RV (2006) December 7, 2006
Posted by gproject in : Recently Viewed , trackbackDirected by: Barry Sonnenfeld
This family comedy from Men In Black director Barry Sonnenfeld took a bit of a beating from critics when it was released earlier this year. What caused such a reaction I’m not sure, because while it’s quite cartoonish at times, the movie isn’t as stupid as it may appear.
The story is a simple one: The Munro family are preparing for a holiday to Hawaii, when the father, Bob (Robin Williams), suddenly comes under pressure from his demanding boss (played by Will Arnett). In order to save himself from being replaced by a younger hot-shot employee, Bob has to be in a meeting in Colorado during his vacation period. Not wanting to disappoint his family, he comes up with a plan – he’ll hire an RV, and they’ll drive to Colorado for their holiday. Unfortunately, his two kids Carl and Cassie are at the age where spending time in a confined space with your parents could be compared to two weeks spit-roasting in hell. And so starts the dysfunctional road trip of a lifetime.
First off, the cast all work well together. Robin Williams is on fine form, and there are some nice quick-fire one-liners from almost all of the main characters. Jeff Daniels pops up as an over-friendly fellow RV owner, and it’s always a pleasure to see Arrested Development’s Will Arnett in a big screen role. The story might not be very original, especially the whole idea of a family being brought together in madcap circumstances, but it does the job nicely here.
So despite this not being an outstanding film, it’s also not as bad as everyone would like it to be. It’s easy to pigeonhole family oriented movies like this as being the unfunny, nonsensical messes they often turn out to be. This one however, raises itself up out of the pile, reaching the true level of ‘good family entertainment’. And you’ve got to remember that with so many teen movies or R-rated comedies in theatres these days, there’s not that many films a whole family can go to see together anymore. In fact, there are barely any movies for kids under thirteen that aren’t CG animations, and we all know how tedious they’re becoming.
I think you’ve got to enjoy this film for what it is, just over an hour and a half of non-offensive fun. Like the RV itself, the movie is big and colourful, plus it hides some nice morals about not judging people, and appreciating your family (mainly directed towards the kids). It might not be the most thoughtful piece, but at least there’s something for all ages to enjoy. And maybe that’s something we’ve lost sight of in the demographic obsessed, age-targeted Hollywood of today.
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