Movie Review:

Are We There Yet?

by Lynn B.

Used to seeing rapper/actor Ice Cube as a tough biker or funny barber? You can now add reluctant “daddy” figure to the list.

Nick Persons (Ice Cube) is a player, a bling-wearing ladies man who owns a successful sports collectible store. He’s just bought his first mega-ride, a tricked out Lincoln Navigator that he loves almost as much as he hates kids, “They’re like cockroaches but you can’t squish ‘um”. Then, Nick’s world goes flip flop when he eyes hot wedding planer Suzanne Kingston (Nia Long), a divorced mom with two kids (Philip Bolden and Aleisha Allen).

The kids have been busy getting rid of all the guys who try to date mom and Nick is their next target. To win Suzanne’s heart, Nick agrees to drive them from Portland to Vancouver when she has a job there and their errant dad punts out of taking them. After trying the airport and not succeeding on catching a train, it’s a road trip for the mismatched “family”. Can Nick survive?

Cube is charming as a bachelor with a lot to learn about small fry but this film has nothing new to offer but silly gags, bathroom humor and a formula plot with zero surprises. Some of the actions of the adults make no sense.. like a truck driver, worried that the kids are kidnapped, ramming the car they are riding in. Can we say “child endangerment”? Nia’s character is alternately trusting and then furious for no good reason. The kid actors are workable but need a few more acting lessons and there is a talking bobblehead doll on Nick’s dash that is cute for about a second tops. When something does work, the film has a tendency to beat it to death until it isn’t funny anymore.

I’ve gotta give Cube props for agreeing to be the target of kid-driven, wacky stunts and I will say that the younger kids in my audience were laughing a lot at the visual humor. If you get a charge out of wacky silliness, this may be for you.

This movie is rated PG

Official Movie Web Site - Are We There Yet?

Pictures courtesy of and copyright Sony Pictures