Memo to screenwriter Hank Nelken: Please pick up a book on the theories of humor--any book--and note that SURPRISE is a key element. Whether you buy into the relief theory or any of the others, deep-thinkers agree on one thing: If we can see a joke coming, it's not funny. That, sadly, is the whole problem with this sequel to 2005's "Are We There Yet?" You can see every gag coming five miles away, and you don't even need binoculars.
Nelken's script seems to trot out every tired and familiar gag or situation that we've seen in cheap-laugh films over the past 20 years, and the result isn't pretty. "Are We There Yet?" at least gave Ice Cube a chance to react on a road trip he had to take with the two bratty children of a woman he fell in love with, and we got a few kicks way-off Route 66 by watching him. Here, though, either Cube is numbed cold by the flat comedy or he was reined in too much by director Steve Carr ("Dr. Doolittle 2," "Daddy Day Care"), because there's nothing funny about a guy who's so deadpan in his response to physical comedy that he seems dead.
"Are We Done Yet?" shipped to theaters under the title "Needs Work," and it surely does. Though the title credits declare it to be a remake of "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House," which starred Cary Grant and Myrna Loy, it doesn't come close to capturing the comedy of situation and character that the 1948 film provided. "Are We Done Yet?" isn't even as funny as "The Money Pit," a disappointing 1986 remake with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long.
Maybe it's all about the law of diminishing returns. Take raccoons, for example. Though it was just as over-the-top as a scene in this disappointing film, that bit in "Elf" where Will Ferrell tackles one of the critters still made you laugh. When you see the same sort of raccoon confrontation in "RV" it's not nearly as funny, because you've seen it before. So by the time Cube gets out on a roof with a broomstick to battle the corn-nut eating bandit, there isn't so much as a smile to be had. He falls through the roof, and we're supposed to burst into laughter. Yeah, right. Although, to be fair, children might giggle, and maybe that's where this film is pitched. After all, the extras are "led" by the two young stars who play the slightly less bratty children this go-round, Aleisha Allen as Lindsey and Philip Bolden as Kevin.
Nick Persons (Cube) is feeling cramped after he married Suzanne (Mia Long) and she and her two children moved into his small apartment. He's sold off one business and is pursuing a dream of trying to launch a sports magazine. Of course, it's tough to do business or write when you have crap all over the house. It's also tough for most viewers to believe that any household could be such a pigsty, or that the kids could get away with thwapping him with food. In most houses, their little bottoms would be thwapped in return. Here, Nick just stands there until the last of the gag-messes lands on him, and then it's house-buying time.
It's not clear why Suzanne takes the lead and sets up an appointment to view a country house, then ends up being the reluctant one. Then again, it's not clear how people who were forced to live in such a modest, cramped apartment suddenly have the money to buy a palatial home built in the late 1800s--one which has enough land to farm on and an outbuilding that's perfect for visiting relatives . . . or a home business like Nick's. It's also not clear where the deep-pockets come from for Nick to give the go-ahead to contractors every time another disaster befalls them. Dry rot? Thousands of dollars? Go ahead. Electrical re-do? Just get it done. I've got a hundred-year-old house myself, and you agonize over ONE contractor's proposal.
Nelken's script seems to trot out every tired and familiar gag or situation that we've seen in cheap-laugh films over the past 20 years, and the result isn't pretty. "Are We There Yet?" at least gave Ice Cube a chance to react on a road trip he had to take with the two bratty children of a woman he fell in love with, and we got a few kicks way-off Route 66 by watching him. Here, though, either Cube is numbed cold by the flat comedy or he was reined in too much by director Steve Carr ("Dr. Doolittle 2," "Daddy Day Care"), because there's nothing funny about a guy who's so deadpan in his response to physical comedy that he seems dead.
"Are We Done Yet?" shipped to theaters under the title "Needs Work," and it surely does. Though the title credits declare it to be a remake of "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House," which starred Cary Grant and Myrna Loy, it doesn't come close to capturing the comedy of situation and character that the 1948 film provided. "Are We Done Yet?" isn't even as funny as "The Money Pit," a disappointing 1986 remake with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long.
Maybe it's all about the law of diminishing returns. Take raccoons, for example. Though it was just as over-the-top as a scene in this disappointing film, that bit in "Elf" where Will Ferrell tackles one of the critters still made you laugh. When you see the same sort of raccoon confrontation in "RV" it's not nearly as funny, because you've seen it before. So by the time Cube gets out on a roof with a broomstick to battle the corn-nut eating bandit, there isn't so much as a smile to be had. He falls through the roof, and we're supposed to burst into laughter. Yeah, right. Although, to be fair, children might giggle, and maybe that's where this film is pitched. After all, the extras are "led" by the two young stars who play the slightly less bratty children this go-round, Aleisha Allen as Lindsey and Philip Bolden as Kevin.
Nick Persons (Cube) is feeling cramped after he married Suzanne (Mia Long) and she and her two children moved into his small apartment. He's sold off one business and is pursuing a dream of trying to launch a sports magazine. Of course, it's tough to do business or write when you have crap all over the house. It's also tough for most viewers to believe that any household could be such a pigsty, or that the kids could get away with thwapping him with food. In most houses, their little bottoms would be thwapped in return. Here, Nick just stands there until the last of the gag-messes lands on him, and then it's house-buying time.
It's not clear why Suzanne takes the lead and sets up an appointment to view a country house, then ends up being the reluctant one. Then again, it's not clear how people who were forced to live in such a modest, cramped apartment suddenly have the money to buy a palatial home built in the late 1800s--one which has enough land to farm on and an outbuilding that's perfect for visiting relatives . . . or a home business like Nick's. It's also not clear where the deep-pockets come from for Nick to give the go-ahead to contractors every time another disaster befalls them. Dry rot? Thousands of dollars? Go ahead. Electrical re-do? Just get it done. I've got a hundred-year-old house myself, and you agonize over ONE contractor's proposal.
Memo to screenwriter Hank Nelken: Please pick up a book on the theories of humor--any book--and note that SURPRISE is a key element. Whether you buy into the relief theory or any of the others, deep-thinkers agree on one thing: If we can see a joke coming, it's not funny. That, sadly, is the whole problem with this sequel to 2005's "Are We There Yet?" You can see every gag coming five miles away, and you don't even need binoculars.
Nelken's script seems to trot out every tired and familiar gag or situation that we've seen in cheap-laugh films over the past 20 years, and the result isn't pretty. "Are We There Yet?" at least gave Ice Cube a chance to react on a road trip he had to take with the two bratty children of a woman he fell in love with, and we got a few kicks way-off Route 66 by watching him. Here, though, either Cube is numbed cold by the flat comedy or he was reined in too much by director Steve Carr ("Dr. Doolittle 2," "Daddy Day Care"), because there's nothing funny about a guy who's so deadpan in his response to physical comedy that he seems dead.
"Are We Done Yet?" shipped to theaters under the title "Needs Work," and it surely does. Though the title credits declare it to be a remake of "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House," which starred Cary Grant and Myrna Loy, it doesn't come close to capturing the comedy of situation and character that the 1948 film provided. "Are We Done Yet?" isn't even as funny as "The Money Pit," a disappointing 1986 remake with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long.
Maybe it's all about the law of diminishing returns. Take raccoons, for example. Though it was just as over-the-top as a scene in this disappointing film, that bit in "Elf" where Will Ferrell tackles one of the critters still made you laugh. When you see the same sort of raccoon confrontation in "RV" it's not nearly as funny, because you've seen it before. So by the time Cube gets out on a roof with a broomstick to battle the corn-nut eating bandit, there isn't so much as a smile to be had. He falls through the roof, and we're supposed to burst into laughter. Yeah, right. Although, to be fair, children might giggle, and maybe that's where this film is pitched. After all, the extras are "led" by the two young stars who play the slightly less bratty children this go-round, Aleisha Allen as Lindsey and Philip Bolden as Kevin.
Nick Persons (Cube) is feeling cramped after he married Suzanne (Mia Long) and she and her two children moved into his small apartment. He's sold off one business and is pursuing a dream of trying to launch a sports magazine. Of course, it's tough to do business or write when you have crap all over the house. It's also tough for most viewers to believe that any household could be such a pigsty, or that the kids could get away with thwapping him with food. In most houses, their little bottoms would be thwapped in return. Here, Nick just stands there until the last of the gag-messes lands on him, and then it's house-buying time.
It's not clear why Suzanne takes the lead and sets up an appointment to view a country house, then ends up being the reluctant one. Then again, it's not clear how people who were forced to live in such a modest, cramped apartment suddenly have the money to buy a palatial home built in the late 1800s--one which has enough land to farm on and an outbuilding that's perfect for visiting relatives . . . or a home business like Nick's. It's also not clear where the deep-pockets come from for Nick to give the go-ahead to contractors every time another disaster befalls them. Dry rot? Thousands of dollars? Go ahead. Electrical re-do? Just get it done. I've got a hundred-year-old house myself, and you agonize over ONE contractor's proposal.
Nelken's script seems to trot out every tired and familiar gag or situation that we've seen in cheap-laugh films over the past 20 years, and the result isn't pretty. "Are We There Yet?" at least gave Ice Cube a chance to react on a road trip he had to take with the two bratty children of a woman he fell in love with, and we got a few kicks way-off Route 66 by watching him. Here, though, either Cube is numbed cold by the flat comedy or he was reined in too much by director Steve Carr ("Dr. Doolittle 2," "Daddy Day Care"), because there's nothing funny about a guy who's so deadpan in his response to physical comedy that he seems dead.
"Are We Done Yet?" shipped to theaters under the title "Needs Work," and it surely does. Though the title credits declare it to be a remake of "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House," which starred Cary Grant and Myrna Loy, it doesn't come close to capturing the comedy of situation and character that the 1948 film provided. "Are We Done Yet?" isn't even as funny as "The Money Pit," a disappointing 1986 remake with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long.
Maybe it's all about the law of diminishing returns. Take raccoons, for example. Though it was just as over-the-top as a scene in this disappointing film, that bit in "Elf" where Will Ferrell tackles one of the critters still made you laugh. When you see the same sort of raccoon confrontation in "RV" it's not nearly as funny, because you've seen it before. So by the time Cube gets out on a roof with a broomstick to battle the corn-nut eating bandit, there isn't so much as a smile to be had. He falls through the roof, and we're supposed to burst into laughter. Yeah, right. Although, to be fair, children might giggle, and maybe that's where this film is pitched. After all, the extras are "led" by the two young stars who play the slightly less bratty children this go-round, Aleisha Allen as Lindsey and Philip Bolden as Kevin.
Nick Persons (Cube) is feeling cramped after he married Suzanne (Mia Long) and she and her two children moved into his small apartment. He's sold off one business and is pursuing a dream of trying to launch a sports magazine. Of course, it's tough to do business or write when you have crap all over the house. It's also tough for most viewers to believe that any household could be such a pigsty, or that the kids could get away with thwapping him with food. In most houses, their little bottoms would be thwapped in return. Here, Nick just stands there until the last of the gag-messes lands on him, and then it's house-buying time.
It's not clear why Suzanne takes the lead and sets up an appointment to view a country house, then ends up being the reluctant one. Then again, it's not clear how people who were forced to live in such a modest, cramped apartment suddenly have the money to buy a palatial home built in the late 1800s--one which has enough land to farm on and an outbuilding that's perfect for visiting relatives . . . or a home business like Nick's. It's also not clear where the deep-pockets come from for Nick to give the go-ahead to contractors every time another disaster befalls them. Dry rot? Thousands of dollars? Go ahead. Electrical re-do? Just get it done. I've got a hundred-year-old house myself, and you agonize over ONE contractor's proposal.
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