|
The Movie: In a scene early in "RV", a father (Robin Williams) half-heartedly responds with current slang when he passes his children's rooms and they show him only irritation. His family eats dinner in different rooms and IMs each other when they need to communicate. There's a good movie to be made from the fact that, due to work, activities and other outside pressures, families don't or can't spend as much time together anymore. "RV", while the movie to explore this subject well, gives it a halfway decent try. "RV" stars Williams as Bob Munro, who, after realizing early in the picture that his kids are going to be young for so long, decides that it's a perfect time to take a trip. When a Hawaiian vacation doesn't work out due to work, he decides to pile the family into an enormous, horrifically decorated RV instead, as a trip to Colorado will work in with his work plans. So, despite the fact that Bob did have good intentions, his family - wife Jamie (Cheryl Hines), daughter Cassie (Joanna “JoJo” Levesque) and son Carl (Josh Hutcherson) - all proceed to whine about how awful it is, despite the fact that, while the RV isn't exactly pretty, it looks about as big as a tour bus (if there was a scene showing how much it cost to fill the thing with gas, it could potentially qualify as a horror movie.) If the movie has one major issue, it's the two children: they're so incredibly sour that one almost wishes that they'd be left on the side of the road. The Hines character isn't too far behind the kids. Soon enough, however, the film trots out what one could potentially call the mother of all bathroom jokes. Bob, with no experience in terms of trying to drain the RV, winds up causing a geyser of...well, you get the idea. The film's jokes are generally slapstick (the RV rolls away several times) or bathroom humor (or Bob getting humiliated) along the same lines, unfortunately. Soon after Bob faces the particularly foul downpour, they run into a family (lead by Jeff Daniels and Kristin Chenoweth) traveling cross-country performing country tunes. They're presented as (I guess) the villians of the piece, as the movie presents them as hicks who chase after the Munros. However, they're actually very nice people who just want to be friends, which makes the main characters unsympathetic (the Munros literally run - practically screaming - from the prospect of having breakfast with the nice people.) They learn their lesson at the end, but the whole thing leading up to that point still seems strange. Many people are going to tell you that "National Lampoon's Vacation" is the best family vacation picture. Those people can have their fun, but I'll always consider "Great Outdoors" to be a better flick. Not surprisingly, "RV" doesn't remotely match either of these pictures ("RV's raccoons have nothing on the raccoons of "Great Outdoors"), but it's not without its occasional moments - there's one scene that has Williams emerging from a lake riding a bike that stands as one of the funnier visual jokes I've seen in a while. Despite being from the writer of "The Shaggy Dog" remake, this manages to be a more decent picture about a father trying to reconnect with his family, largely thanks to a very good performance from Williams. While the comedian's former family films have had him being "wacky", he's actually really subdued here (save for a scene where he spouts urban slang that's so unfunny that it's actually kind of amusing) in a nice performance as a father desperately trying to handle work and reconnecting with a family who's not exactly eager to join in on the fun. "RV" isn't great, but it has its moments and I liked Williams. Still, the flick remains a time-waster. The DVD VIDEO: "RV" is presented by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in 2.40:1 on this DVD edition (a pan & scan edition is also available). Filmed with neon-bright colors, the presentation quality is perfectly solid. Sharpness and detail are consistently first-rate, with fine details often clearly visible. While some minor edge enhancement appeared on occasion, it was only briefly seen and not particularly noticable. Colors, as mentioned, looked absurdly warm and bright (by intent), but appeared accurately presented. SOUND: The film's Dolby Digital 5.1 presentation stuck with a "comedy-style" audio presentation, with the audio mainly from the front speakers. The surrounds kick in on a few occasions to offer up some minor sound effects (and some of the sound effects involving the RV have some oomph), but otherwise remain quiet. Dialogue sounded crisp and clear throughout. EXTRAS: Director Barry Sonnenfeld offers up another nasal commentary track after his enjoyable ones for the "Men in Black" pictures and elsewhere. Sonnenfeld's deadpan delivery is once again pretty funny and the director does offer up quite a few tidbits about the production, including pointing out blue screen (and maybe it's just me, but I thought the film's blue screen just looked too obvious), making fun of himself, pointing out some minor details (some meat hanging in one scene for about 2 seconds was made out of rubber cost $14,000), telling some pretty funny stories from the set (Sonnenfeld asked Daniels to write him a theme song for when he went on talk shows), discussing locations and chatting about working with the actors. A gag reel provides a kind of pointless (essentially, "I don't know if gag reels are funny to the viewing audience, but here it is.") introduction from Sonnenfeld and boasts some funny moments. The featurettes section ("Barry Sonnenfeld: The Kosher Cowboy", "Jojo: Pop Princess", "RV Nation: The Culture of Road Warriors", "Robin Williams: A Family Affair" and "The Science of Poop") offers a series of fluffy featurettes that last a little less than 35 minutes. Also included is an alternate scene (Williams plays a "Kung Fu Master" to protect his son instead of using street slang) that's not particularly funny and trailers for other titles from the studio (including "Talladega Nights"). Final Thoughts: "RV" isn't great, but it's elevated by a respectable performance from William and a few good minor gags. It's a time-waster and those interested would best be advised to try a rental first. 
Film Grade The Film C+ DVD Grades Video 88/B Audio: 88/B Extras: 83/B |