Okay, I actually loved this movie...I thought it was funny and entertaining and just what I needed to see, something pointless and yet does the trick perfectly. You can always rely of Robin Williams for that. No, it's not the smartest comedy but it's not like we thought we were walking into 'Fargo' people, we were walking into a family vacation comedy that's full of slapstick laughs and gross humor, and that should be what you expected. Robin Williams plays Bob, a man whose a slave to his job, a job he's afraid he may lose. He's so afraid that he actually cancels his family's vacation to Hawaii and takes them on an RV trip to Colorado with hopes to sneak off to a meeting with his germaphobe boss in order to keep his job. Along the way (of course keeping his true intentions secret) he tries to recreate the bond he once had with his family. This of course starts of shakey since neither his wife (Cheryl Hines) nor his children, teenage daughter Cassie (JoJo) whose going through her rebelous "i hate mommy and daddy" stage and his young son Carl (Josh Hutcherson) whose insecure about his small size, are supportive. But after all the problems with sewage, weird hillbilly RV neighbors the Gornicke family (led by Jeff Daniels and Kristin Chenoweth) and some pesky racoons their is a family bonding moment that is shattered by a bowel problem (sort-of) a sinking RV and the exposure of Bob's secret meeting. In the end, RV may be predictable family fun, but the point still remains that it's family fun, and that's gotta amount to something.
Give me a break.
See, the implication that the family road trip movie is somehow a form of high art is fallacious to begin with. Although my family (and my wife's family) venerates the National Lampoon vacation movies as the ultimate in comedy, the truth of the matter is it's all a string of silly gags and ridiculous foils. It takes real skill to play a perpetually optimistic patriarch in the face of modern indignities and family squabbles. If anything, the family road trip movie is really just a condensed version of half the sitcoms on television. And there's a reason those sitcoms are still around, even though the critics patiently explain over and over how dumb they are.
They're right. It IS dumb. But then, so is having to deal with the inanities of modern life. RV is merely an update of a long established tradition of pitting a man (Bob Munro played by Robin Williams), his hot wife (Cheryl Hines), his teenage daughter (Joanna Levesque) and pre-teen son (Josh Hutcherson) against the world and seeing who comes out on top. And we root for Bob all the way.
What makes RV so appealing is that it doesn't deviate at all from the formula but cleverly updates all the trials and tribulations. Bob's affection for his adorable daughter at two years old is sharply contrasted by her wisecracking personality as a teenager. How many parents stare at their kids and wonder what happened to the darling who never wanted to leave their side? Bob's career hinges on finishing a presentation, and much of the movie is taken up with his personal struggle to find a signal for his Blackberry. Road warriors feel his pain. And as an older, funnier man, Bob constantly has to watch his back as younger, inexperienced climbers try to steal the spotlight.
In short, the Monroe struggles are the new struggles of the middle class. Sure, Clark Griswold didn't have these problems, but then the National Lampoon movies were made decades ago. RV brings it all up to date with one difference: unlike Cousin Eddie and his brood, the country folk are actually the wiser and more decent family. We could learn a lot from their home values, preaches Brother Sonnenfeld. Maybe he's right.
When RV was playing at my parents' house, we were waiting for my brother to join us to watch a DVD. Instead, we watched (and laughed at) RV all the way through. In the mode of NATIONAL LAMPOON'S FAMILY VACATION is not a negative thing. This is an energetic and often quite funny family film. The theater we saw it in (Palm Desert, California) was nearly full with a cross section of seniors to kids. People laughed together and often.
The movie is fast paced with great outdoor cinematography. The plot has some twists and surprises and a real treat is Jeff Daniels and Kristen Chenoweth as parents of a permanent RV living (Christian?) family that are not treated as buffoons or easy targets for satire.
And that's the other thing that I liked about this light-hearted comedy; i.e., it has a moral center. Without being preachy in any way, the right things happen as all the loose ends are tied up in an unexpected (to me, anyway) and satisfying ending.
It's nice to see Robin Wiliams in a family film comedy again.
Jaded newspaper and TV reviewers weren't all that enthusiastic about this film, but audiences sure are. It was the top box office new movie the week it opened.
Better than expected and recommended.
Read Best Reviews of RV (2006) Here
I must say I didn't think much of this movie when I first saw the previews in theaters, and so I let it slide to DVD before renting it. And I was suprised. It's not just a stolen script from the famous "Vacation" movie with chevy chase, who was a father that acknowledged their family problems and tried to fix them by going of vacation. This revolves around the theme of a workaholic father, the "perfect" stay at home wife, and their two spoiled kids, in which the father who is actually using this RV expedition as a selfish work tool, feeding the poor system. And what a better setting for a comedy than the roads of america in a huge rolling tin can, or turdmobile, whichever you prefer. Robin Williams was the perfect choice for the Father roll and did a masterful job at portraing it. And in the end, the family finds out what it really means to be a family, and what greatness it can actually be. A real delight to watch, and a suprise. So again, another case of not judging by the first short preview.The large picture of this movie is probably missed by most folks. It is about a family who is in relative distress and them finding what makes a family a family again. The on the go, upper middle class family with spoiled kids, a trophy wife, and a workaholic father, sign of the times. Quite a bit different than the "Vacation" movies of chevy chase. Robin Williams was a great choice to pull this role off. Overall a very good movie, enjoyable, and I hope you like it to.Save 30% Off
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