Die Chaoscamper

The executive Bob Munro (Robin Williams) is stressed, feeling threatened of losing his job and his lifestyle, since his abusive boss Todd Mallory (Will Arnett) hired the Stanford's geek Laird (Richard Cox) to work in their soda's company. Bob has promised his wife Jamie Munro (Cheryl Hines), his teenage daughter Cassie Munro (Joanna 'JoJo' Levesque) and his young son Carl Munro (Josh Hutcherson) to spend vacations in Hawaii, but Todd demands him to prepare a presentation and attend a business meeting with the owners of a family company in a merging operation scheduled in the same period. Bob hides the truth to his family, rents a recreational vehicle and tries to convince his dysfunctional family that a road trip to the Colorado Rocky Mountains would be good to bring old values back to their family. After many incidents and while in the trailers parking area, the rookie Bob is helped by the bizarre but friendly Gornicke family. They escape from the Gornickes and initiate a journey of difficulties and leaning, retrieving their forgotten family bonds.

When I decided to watch "RV" on DVD, I had lower expectations, but I am still laughing while writing my review. This hilarious movie has many unforgotten sequences, but my two favorites are in the very beginning, when Cassie promises to love her father forever, and when Bob complains that the family watches television in four different apparatuses and needs Internet to communicate among them. This family entertainment has good messages relative to family bonding, pressure in the job and true friends. There are some gross, but also funny scenes, and in the end I really liked this comedy. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Férias no Trailer" ("Vacations in the Trailer")

Bob Munro (Robin Williams) has been planning to take his wife Jamie (Cheryl Hines) and his two children Cassie (JoJo) and Carl (Josh Hutcherson) to Hawaii. But at the very last minute his boss Todd Mallory, (Will Arnett) calls him up and tells him that the biggest sales pitch of his career is going to happen in a few days. Bob gets the idea that if he rents an RV, he can take his family across country to Colorado on vacation and also attend this business meeting. Funny and bizarre moments ensue…

Going into "RV" I didn't know what to think about it but when I walked out of it just about an hour or so ago I must admit I liked it quite a bit. "RV" is a family road trip comedy, a genre made famous by "National Lampoon's Vacation." While no one will come out of this film feeling that they saw an original comedic masterpiece. I think if you look at it for what it is, a silly family comedy, you will be able to enjoy it. Personally, I found the film to be very amusing, more so than most others in the theater. There is just something about Robin Williams' comedic facial expressions that make me chuckle.

The whole idea of this rich upper class family traveling in an RV is just amusing. You can't picture this class of people taking a road trip which is why this film is funny. The film features some really strong laughs including the scene where Bob tries to drive the RV over the mountain. I won't deny for a second, that there isn't much thinking involved when watching this film because that is clearly out of the question. But honestly some of the stuff that happened in this film is extremely amusing and I think in this case, it's amusing because it was over the top. Unlike most comedies when they try to drag out a joke, it doesn't work but in "RV" the longer the joke goes, the funnier it gets in my opinion.

I also like how this film at times left it up to the audience's imagination. There are a couple of scenes that would have been really stupid and wouldn't work if they actually showed what was happening. The whole raccoon scene is a perfect example of this. I also like that although the humor was very low brow, it wasn't over done. What I mean by that was the jokes are funny but they are somewhat spaced out. Not like with "Scary Movie 4" where you have a new joke every other minute.

It's nice seeing Robin Williams come back and do comedy. I personally think he is one of those actors who can do both comedy and drama. He played the father figure very well here and like I said his facial expressions are always amusing. Also his little rap that he did in this film was hilarious. Robin is truly a talented actor. As for the rest of the cast, they were all fine was well. JoJo, who I actually never seen in a film before, was decent as the rebellious daughter and Josh Hutcherson was good as the rap loving son. Cheryl Hines who played Robin Williams wife Jamie was also good. Also a very amusing appearance by Jeff Daniels was also a lot of fun; he really knows how to play those redneck characters.

Barry Sonnefeld was the director of "RV" and I am not sure what to think of him. While some of his films are good, some of them are not. It's hit or miss with his films. I personally like the fact that a lot of his films including "RV" have the dark comedic touch to them, I pick up on these things and I seem to be one of the few people laughing when this happens but hey I find dark humor to be amusing. Mr. Sonnefeld does a good job in the directing chair here and he really creates all these weird and awkward obstacles that the Munro family has to overcome. Also the way he never allows the film to become overly sappy with family moments is also a nice touch.

So in the end, "RV" is a fun time. It's not a masterpiece by any means but just a funny little comedy that most members of the family can enjoy. Robin Williams steals the show the entire film and I feel without him involved this movie would have been really bad. When you see this movie, just take it for what it is, a silly family road comedy. If you take it for what it is, you shouldn't be disappointed. This movie is just like the trailer and TV spots lead you to believe so if you like the television spots or trailer, see this movie. "RV" is a movie where you should be able to have a few hard laughs and be able to smile the entire time.

MovieManMenzel's final rating for "RV" is a 7/10.

The trailer does this film no justice. My family wanted to see it and I must admit it looked pretty stupid from the commercials. I've always liked Robin Williams though and went along for the ride. It turned out to be a vacation trip full of laughs.

The entire theater was howling throughout the movie. Williams was at his quick witted best and the entire cast just seemed to fit the film. Granted, this is a "roll with the comedy" kind of film. There may be a little bit too much "potty" humor, but it isn't anything raunchy like Wedding Crashers or other films aimed at teens. This is good for the entire family and will have them all laughing.

Some of the plot and a few of the jokes are telegraphed from a mile away but the strength of the performances and a troop of likable characters transform it from a film you merely wouldn't regret watching to one you'll actually enjoy."

The movie's advertising poster somehow made me think this film was going to be like the Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz classic, The Long, Long Trailer, a movie I had long loved. As it turns out, this film really wasn't like that one, but I enjoyed it anyway. While it was loaded with sometimes predictable slapstick comedy and was kind of heavy on potty situation jokes (but definitely not entirely, there was adult humor, too), there were some lines in there that were really great, particularly the ones uttered by Joanna Levesque (whose delivery was such that I found myself laughing again over some of her lines when I thought about them later), who played the daughter, and who was beautiful, by the way. Cheryl Hines as the wife had some great lines, too, and I enjoyed her quirky beauty and great personality. Josh Hutcherson, whom I first saw and enjoyed in Zathura, playing the son in this movie, is revealing himself to be quite a good actor, and I see that he has been cast in the upcoming film based on the award-winning children's novel, Bridge to Terabithia, which is likely to be a plum role for him.

Robin Williams in his films can sometimes be irritating, but he can also be extremely funny, particularly in the way he uses his voice, and in this film, I didn't think he was ever irritating, and I particularly liked his "hip hop" or "homeboy" routine in this film.

I mostly enjoyed this movie for the pleasure of being with the people in it, including all members of the Gornicke family, whose generosity of spirit I appreciated, and I thought they had a real cool bus. The truth is that a road trip in an RV like this can be lots of fun for a family, and exploring what America has to offer is a great thing to do. In this film, the stunning "Colorado" scenery (really Canada) was quite appealing and made me want to go to the Rockies this summer.

The movie had a great soundtrack and I also noticed some clever sound effects that made the comedy situations even funnier.

All in all, this movie has a great heart and is a lot of fun, and I enjoyed it a lot, as did the audience in the theater when I saw it.

I really needed this. The day before I saw this movie I saw one movie that was terrible and one that was good but depressing. That's what happens when you're cheap and you just watch what's on, even if you use a DVR to see it later. And with this movie, a DVR or other recording device is essential. You want to see everything happen. Or maybe you don't. I don't recommend eating while you watch this.

Robin Williams doesn't do his best work here, but if all you want is to see this master play a normal father with the ability for the slapstick and stand-up styles of comedy, you couldn't do much better. His presentation in Boulder is brief but amazing. There's a second presentation that is also quite good but not ideal for a business professional; it's more suited to, say, a corny movie that teaches a moral lesson. And he does the normal father scenes quite well.

JoJo Levesque is ideal as a spoiled teenager who learns what is important in life and can even show a mature side. She starts out (what-EVER) as quite a contrast to the adorable Erika-Shaye Gair we saw a few minutes earlier. And she can SING! You have to stay around for the closing credits. Not everyone in this cast has singing talent, but she does.

Cheryl Hines is quite likable and amazingly tolerant. And she looks good here. I think the difference is she doesn't smile much. She doesn't have much to smile about. But when she does, it's not that gigantic smile.

Kristin Chenoweth makes the most of her role as the matriarch of the annoying Gornicke family that keeps showing up to make our heroes miserable. You have to like her, unless you're the Munros. She looks great and isn't ashamed to show off her ... chest. She has a magnificent singing voice and even shows her operatic talent in performing something corny.

Jeff Daniels is likable and actually intelligent. For his role, I would have expected someone more like Organ Stew Guy. He was introduced at a time when poor Bob needed someone with brains to clean up the literal mess made by the bumbling Howie and Joe Joe. But for the annoying rednecks, I didn't think intelligence would be required. I was wrong, and he plays a great character.

I've mentioned music several times. There's a lot of good music here. Most of it is instrumental country music, but I don't need words to enjoy it. When there are words, they are mostly the silly words that you would expect kids to hate. Hines doesn't mind being silly and embarrassing her kids, who have their own "music" (it doesn't qualify).

Colorado has magnificent scenery. I can't say enough about it. North Carolina's mountains are beautiful, but I don't think we have anything to compare to this. And yet the credits mention Canada. So this is actually Canada? Wherever it is, it's enough to drive home the lesson this family has needed to learn. Who needs Hawaii? Utah's not bad either. Great rock formations. For some reason, no trees grow until you reach the border.

And we do learn some important lessons here. We have the evil boss who doesn't seem to care about family and probably wouldn't appreciate nature either. And Laird, the young upstart who might replace Bob who has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Brilliant, but no people skills. So once it becomes clear people like this aren't the ones you should consider important in life, our heroes find out what really makes life worth living.

Is it appropriate for the whole family? Of course. If your family likes potty humor. I can see some strict parents not wanting their kids anywhere near this. But it's a fun adventure if you can handle it.