Customer Reviews

Are We There Yet ?

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

I found this DVD not only educational, without my children knowing it but interesting, as well. If you asked their opinion they say it was FUNNY! My youngest two children are still asking to watch it again and again and are now quoting from ARE WE THERE YET? Well done! This is a keeper for our movie gallery for my children to choose from.

Kathy Schneider
Kids: 4, 7, and 17

We both enjoyed the DVD a great deal. The songs stuck in our heads and we both found ourselves humming them throughout the day. This DVD would be a great asset to parents with portable DVD players. It will serve as a FUN reminder for children who may get bored on the trip for things that can be done to help pass the "Miles". We loved the little quizzes and had fun
competing for the answers. I would recommend this DVD to parents with little adventure seekers.

Kids have just as much fun playing these old classic travel games with Miles and his friends as we all did when we were young. And even parents may catch themselves humming or singing along to Rebecca Frezza's catchy car tunes. (I know I did!) The chapter DVD format makes it really easy for kids to play their favorite parts over and over again. Great to pop into the minivan DVD player for both short and long car trips!

I have to confess that I really enjoyed this movie. The Ice Cube of today is a long way removed from the gun toting, foul mouthed Ice Cube of the gang movie and hip hop culture of the early 1990s. Don't get me wrong: Boyz in the Hood is an important film, and his early rap albums are some of the best in the genre.

But in this movie, Ice Cube is downright loveable and cuddly, and he gives a refreshingly domesticated performance as Nick Persons. Nick tries to woo an attractive divorcee (Nia Long) into dating him by taking her kids on a long distance trip to Vancouver. I guess the idea is that if he can do her this favor and show that he is making an effort to bond with the children, she will receive him.

But everything that could possibly go wrong on this trip goes wrong. The kids turn out to be hellishly behaved kids, almost as bad as some of the characters that Ice Cube has played in the past, and undeniably more annoying.

The things the kids do to torture poor Nick can hardly be construed as humor in retrospect, but that is how the gags are presented. The movie turns around at the halfway point when Nick starts to love the children in spite of the fact that they are abusing him, and the kids start to love Nick in spite of the fact that he likes their mom.

Up until the movie's midway point, you can't help but wonder, "Who in the world would want anything to do with these rotten kids? Why doesn't Nick just turn around and drop them off back the house and movie on with his life?" The movie's answer is a poignant tribute to unconditional parental love.

The gags are cruel, the kids are mean, and Nick's Lincoln Navigator is destined for eternal destruction, but the movie ends up winning you over after a faltering start.

There is nothing wrong with a contrived conflict to move the plot along, especially in a slapstick kid's comedy. However, if a movie is not really that funny, then contrived conflict is just another annoyance.

In "Are We There Yet," Ice Cube plays Nick, the owner of an upscale sports memorabilia store and a "Playa." Nick is struck by lightning when he scopes Suzanne (Nia Long) across the street from his store, but is just as quickly turned off when he sees Suzanne's two children, Lindsey (Aleisha Allen) and Kevin (Philip Bolden.) By chance, Suzanne's car stalls on a deserted highway on a rainy night, and Nick gets the chance to get to know Suzanne as a person, not to mention to show off his new, tricked-out Lincoln Navigator. Lindsey and Kevin are convinced that their parents will eventually reunite, so the two do everything in their clever and bratty little heads to keep potential suitors away from their mom. However, when the children's father is unable to take them, Nick volunteers to fly with the kids to Vancouver where Suzanne has a business event. However, after a series of unfortunate, unlikely, and manufactured events, Nick decides to drive the kids to Vancouver in the Navigator. Let's just say things get ugly for Nick.

In general, such an adventure will eventually produce either a likeable protagonist, moral transformation of the antagonists, or both. `Are We There Yet' fails to accomplish either. Nick is inconsistent in his approach to the Lindsey and Kevin, and he varies in his desire to strangle or to hug the two ornery little brats. (I can't say that I could have blamed him if Nick did actually strangle the kids. At least Nick would have gone to prison and the movie would have ended there.) Lindsey and Kevin themselves never really seem to get the point that treating other people, adults, like refuse is not the way to a happy ending. Even the happy ending was forced.

`Are We There Yet' certainly had potential, however. Small roles for Nichelle Nichols (who portrayed Lieutenant Uhuru in the original Star Trek television show and films) as Miss Marble, the kids' babysitter, Jay Mohr as Marty, Nick's employee at the memorabilia store, and Tracy Morgan as the voice of the Satchel Paige bobble-head doll provided the opportunity for a lot of fun for both children and parents in the audience. However, very little of the characters' jokes or personalities were very well developed, and thus fell flat. (Marty did have the line of the movie though. When talking with Nick on his cell phone during his trip through Hell after Nick endures yet another particularly difficult onslaught from Lindsey and Kevin, Marty quips, "If the kids hate ya,' Mommy won't date ya.'") Even Nia Long's character, Suzanne underwent a frightening transformation from a loving, potential love interest for Nick to some sort of shallow mega-bitch.

In short, there is not much here. The silly, slapstick humor fell short. The kid's behavior was not funny and a poor model for a young audience. `Are We There Yet' was simply all over the place and never quite went anywhere. I guess it's better than Vancouver.

There is quite a bit of perilous tightrope walking involved in mixing violent slapstick comedy and heartfelt pathos. Charlie Chaplin did it a lot and you can certainly point to the original "Home Alone" as being a successful mix. But in the former the target of the physical attacks was usually some guy twice the Little Tramp's size and in the latter it was the Wet Bandits. That is not the case with "Are We There Yet?" There are certainly some laughs to be had in this 2005 comedy, but for the most part I find myself cringing at what was happening on screen and the only reason director Brian Levant's film gets 3 stars is because there are a few success and rather important moments of pathos in this mess.

Nick Persons (Ice Cube) has an upper scale sports collectible store and a brand-new Lincoln Navigator, when he is smitten by the sight of Suzanne Kingston (Nia Long). The bad news is that she is a single mom with a pair of terror tots, Lindsy (Aleisha Allen) and Kevin (Philip Daniel Bolden), who have been taking care of all of mom's would-be boyfriends. They are waiting for their mom to reconcile with their dad. Nick wants nothing to do with children, but he and Suzanne become friends and when she has to go to Vancouver for work and her ex-husband bails on having the kids for New Year's, he ends up agreeing to transport the kids and the madness begins.

The core problem here is that these kids are viscous little monsters who physically assault innocent men. This is not cute little Kevin hurting the bad guys who are trying to rob his home, but two kids going after every guy who wants to date their mother. It is not funny it is mean. It is also dangerous, which gets us to another key problem with this movie in terms of how many times the attempted humor has to do with cars and trucks. In other words, situations that in the real world would get these kids killed are repeatedly done for laughs in this movie. Watching a couple of kids screaming while the car they are in is squeezed against the railing on the highway by a fully loaded semi-truck is not all that funny in the real world and we kept cringing through all of these types of scenes (there are several). Granted, it is not wise to confuse a movie with the real world, but there are moments when this film wants to talk to the reality that there are a large number of African-American children being raised without their fathers living in the house. More importantly, those are the best moments in the film.

This is because Nick is not a bad guy, which is the flip side to the core problem, and another reason to cringe every time they go after him. Nick thinks he does not like children and this particular pair of demons give him ample reason to reinforce that idea, but when these children need help, physical or psychological, he immediately goes to their help. The latter is the more important part, because you know full well that these children are going to get their comeuppance when they find out the truth about their father and the moments in which Nick talks to the kids, as opposed to screaming or sticking out his tongue at them, are the best moments in this film because they are the most real.

The fault for this film is to be found in the screenplay by Steven Gary Banks, Claudia Grazioso, J. David Stem and David N. Weiss (four writers is rarely a good sign), because the performances by Ice Cub and the two kids are fine given what was written (Long is reduced to a minor part in the story, which is why the resolution is problematic for me). Jay Mohr has a small part in this film as Marty, Nick's friend who keeps reminding him of how much he does not like kids, and Tracy Morgan does the voice of the Satchel Paige bobble-head doll that Nick has on the dashboard of his vehicle (who does Nick think will be watching DVDs in the backseat if he does not like children?). It was also great to see Nichelle Nichols in a bit part as Miss Mable. What would have been even better was a film that dealt more realistically with the basic idea, which is certainly an important one.

"Are We There Yet?" is a dopey, ill-conceived, one-note comedy that seems designed to turn prospective parents off childrearing forever.

Nia Long plays a beautiful divorcee whose two obnoxious brats naively believe that some day their estranged parents will reconcile and they will be a united family once again. To this end, they devise elaborate schemes to sabotage her chances with any man unfortunate enough to show the slightest romantic interest in her. Enter Nick Persons (Ice Cube), a child-hating bachelor, who falls for Suzanne but who balks at the prospect of taking on a ready-made family. Nevertheless, he reluctantly agrees to transport the children from Portland where they live to Vancouver where their mother is attending a convention. Predictably, the trip turns out to be a literal hell on wheels for the inexperienced, hapless young man, with the children creating serious havoc both to his person and to his psyche every step of the way.

I suppose that small children may enjoy some of the antics contained herein, but no reasonable, thinking adult will derive even the teensiest kernel of enjoyment from this film. Hampered by its formulaic, cookie cutter plotting, the movie provides little more than an endless stream of inane pratfalls, potty humor and gross out gags, sinking so low as to include a talking bobble head doll and a boxing deer in a desperate effort to obtain laughs. The performances are poor across the board, but, in all fairness to the actors, one has to consider the material they've been handed to work with before judging them too harshly. Ah well, at least the Northwest scenery is worth looking at.

I can't speak for kids but I would think most younger kids may find this funny. Teens may be a hit or miss. My wife and I enjoyed it and we laughed out loud at several scenes like the car sick boy and the crazed deer in the woods. The kids are so unbelievably bad you have to laugh. They go from the most obnoxious kids on Earth to decent ones once they see their dad has another life now. Ice Cube goes from a gigolo to a family man in a life changing turn of events. Overall we found it entertaining and would recommend to families. I personally have not seen a movie cut just like this as some critics indicate. I think it has replayability and so I bought a copy. This road trip movie is likely to entertain those that found the "Home Alone", "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles", or "Jingle All the Way" movies funny. Keep in mind this is a far-out comedy and you would never meet people like this on the street. I think some people get to wrapped up in how unrealistic the people are in the movie, especially the kids. If you took one or two things the kids do it would be believable. But they take all the worst things kids do and that is the point. They show the worst and best of people to make us laugh. It does my heart good to hear other kids call these kids horrible brats.

Nick, a smooth operator, is trying to land a date with a young, attractive divorcee, Suzanne. Problem is Suzanne is stuck working in Vancouver and miserable because she misses her kids. Seizing the opportunity, Nick gallantly offers to make her wish come true--and his own in the process--by bringing seven-year-old Kevin and eleven-year-old Lindsey up from Portland, Oregon to be reunited with their mom. What Nick doesnâ(tm)t know is that Suzanne's children think that no man is good enough for their mom and will do everything they can to make the trip a nightmare for him. Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride. No special effects, just plain ole' fashion acting, it's worth seeing.

Synopsis: Lifelong bachelor Nick Persons (played by Ice Cube) is a self-absorbed sports nut who likes the ladies but hates kids. Well, he finds the attractive Suzanne Kingston (Nia Long) and wants to court her, but he has to deal with her two children Lindsey (Aleisha Allen) and Kevin (Philip Daniel Bolden). Well, Suzanne goes to Vancouver, misses the kids, and since their biological father cancelled his visitation appointment with them, Nick is destined to drive the kids from Portland, OR to Vancouver so he can show her what a swell guy he is. Nick hates the kids, the kids hate Nick, so they kids do everything possible to sabotage Nick quest to court their mother. During the process though, Nick realizes he's starting to develop feelings for the kids and the kids realize how hard Nick's trying to be a good guy. Will it be enough to win Suzanne over? (News Flash: This isn't exactly a movie with a lot of twists and turns, so I think you can figure that one out...)

I took my sister to see this one and she enjoyed it immensely as a 10-year-old. I sat through it thinking "Geez... are they there yet?!" The kids were good at what they did and I could see a case made that maybe it wasn't the actors and actresses' fault this movie suffered. But the best way to put it is that you had a way-too predictable story reminiscent of any of the Home Alone movies that was full of stereotypes involving divorce (the dad who's too busy for his original family), young black men (of COURSE Nick Persons is going to drive in a souped-up SUV, right?), and improper representation of asthma attacks (Kevin suffers one in the movie and all it takes is puff from the inhaler to make him magically better. If that's all it took, I coulda spent a lot less time in the hospital as a kid.)

If you wanna take the chance on this movie go ahead. I think there's other films that I could recommend that would be a few steps higher than this film.