Camping-car

I take my younger daughter to the movies every Friday night, along with another dad and his girl. The movies are chosen to be kid friendly. and so 'RV'was selected. This particular evening the other dad's girl friend was with us.

The adults were resigned to a glum two hours of tedium, but - surprise! Surprise!! - it turned out to be kinda fun. No one will confuse it with Citizen Kane, but it was lively, funny, and not at all boring. It is obviously a pay check movie for everyone involved - but they are all solid professionals and deliver the goods. I was particularly interested that Kristin Chenoweth, the Broadway star, was in the cast.

Sp we had a good time with this movie, which is really all you ever ask on Friday night. The entire case does an ensemble version of 'Route 66' over the closing credits, which is worth staying for.

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.

R.V

My rating: 6.5/10

I went to see this movie with extremely low expectations, thanks to all the negative predictions which had been circulating for the past few weeks, and I have only one thing to say; DO NOT avoid this movie only because your favourite critic has said that it is an unprecedented flop, or because you think the title is unappealing – watch the movie for yourself first, and be the judge yourself without being influenced by any other guy who probably hasn't even seen the film. Only then you will realise the true significance of this movie.

First off, it's a great movie to watch with the whole family, which is saying something since most of the comedy movie nowadays are filled with raunchy jokes from start to finish (not that I don't enjoy those movies, but it's cool to watch a nice simple family movie every now and then – "The Pink Panther" is a good example of the latter). Contrary to rumours, Robin Williams does NOT let us down, in fact I think he is just as funny as he was in his previous flicks – and if some obsessively observant viewers do notice a change in his performance, then give the guy a break, he's getting older he isn't what he used to be 10 years ago!

I think it's a pretty good movie– mind, it isn't a piece of genius but as I said, if you wipe out all biased thoughts from your mind before watching this flick and without the skeptical attitude, there's a good chance you will enjoy this movie as much as I did, just give it a try.

I was in the mood for something stupid and silly. RV filled the bill, mostly because of Cheryl Hinds and the Goernike family (headed by Kristen Chenowith and Jeff Daniels). The dumb singing alone moved things along well enough. Robin Williams never believed his own character which is hard-to-take from a film's lead. And his boss, the film's ostensible villain, was a zero.

On the plus side are the film's pacing, the Goernike's, Cheryl Hinds, and three strokes of brilliance by Williams amongst a lot of glib throwaways. To its credit, RV never bogs down by taking itself too seriously or by trying to convince the audience it has an actual plot beyond its absurd trappings. Director Sonnenfeld has an amusing cameo as Irv.

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.