Are We There Yet?

Nick Persons (Ice Cube) owns a sports collectible store in Seattle and drives a brand new Lincoln Navigator. He has it all lined up in his life. His dream, his business, his car that may as well be his child - he's just missing the perfect woman. But then one day he spots her - and right across the street! Suzanne works at the party-planning business across the street and Nick is immediately smitten by her. That is, until her children run up to hug her. That turns Nick off immediately and he tells his best buddy and employee Marty (Jay Mohr), "Children are like cockroaches, except you can't squish 'em." This pretty much sums up Nick's feelings on kids in general and Suzanne is promptly wiped off the list of possible main squeezes for him. Later that evening, as Nick is driving home in the pouring rain having a chat with his dashboard bobblehead of Satchel Paige, baseball legend (voiced by Tracy Morgan), he spots Suzanne standing in the rain next to her broken down car. He passes her by on Satchel's recommendation, but then backs up to help. They immediately hit it off and she even knows who Satchel Paige is, so she must be a winner. But then he meets her monsters, I mean kids.

Now these kids have been pretty successful so far in keeping suitors away from their lovely mom through many torturous means. And they aim to keep it up for this new guy, Nick. After all, they are convinced mom and dad will get back together. Through various turns of events, it seems Suzanne must go to Vancouver to plan a major holiday party and her ex-husband has flaked out on caring for the kids because he is sick. So Nick jumps in to save the day and after several more crazy events, offers to drive the kids from Seattle to Vancouver to meet their mom.

Now these kids, while very cute, are absolute horrors and do everything in their power to not only destroy Nick's beloved Navigator, but to drive him mad. They are fairly successful in both ventures. In the meantime, the kids get Nick into trouble in various ways. However, what they discover by the end of the journey is that Nick is a pretty cool guy who truly does care for them - a big surprise to even Nick, himself. What I found completely random, but still amusing, was the recurring interjections of Satchel's bobblehead. It was weird and there wasn't really a good reason for this bobblehead to come to life and talk to Nick, but whatever. Extra comic relief.

This movie came out in 2005 and I was wondering why they were reissuing the DVD. However, then when I saw the Sneak Peek for the sequel Are We Done Yet? coming out this spring, I knew why. Are We There Yet? was much funnier than I thought it would be and I really enjoyed it. After having seen it, I am now very interested in seeing the sequel and would recommend this as a great family movie with a hearty helping of laughs.

Are We There Yet?

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