Johnson Family Vacation (2004)

AAA can't help the roadside emergency that is the JOHNSON FAMILY VACATION. Even the on-board navigation system has a meltdown on Nate Johnson and his family's cross-country trek to their ... See full summary »

Director:

Christopher Erskin

Writers:

Todd R. Jones, Earl Richey Jones

Stars:

Cedric the Entertainer, Vanessa Williams, Bow Wow

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Cedric the Entertainer	...	Nate Johnson / Uncle Earl
Vanessa Williams	...	Dorothy Johnson
Solange Knowles	...	Nikki Johnson
Bow Wow	...	D.J. Johnson
Gabby Soleil	...	Destiny Johnson
Shannon Elizabeth	...	Chrishelle Rene Boudreau
Steve Harvey	...	Mack Johnson
Aloma Wright	...	Glorietta Johnson
Shari Headley	...	Jacqueline
Jennifer Freeman	...	Jill
Philip Bolden	...	Mack Jr. (as Philip Daniel Bolden)
Rodney Perry	...	Cousin Lump (as Rodney B. Perry)
Christopher B. Duncan	...	Stan
Lorna Scott	...	Gladys
Kevin P. Farley	...	Stall Guy (as Kevin Farley)

Storyline

AAA can't help the roadside emergency that is the JOHNSON FAMILY VACATION. Even the on-board navigation system has a meltdown on Nate Johnson and his family's cross-country trek to their annual family reunion/grudge match. Reluctantly along for the ride are Nate's wife, who's only in it for the kids; their rapper-wannabe son; their teenage daughter who's fashioned herself as the next Lolita; and their youngest, whose imaginary dog Nate just can't seem to keep track of. Can the Johnsons survive each other and all the obstacles the road throws at them to make it to Caruthersville, Missouri? Can they find Missouri?

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Plot Keywords:

cross country | family relationships | on the road | highway travel | roadtrip | 

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Taglines:

Take the ride.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some sexual references, crude humor and brief drug material

Details

Official Sites:

Fox Searchlight [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 April 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Arrivano i Johnson

Filming Locations:

Bakersfield, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$12,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$37,804 (South Africa) (9 July 2004)

Gross:

$31,179,516 (USA) (13 August 2004)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fox Searchlight Pictures, Hallway Pictures, Bird and a Bear Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

'Solanges Knowles' (Beyoncé Knowles' sister) makes an ad lib reference to her sister during a cell phone conversation in her first scene of the movie. Her character's little sister in the movie is named "Destiny" an obvious reference to her sister's former group Destiny's Child.

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Goofs

When Nate and D.J. first pull up into the drive in the new red truck, the whole crew is reflected in the side of the truck.

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Quotes

Nate Johnson: [DJ sees Nate's griddle and tries to sneakily get a piece, Nate catches him and hits his hand] oh no! don't even think about it
D.J. Johnson: Dang dad!
Nate Johnson: [takes the griddle and starts eating it] Man what would i do without my Mike Tyson Griddle, tastes so good it'll bite cha back

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Connections

Referenced in Ancient Evil 2: Guardian of the Underworld (2005)

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Soundtracks

"Come Inside"
Written by Ayana Hipps, Ayinke Hipps, Derrick D. Brown, S. Wright, L. Ware and C. Robertson
Performed by AAries
Courtesy of Mama's Boys Music
Contains a sample of "I Too am Wanting"
Performed by Syreeta
Courtesy of Motown Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Cedric is good but the material is weak and the plot development simply lazy

It is an annual event in the wider Johnson clan to get together for a reunion of food, song and competition – a competition that is always won by Mack Johnson. Despite being separated from his wife, Nate Johnson gets his family together to attend as usual and keep up appearances. With a brand new Navigator truck and a tight time scale, the family of five set out on their road trip only to find themselves having to deal with cement, police, alligators and hitchhikers – and that's all before they get to the reunion.

I generally avoid all-black comedies; not because I am racist but because the opposite is true – and I find that many of these modern blaxploitation comedies are full of racist stereotypes and broad ethnic caricatures. With this film screening on a flight I was on I decided to watch it as I find it very difficult to sleep on planes. I was pleased to find that the film didn't base itself on racist stereotypes and the like and instead went for the more race-neutral approach of road movie broad gags a la Vacation. This is not to say that it is funnier – only easier to watch because it is less offensive to me personally. The plot is very simple but it makes the mistake of not staying simple – instead it adds subplots of separation and treats them seriously. This is a problem because it rounds them off in glib, unconvincing ways that make a joke out of ever having them in the first place – the whole issue of Nate and Dorothy working things out is a perfect example, the supposed focal point of the family contest is another one – it feels tacked on.

The film is not anywhere near as funny as it needed to be to be a good comedy. It has the odd laugh but generally the humour is so very broad and uninspired that it is hard to do anything but raise the occasional smile. Part of the reason it is even slightly funny is due to the good work from Cedric the Entertainer. He isn't great here but he does manage to get laughs from the poor material he is given to deliver. Bow Wow is hardly much of a draw but aside from being an annoying rapper cliché in the making, he does do well alongside Cedric. Williams is an OK actress but here she has nothing to do – she has no laughs and she is betrayed by the script when it comes to the serious side of the film. Knowles looks sexy but that's it – nothing more than that; likewise Soleil is a 'cute kid' and nothing more. Harvey is so poor that I actually wondered if he was the reason that the whole 'family contest' thing was pushed into such a small part of the film.

Overall this is a very average film at best. The plot is terrible at points and just annoyed me in the way that it seemed to just write-off the entire affair in the final section. The laughs come mainly from Cedric who does OK considering the very broad material he has to work with (and with little support from his co-stars). It's good that it more or less avoid the lazy racist stereotyping inherent in the 'black comedy' genre but it would have been nice if they'd replaced it with something worthwhile.