Are We There Yet?

The one bright spot in this generally junky movie was Aliesha Allen's singing. I was very disappointed to see that she is no longer making films.

(38%) A borderline acceptable family comedy that follows a small business owner "ice cube", a man who must deal drugs or something on the side because he never wears the same clothes twice, and his big ugly car is covered in more jewellery than than Mr T, but because this is a kids film that aspect of his life is never looked into. And I can only guess that he samples some of his product as he hallucinates quite badly from time to time with a nodding toy bursting into life, but yet again, we never see him shoot up. The plot is tried and tested, "Planes, trains and automobiles" type of thing, and everything goes along at a decent pace, just don't expect any of cube's explicit raps on the soundtrack, or to laugh too much, and this might just pass the time better than expected.

Long distance driving, constant headaches, groaning and claustrophobia. Then, that tedious question arises...Are we there yet? But in the new flick, Are we there yet?, that question takes a new meaning.

Through a series of worst-case scenarios from deer attacks to a train race on horseback, Nick Persons (Ice Cube, Barbershop) experiences it all.

Beginning a timid romance between Persons and Suzanne Kingston (Nia Long, Boiler Room), possible babysitters for her children while she's away becomes few and far between, leaving Persons, a child-hater as the only viable option. He must transport Kingston's two "angelic" children 350 miles from Oregon to Vancouver. They attempt to make it in 24 hours by plane, train and automobile.

Directed by Brian Levant, director of Snow Dogs (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) and Jingle All The Way (Arnold Schwarzenegger), he defines his love for making family-fun movies.

For what it was worth, the acting was decent. Ice Cube played a better role than I expected. Aleisha Allen (School of Rock) and Philip Bolden (Johnson Family Vacation) were well-cast. And the cherry on top of the acting was Jay Mohr (Pay It Forward, Jerry Maguire). The way the actors worked together accented the movie.

Cinematography in this movie was exactly what I expected. There were a few intriguing camera angles, better than I've seen from directors of Levant's credibility.

The rating was well chosen as PG. There was minor language and rude humor.

Noticing half of the theater filled with children ranging from five to twelve, and tons of parents, I'd definitely suggest staying away from this movie on a date. There were periodic jokes and entertaining scenes, but if you don't like "kiddy" movies, I would not encourage this.

The more I study film ideas, the more I'm amazed at how some ideas continue to live.

Take the notion of humorous cruelty. Were the Stooges the first to build a franchise around this? In modern times, it is the "Home Alone" franchise where we are given an excuse for accepting the cruelties because the hurter is a clever but innocent child and the hurtees are stereotypical bad guys.

Here the idea tries a new incarnation. Lest there be any mistake about the source, the movie actually starts in the "old" Home Alone mode with our (anonymous) victim encountering tripwires that trigger child-made traps of household goods and toys.

Then it shifts into the new mode. In this edition, some of the tricks are intended and some are not. The victim is a new kind of shiftless: a black man actually trying to be "ghetto." The story is supposed to smoothly morph in a sort of "What About Bob" way from pain to rewarding relationship. The turning point is also stereotypical: the treasured black dad has abandoned his family and the beleaguered suitor is revealed to be someone to whom that also happened.

I think humor about race, especially racial stereotypes, is fair game. How better to puncture racism? But its got to be funny doesn't it?

This picture turns out to be what it starts to be about: a way of torturing a black dude who manages a slick appearance of the ghetto (we're talking about the guy who calls himself Ice Cube here, not his character) and tries to put himself where he doesn't belong. Poignant maybe, but neither funny nor endearing.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Are We There Yet? pits Ice Cube as a bumbling dad of sorts who deals with mischievous kids - it's like a modern "Home Alone" but without criminals, and also the fact that it's bad. In this case, the hard type formula in charge of naughty children ("The Pacifier", "Daddy Day Care") is used again. If before the protagonists were Vin Diesel or Arnold Schwarzenegger, now the tough man is Ice Cube, the rapper of rough letters that now declares "I wanna be like Eddie Murphy."

If already the starting point is not very promising, in the hands of Brian Levant ("Problem Child 2", "The Flintstones", "Beethoven, etc.), vulgarity arrives To unbearable extremes. It's a series of repetitive grown men falling down scenes and all sorts of bland old hi-jinks. Ice Cube is dating a woman with two mischievous kids, as she asks him to drive them to Vancouver in Canada to see her at a business trip. Ice Cube must deal with the kids treating him as "the enemy", pulling slapstick pranks here and there, forgiving them in the end, and making the once controversial rapper succumb to family films. AWTY? is repetitive and weak.

Family films of the 2000s are particularly bad, although AWTY? is at least entertaining. Seeing this movie can be worse if we do not transmute our mind to that of a 7 year old. Funny, but unprecedented. I, in the case of the protagonist, had committed a murder. But I have nothing to worry about is pure fantasy.