of long shots, but otherwise the image remained tight and well-defined at all times.

I noticed no issues with shimmering or jaggies, and edge haloes failed to appear. Print flaws also failed to mar the presentation.

Trip went with an amber-influenced palette that sprinkled in a fair amount of teal as well. Within the movie’s color design, the tones seemed solid.

Blacks were dark and deep, while shadows demonstrated nice smoothness. This was a consistently satisfying image.

As for the DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix of Trip, it showed scope typical of the comedy soundfield. This meant a limited soundscape without much to make it stand out from the crowd.

Club and crowd shots added a bit of immersiveness, as did a few other exteriors, but those instances remained fairly infrequent. Most of the flick came with a lot of ambience and not much else.

Audio quality seemed good. Speech was distinctive and natural, without edginess or other issues. Music seemed warm and lush, while effects showed nice clarity and accuracy. Again, nothing about the mix impressed, but it suited the story.

As we shift to extras, we launch with an audio commentary from director Malcolm D. Lee. He offers a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, music, cast and performances, sets and locations, editing, and connected domains.

Lee offers a pretty good commentary. He touches on all the requisite bases and covers the movie in an efficient manner, one that also provides more honesty than usual, as he occasionally mentions problems during the shoot or flaws with the movie. Lee gives us a positive examination of his film.

Seven Deleted Scenes fill a total of 10 minutes, 12 seconds. Across these, we get a few character beats as well as some gags. The story material mostly feels redundant, and the jokes don’t click.

We can view the deleted scenes with or without commentary from Lee. He tells us about the sequences as well as why he cut them. He offers nice insights.

Outtakes go for 25 minutes, 17 seconds. These show the usual bloopers but they also throw out some alternate lines/jokes. I’d prefer the goofs separate from the unused gags, but this still becomes a good collection.

Three featurettes follow. Planning the Trip lasts 10 minutes, 12 seconds and offers notes from Lee, producer Will Packer, executive producer James Lopez, camera operator Mick Froehlich, grip Joe Sokmon, choreographer Jamal Sims, and actors Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tiffany Haddish, Larenz Tate and Mike Colter.

“Planning” examines cast and performances as well as Lee’s impact on the shoot and some production details. It becomes a mildly interesting reel without a lot of depth.

Outrageous Moments runs five minutes, 35 seconds and features Lee, Hall, Latifah, Lopez, Smith, Haddish and actor Robert Miano. They give us some minor details about a few of the film’s crazier sequences in this passable piece.

Finally, The Essence of NOLA fills five minutes, 45 seconds and includes material from Latifah, Lee, Packer, Smith, Colter, Haddish, Tate, Lopez, and location assistant Keith Rubin Jr. As expected, “Essence” discusses the location shoot in New Orleans. It turns into another decent overview.

We also find an Extended Performance Ne-Yo’s “Because of You”. This provides an extended scene of sorts, as it shows Ne-Yo’s full take on the song. It does little for me but seems like a harmless addition.

The disc opens with ads for Bad Moms Christmas, The Mummy (2017), Atomic Blonde and Kidnap. No trailer for Trip appears here.

A second disc provides a DVD copy of Trip. It includes the same extras as the Blu-ray.

A surprise hit, Girls Trip connected with critics and audiences, but I can’t figure out why. The movie offers trite characters, predictable plot developments and witless stabs at humor. The Blu-ray brings us solid visuals as well as pretty good audio and a mix of supplements highlighted by an informative commentary. Nothing here works, so this ends up as a poor excuse for a comedy.