I've been working as a freelance film critic for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, the biggest daily paper between Houston and Atlanta. My first piece was published today.
THE LINK: http://www.nola.com/living/t-p/index.ssf?/base/living-8/1175666819171250.xml&coll=1
THE ORIGINAL REVIEW:
"Ice Cube's Latest is Neither Funny Nor Poignant," By Evan Davis
Are We Done Yet? has two quite disparate sources: the film is a sequel to 2005's Are We There Yet? and a remake of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, a 1948 comedy starring Cary Grant and Myrna Loy. It is a bizarre combination of source material, and from the evidence of what is onscreen, the synthesis doesn’t work.
Nick Persons (Ice Cube, striving for the Everyman in his character’s last name) tells us in voice-over that he is now married to Suzanne (Nia Long), the woman he was attempting to date in the earlier film. He is also trying to cram his new wife and stepchildren into his small bachelor pad. Suzanne gently pressures him toward getting a bigger place, and before you can say, “plot push,” Nick has packed up the family and shipped them to a stately country home in some unspecified wilderness (the movie was filmed in Vancouver). Chuck Mitchell (John C. McGinley), their daffy, pseudo-hippie real estate agent, makes it sound like everything they’ve ever wanted in a home. Things quickly turn south, as Chuck turns out to also be the town contractor and inspector. When he reveals that a ton of work is going to be needed, he quickly turns their dream house into a nightmare.
As charmingly wacky as the plot may sound, the movie is just plain boring. Director Steve Carr and writer Hank Nelkin have the opportunity to explore the vagaries of middle-class existence, as well as the changing dynamics of family in the modern age. Instead, we’re given a 90-minute cartoon that doesn’t have enough sense to provide sharp comic timing for all of its physical pratfalls. An overwrought score practically stolen from the Home Alone movies never allows any of the jokes a chance to breathe or register with the audience. With no real visual style to speak of, the film also doesn’t engage on a sensual level.
The most infuriating thing about Are We Done Yet? is its complete lack of understanding of character progression. How are we to believe that Nick–previously shown to be incompetent in the hands-on department–could put the house back together all by himself in a matter of months, with some last-minute help from his new friend Chuck? Instead of going for absurdist gusto all the way, Carr and Nelkin stop short by loading the conclusion with enough bathos to make one never want to get married or have kids. Adding insult to injury is a frame story concerning Suzanne’s pregnancy, which only makes the film even more unbelievable. It sure doesn’t feel like nine months has passed; well, I felt like I had been sitting in the theater for nine months, but that is another problem altogether.
The film’s (alleged) lesson is that family and notions of home are far more important than the physical nitty-gritty of a “house,” but Are We Done Yet? doesn’t trust its audience to arrive at these conclusions. It also doesn’t bother to create a truly funny comedy. The film will be lucky to be remembered as anything other than filler on the ABC Family Channel.
No comments:
Post a Comment