The Johnson Family Vacation

Sarah and I headed off to Tinseltown in Pueblo hoping to 'Bust a Moo' and see Home on the Range. We bought our tickets and extensive snacks (breakfast) and headed in with nearly 10 minutes to spare. Unfortunately it was in the smallest theater, full of little kids, and hot and stuffy. The seat selection included the very first 2 rows and a couple seats sprinkled amongst the restless crowd. Oh NO. We froze and I whispered to Sarah to "Turn around slowly and let's get out of here!" We went down the hall to Johnson Family Vacation. It started 5 minutes later, was in a nice large theater, and less than 1/4 full. Ahhhhhh.

This movie was just plain fun. We loved Cedric the Entertainer (Barbershop) as the dad, Nate Johnson and also as Uncle Earl - a similar character to his Eddie character in Barbershop and Barbershop2. He's very straight laced at first and lays the groundwork for the funny stuff that follows. Lil BowBow (now just Bow Wow - I guess he's growing up) plays the son, Solange Knowles (Beyonce's sister) plays the oldest daughter. Both are surprising good. Sarah pointed out that often rappers and singers get into acting and don't do well (Nelly's movie went *ahem* straight to video...) but that's not the case here.

Vanessa Williams (Soulfood, Eraser - or the Radio Shack commercials) does a good job as Cedric's wife, Dorothy. My stand out favorite was between Cedric himself and Steve Harvey (Fighting Temptations, Steve Harvey show on tv). He plays Cedric's older brother. There is a fierce competition between the two and Harvey is just plain funny all through the end scenes.

This movie is fun, takes you down a road you've travelled before with Chevy Chase and many others, but there are fresh gags (my favorite involves an argument over CDs between father and son), and situations that are funny but not too cartoon type over-the-top.

Sarah and I both gave this one a 3 - definitely fun!

After yesterday's Ella Enchanted there's a possibility we were a bit entertainment starved going in, but it still was a fun (rainy) day at the movies.