Johnson Family Vacation

PG-13 4.5
2004 1 hr 37 min Comedy , Family

Nate Johnson, a Los Angeles man estranged from his wife and three children, decides to reconnect with his family by taking them with him on a road trip to Missouri for a big family reunion.

  • Cast:
    Cedric the Entertainer , Vanessa Williams , Solange , Shad Moss , Gabby Soleil , Shannon Elizabeth , Steve Harvey

Reviews

Cubussoli
2004/04/07

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

... more
Wordiezett
2004/04/08

So much average

... more
SunnyHello
2004/04/09

Nice effects though.

... more
Matho
2004/04/10

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

... more
RichardKleiner
2004/04/11

A dysfunctional family goes on a vacation on the road, this resulting in a nightmare trip. The way you can make a movie like this is meshing all the clichéd jokes you've heard of in you entire lifetime, adding some building up jokes with no punch line and a storyline that is everything but original. Everything in this movie is terrible. First, you can't relate or identify with the characters. There's hardly any coherence with them. The ex-wife hates her ex-husband, and while he's trying to win her back, she pulls a juvenile prank on him (taking his bathing suit away and leaving him in the hot tub), and when she later sees his room and the pseudo-romantic atmosphere, she's touched. WHAT THE HELL. The little girl, a sad rip-off of Kady, from My Wife & Kids, was so annoying, I couldn't figure out why the father loved her so much. Lil Bow Wow is such a lousy actor, he couldn't play a teenager (which he is in reality). The whole acting sucked. It was extensively dramatic most of the parts, and when there was supposed to be funny stuff, they just don't do anything to emphasize the comedy (like there was any). None of the jokes were funny at all. The ones that can steal a chuckle are those you heard a thousand times before. The producers probably were in conflict with the writers and ended up filming jokes that weren't supposed to be in. The story was completely pointless, and nothing made sense. Why would somebody light a flare inside a hotel room? I was hoping that this would result in something like burning down the hotel, just like in Gone Fishin', but actually, nothing happens. If a weird girl carpools with you and makes a semi-satanic prayer to say grace, any God fearing Christian family would ditch her at the restaurant and drive away, but in the movie, they drag her along everywhere they go. If you see that the old Indian camp you used to go as a kid is turned into a casino, why would you give money to someone to see "real Indians", when there's obviously no Indians around at all? Why would you listen to eight tracks if you already have CD's with your favorite music? I knew it wasn't going to be a masterpiece after seeing the DVD label, but it still surprised me, after seeing Cedric the Entertainer could be so bad. the whole work was disgustingly not funny, and I have the feeling the writers stole a copy of the script for National Lampoon's Vacation and changed the characters from white to black. Not even Cedric's "witty" remarks made me crack up (except for "you need a condom to hear that music"). The whole film reminded of another one I loathed after watching glimpses of it on a bus trip to Mexico City: RV (sadly, the same exact movie, but with Robin Williams and without the little girl). I have a field day with bad movies, and this one is just another one for my list. However, I enjoy trashing them, NOT WATCHING THEM. This is supposed to be a family comedy. Trust me, you'll do your family a favor by not playing this in your home.

... more
justjessgirl
2004/04/12

I thought this movie was awesome..awesome casting,awesome music and y'all must be crazy if ya don't think so.I watched it over and over. Solange Knowles was great as her character and so was bow wow,gabby soleil(destiny) was so awesome and so was all the other cast members ..Cedric the entertainer was great at the 2 characters he played and continued to make me laugh.One of my fave parts in the movie was At the end when they are finally at the reunion and do their performance.I loved that song along with pretty much every other song that was put in that film.I really really thoroughly enjoyed this movie from start to finish.All round a STAND out,funny,FANTASTIC film.

... more
MillenniaZ
2004/04/13

This was way too long of a movie. The jokes were boring. Too bad such really good actors were thrown into a pretty bad movie. If they were trying to copy National Lampoon movies, they weren't even close. More often than not, you can't do a classic justice. From the start to finish, I just couldn't get interested. I watched it hoping that it would improve, and not even the jacuzzi scene made me laugh. I've always liked Steve Harvey but his part had him acting incredibly stupid and nowhere near funny. Even in the end, he was still being stupid. It was a waste of nearly two hours. I would suggest that instead of watching this movie you read a book. Or better yet, take a walk.

... more
shark-43
2004/04/14

This movie is so lame, so cobbled together, so lazy that it is truly one of the worst comedies made in the past decade. Cedric might have to sell The Entertainer part of his name soon if he keeps making crap like this and The Honeymooners. I mean, give it up, you are not a LEAD. As part of an ensemble, you are terrific (as Cedric proved in Barbershop) but the first thing they do is take a live wire like Cedric and have his father character in this movie be rather straight laced and conservative. Great - yes, let's smooth over all the rough edges that make this comic interesting. Of course, the minute a gag needs him to be leering and lewd, he does. There is no character reality in ANY of the characters. Lame, obvious gags unfold like you are watching an old vaudeville routine or a Popeye cartoon. They're good, Steve Harvey's bad, so let's watch what happens. Also, there is a TERRIBLE subplot where a guy is basically stalking Cedric's wife - Vanessa Williams. And at the end when the guy shows up at the family reunion in a huge semi and basically runs over the reunion - he gets out with flowers and claiming his love for Cedric's wife. So what happens. Well, Cedric's Momma - you know those heavy set chuckling mommas that Hollywood movies have to have - well, she walks up and slugs the stalker in the face - he gets knocked out and that is their solution to the problem. Yes,let's forget that he will eventually wake up and probably be even more adamant to bother the woman but what the heck - violence solves everything - especially when it's one of those funny one punch, quick knockout punches. Hee hee. And of course, at the end everyone changes and learns a lesson not because it has been written that way for these characters to develop but only because it is the end of the movie and time for this stuff to happen anyway. So false, so not funny. Awful.

... more