Are We There Yet? (2005)

To impress a foxy divorcee, ladies' man Nick offers to take her kids on an extended road trip, unaware of the torture he's in for.

Director:

Brian Levant

Writers:

Steven Gary Banks (story), Claudia Grazioso (story)

Stars:

Ice Cube, Nia Long, Aleisha Allen

1 win & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ice Cube	...	Nick Persons
Nia Long	...	Suzanne Kingston
Aleisha Allen	...	Lindsey Kingston
Philip Bolden	...	Kevin Kingston (as Philip Daniel Bolden)
Jay Mohr	...	Marty
M.C. Gainey	...	Al
Tracy Morgan	...	Satchel Paige (voice)
Henry Simmons	...	Carl
Ray Galletti	...	Car Dealer
Viv Leacock	...	Nick's Pal on the Street
Casey Dubois	...	Shoplifter
J.B. McEown	...	Shoplifter (as JB McEown)
Kenyan Lewis	...	Basketball Player
Daniel Cudmore	...	Basketball Player
Tim Perez	...	Basketball Player (as Timothy Paul Perez)

Storyline

Nick Persons is a selfish player who owns a collectables sports shop in Portland, Oregon. Everything in his life is perfect until he meets Suzanne Kingston, a business woman who has something Nick hates - children: Lindsey and Kevin. Nick and Suzanne become friends and share good moments with each other. But Nick's peaceful life gets altered when Suzanne asks him to drive her kids to Vancouver. After the 3 miss a plane and then, train, they drive. Unfortunately, Kevin and Lindsey hate Nick, and he has to try to make it to Vancouver, unaware of the terror and torture he is in for.

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Plot Keywords:

braces | new year | children | highway travel | road movie | 

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Taglines:

Coming soon... by plane, by train, by car.

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Family | Fantasy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for language and rude humor

Did You Know?

Trivia

The game that Kevin plays in the car is Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (2002).

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Goofs

When Nick discovers that the kids are off the train and it starts to move, he runs almost the entire length on the train yelling at them. When the camera shows the kids from the front you can see that the train tracks start about 30 feet behind them, not enough room for the entire train.

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Quotes

Nick Persons: [wanting new tires] Look, I'll pay you extra. See? Yao Ming! Rookie card.
Car Mechanic: Oh, I see. You think because I am Chinese that you can get me to do anythi - OOOO! Hologram!

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Connections

Referenced in DVD-R Hell: Poochinski (2011)

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Soundtracks

Time's Up
Written by Jadakiss (as Jason Phillips), Nate Dogg (as Nathanial D. Hale) and Scott Storch
Performed by Jadakiss featuring Nate Dogg
Courtesy of Ruff Ryders/Interscope Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Just for the Kids

Nick (Ice Cube) is a born "playah," who takes on a arduous task to convince divorced Suzanne (Nia Long) to go out with him. Since she's stuck working in Vancouver and misses her kids, he agrees to drive them up from Portland, but if he thinks her kids are going to let him mack on their mom without a fight, he has another thing coming.

The premise held some potential to be good but the film turned out to be average at best. The jokes are just too mean spirited to be funny and most of the funny jokes were used in the trailer. The jokes are mean spirited because the kids in the film are pretty vicious. They attack Nick because they don't want any guy getting close to their mom. They want their parents back together. I understand that the kids will hate Nick but some of the stuff they do to him is so over the top and unnecessary. I felt sorry for Ice Cube because he was pretty much killed from all the stuff that happened to him.

The acting is okay, nothing special. Ice Cube gives a good performance and he's a pretty good sport for letting all that stuff happen to him. Nia Long was just "meh", nothing special at all. She doesn't get a lot of screen time though. Aleisha Allen and Philip Bolden both give good performances as really annoying kids. The former was the worst of the two and I hope she doesn't pursue a singing career. Jay Mohr is in the movie for about ten minutes despite being mentioned in the previews.

Despite all this violence happening to Nick, the film is actually kind of dull. However, since the movie is only 90 minutes long, it isn't too much of a punishment to sit through. Brian Levant directs and he does an okay job. Usually, his family films bore and annoy me but this one is better than most of his movies. Another problem with the movie is that it's not very original. The opening scene is stolen from Home Alone and the entire film is full of clichés. As a family film, the kids should enjoy it while adults will most likely be asleep or annoyed. There were a few laughs just not enough for the film to expand its audience. Is Are we there yet? the worst movie of the year? No, out of all the films I have seen that {dis} honor would go to The Wedding Date. In the end, this is a nice rental for the kids to watch but everyone else should skip it. Rating 5/10

Details

Official Sites:

Columbia Tristar [France] Sony Pictures

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 January 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Are We There Yet?

Filming Locations:

Pacific Central Station - 1150 Station Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$32,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$18,575,214, 23 January 2005

Gross USA:

$82,674,398

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$97,918,663

Company Credits

Production Co:

Revolution Studios, Cube Vision

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1