ARE WE THERE YET?(2005)
Wow, this is terrible!! But it has a decent ending! D+
From a reviewer at Amazon.com:
Ice Cube has turned his frown upside down with
the family-friendly screwball road movie Are We
There Yet? We know the actor/rapper can use his
trademark scowl to be funny (the Friday and Barbershop
series), or to be mean (Boyz in the Hood)--but can he
use it to melt kids' hearts? That's the question Are We
There Yet? answers with a resounding yes for youngsters
in the audience (which will be the lions' share), but it'll
probably be an emphatic shrug for the grownups. The
contrived plot has Cube playing a wannabe-player (as
in ladies' man) and ex-player (as in washed-up minor
league baseball star) who now owns a sports memorabilia
business. His partner, played by Jay Mohr is just a
throwaway, as is the talented Nia Long, the single
mom that Cube sets his blinged-out sights on. To try
to get in her good graces, he offers to transport her
two bratty kids in his pride-and-joy Lincoln Navigator
for a joy ride to a distant city where she's attending
an emergency business meeting so they can have a
New Year's Eve celebration together. This kiddies
version of Road Trip and Planes, Trains and Automobiles
has its cute moments, but plenty more gross-out moments
which will please the kids no end, especially as the Navigator
gets more and more trashed. Suffice it to say they all learn
about each others' good sides and hearts are suitably melted
all around--until after the credits roll, then you'll probably
forget about the whole thing.--Ted Fry