Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20322 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-07-25
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, Bulgarian, Dutch, English, Greek, Hindi, Icelandic, Romanian, Turkish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 91 minutes

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 n 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, (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 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 to 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, Amazon.com

Synopsis
Ice Cube stars in this highly entertaining family comedy as Nick Persons, a thirtysomething player with a new Lincoln Navigator, who checks out every fine lady that passes by the window of the sports collectibles store where he works with pal Marty (Jay Mohr). Decked out in all the latest bling, Nick confidently approaches his latest attraction, Suzanne, only to learn that she is a recent divorcee with two kids. Little does he know, Suzanne's children are no ordinary kids. Lindsey and Kevin (Aleisha Allen and Philip Bolden) go to extremes to keep their mother single. Putting his dislike for children on the back burner, Nick decides to pursue Suzanne anyway. He soon realises though, that the only way to a single mother's heart is through her children. So when Suzanne needs a babysitter to transport her kids from Portland to Vancouver, Nick jumps at the chance. Getting more than he bargained for, Nick must survive 24 hours with two kids bent on destroying him, not to mention missed flights, missed trains, run-ins with wildlife and crazed truckers, and severe car trouble. Nick challenges himself to survive the journey better than his SUV, and learns that while trying to prove himself to Suzanne, he also impresses himself. Demonstrating his softer side, rapper-turned-actor Ice Cube (FRIDAY, BARBERSHOP) shows a flair for slapstick humour in this pleasing family picture. While humorous moments abound, ARE WE THERE YET

Customer Reviews

We were there too soon...
This film is a very funny family film. There are elements of it that made me laugh out loud as I related to scenes where the journey mimicked some real life events, especially the "rushing to the loo" part. I enjoyed watching it with my daughter and would recommend it.

Cringing throughout a comedy is not a good thing
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.

Ignore the bores, this is a funny film
Excellent film!! If you want a light-hearted family film suitable for all ages buy this. I'm not going to talk 'acting techniques' or any of that pompous blurb, it's just a good fun film that had me laughing along with my daughter and isn't that what humour is supposed to be all about? So, lighten up all you wannabe lovvies and enjoy the film for what it is :)