Are We There Yet?

With one of the most hackneyed expressions in children-based comedy movies "Are We There Yet?" fulfills every low expectation that its urban target audience will bring to their cinema chairs. Nick (Ice Cube - "Barbershop") plays a 35 year-old case of arrested development who makes the mistake of playing foot servant to Suzanne (Nia Long), a divorced woman with two hateful children, in a wayward attempt at starting up a relationship before his bachelor clock runs out. Nick witlessly agrees to shepherd Suzanne’s kids to Vancouver to be with their mother on New Year’s Eve after Suzanne’s ex-husband reneges on taking them. Nick suffers every humiliation of physical abuse and material loss on an extended road-trip that finally brings him what he deserves albeit not what the audience will endorse. This "Johnson’s Family Vacation" rip-off makes that tepid comedy look like a masterpiece by comparison.   

Rated PG, 91 mins. (D-) (One Star)