College Road Trip

I have never seen a Martin Lawrence movie before, and this movie did make me into a new fan. I have seen his material here and there, but his material never has grabbed me. But today, I went with my mother and my eight-year-old niece to see "College Road Trip." I fully expected to be disappointed, but it turned out to be okay for me. Not the best and not the worst, but entertaining here and there.

The story goes that Raven Symone is Melanie, who aspires to become a lawyer at Northwestern University in her hometown suburban Chicago, but gets a letter of acceptance to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Her three girlfriends are going, and she wants to go to. But her father James (Lawrence) fears losing his little girl, and wants to accompany her on the trip. Tagging along is her little brother Trey and their pet pig Albert, who hide in the trunk the first quarter of the journey. That leaves behind Mom Michelle (Kym Whitley).

On the way, they stop at Northwestern University, and who do they run into - Donny Osmond as Doug Greenhut and Molly Ephraim as his daughter Wendy. Both have the same exact aspirations - She wants to go to Georgetown and he tags along with her. And when James and Melanie make pitstops, Doug and Wendy end up at those same stops. Doug and Wendy's annoyingly overperky behavior and singing and dancing are the highlights of this movie. They are so loud they make James and Melanie cringe, but they always pop up at the same stops. And when James' car breaks down, they get into Doug and Wendy's truck. But my real favorite part is when they lose Doug and Wendy along the way, get on a bus, and get all the Asian tourists to sing and dance to Frankie Smith's 1981 hit, "Double Dutch Bus."

As James and Melanie get closer, they visit James' mother in Pittsburgh, and James gets to come to terms with his long lost mother about letting go of children. Finally, they sky dive all the way to Georgetown, where, who else, Wendy becomes Melanie's roommate and then the two would head to Japan.

Donny Osmond and the pig do take away from Martin Lawrence's and Raven Symone's performances. The pig is funny, especially when Lawrence disguises him as a baby in a quaint hotel where no pets are allowed and then makes a big mess at a wedding taking place at that hotel. Osmond's preppy, squeaky clean, teen idol image is played to great exaggeration, his character's wife and daughter add to the perkiness. But Martin Lawrence and his family are sadly undermined by Donny Osmond and the pig, which is the film's major weakness. For 83 minutes, it is not super slow, it does go fast, but there are bumps and curves along, and then there is forced sentiment, when Melanie finally gets to say goodbye to her parents, amid the manic craziness. Martin Lawrence, like many comedians of his generation who turn to movies, is more of a comedian and less of an actor whose performances often resort to overacted slapstick.

This film goes to show that you can be on top of the world and fall all the way down. With "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins","Wild Hogs" and now "College Road Trip" under Lawrence's belt, i don't know how much more he can take. This movie is pretty standard "Cheaper by the Dozen" film. With all the sight gags and kiddy jokes about pigs and dancing, and, of course the soft spot for tolerance. Donny Osmond was straight forward in this film and Lawrence was really exaggerated as a goofy dad. Raven Symone played a OK part, but not a real big leap forward for the young actress. Of course, this doesn't mean the film is all bad. The movie, in its quirky way is funny. With its zany comedy style, like animal humor and kiss jokes...this film reaches to little kids. If you have young ones, this wont be bad for them, but for you...its okay.

College Road Trip was a pretty funny movie. It wasn't as funny as I thought it would be but it was funny enough. It was well made. In the beginning I thought it was going to be bad the way the first half started but then it got really good. There were also a ton of great messages in this movie. Im not a big fan of Raven Symone but she actually did a pretty good job for her first big movie hit. I find her very annoying and it seems like she never knows when to shut up. I thought that this was a very different movie for Martin Lawrence. Although it was a different type of movie for him he nailed the part. A bad thing about this movie was that it seemed like it copied of of a couple movies in several scenes. One of the movies were Penelope. The direction in this movie was fairly good. The message was about being able to let your kids grow up and having trust in them. This movie does show that life does go by really fast. That fact is true about life going by way to fast. So in that case you should spend more time with your kids and live life to the fullest. I didn't like Martin Lawrences wife in the movie that much. I thought that she did a good job despite me not liking her. They also found a mother that looked a little bit like Raven Symone which was smart. One of my favorite scenes in the movie was when the father and daughter went sky diving. It goes to show you that a father can get along with his daughter and have deep conversations. The person I saw this movie with teared a little bit at the end. So I guess it was like a little bit of a tear jerker to some people and maybe you to. This is a perfect movie for you to see to if you are going to college soon. It was more of a little kids type of movie but also the whole family can enjoy it to. It really gives you a good outlook of what college is going to be like. The story was also very cute. Overall this movie was pretty good and a very cute family movie.

OK, this isn't the movie I would select if just my husband and I were going out for the evening. But WE aren't the audience for this- Disney made this for kids and tweens and YES even teens. I have 3 daughters 13, 11, 7, and this movie hit the notes right for THEM. The interplay between Raven's character Melanie and her friends was right on. There is a scene where Melanie's Dad (Lawrence) and she are in the car, and she is on her cell phone forever with their friends- it is so true to life and you would only know that if you've experienced this.

In terms of appropriateness for kids, I can't think of anything in this movie that would offend. There is silly slapstick comedy that had adults and kids alike laughing. Kids who watched Raven on her Disney channel show loved watching her act in this movie. The Donny Osmond character was over the top and, according to my 7 year old, totally hilarious.

Would I select this movie just for me? NO. But folks, if you are looking for a movie for the family to see, or something I could show a mixed age group, this is great. I could pick apart little things about the movie, but those parts of the movie I found to be silly or ridiculous were irrelevant to the kids. This movie both has a heart and is sweet in spirit. I wish more people would CONSIDER the AUDIENCE for whom the movie is intended when writing a review.

Martin Lawrence is hardly the height of great cinematic performers, during the 90's the success of comics such as Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler prevented him from getting to many high profile movies, against the likes of Carrey who is actually funny, Lawrence just didn't represent that much of a Box-Office threat. Now that a lot of those dudes are attempting more serious films, Lawrence has recently had two films released in close quarters the passable Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins and this abomination. Basically the film sees Lawrence ferry his daughter around the country in order to help her find the perfect college with several other family members and assorted characters lagging behind. All are suitably "crazy" in that stupid Hollywood way, and Lawrence clearly sees himself as the star of this woeful effort, gurning and overacting his way through as many scenes as possible. Bottom line....the man ain't funny!!! A film similar to this was made not that long ago with Cedric The Entertainer called Jonson Family Vacation. It wasn't great but at least it had a few chuckle worthy moments, I don't think I was amused successfully once during College Road Trip, bar by the sheer poverty of imagination displayed by it's clearly juvenile screenwriters. The director is Roger Kumble who made the excellent Cruel Intentions just short of 10 years ago, and since has been gradually heading down hack road, he may have made a half credible film with Just Friends but 2002's The Sweetest Thing was simply not acceptable. However this is a new nadir for the man I once thought was at least semi-talented, here he directs with a bland eye and is clearly not enthusiastic about the product. Basically he wanted a bit of cash and this was the best way to get it. Comically inept and at times completely unwatchable College Road Trip is as weak a comic effort as I expect 2008 theatres will have to show, and should pop up quickly on DVD. It's an early but strong candidate for the years bottom 10, and may even be the ever irritating Lawrence's worst production to date. Sadly however one is almost certain it will enter the weekends top 5, and might even grab the coveted no.1 spot. Still when the reviews start flying it will drop fast like the dead weight it is. Avoid.