Movie Review

Are We Done Yet? (PG)

Robert Sims

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Hollywood.com Says
Are We Done Yet?—the unwarranted sequel to Are We There Yet?—will have parents quickly asking themselves the same question as Ice Cube clumsily channels his inner Bob Vila to rebuild his dream house.

Story
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. A man rushes into buying the perfect house in the suburbs so he can raise his family. Only he soon discovers he’s overpaid for a death trap that will require big bucks to renovate. Yes, Are We Done Yet? is another remake of Cary Grant’s 1948 classic comedy, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. While the prospect of Ice Cube stuck in a house of horrors seems like an appropriate way to trump the road trip from hell that was Are We There Yet?, this sequel isn’t an upgrade on Tom Hanks’ 1986 Blandings redo, The Money Pit. But that won’t matter to the kids who laughed at the slow and painful destruction of Ice Cube’s beloved SUV. Now they’ll squeal with delight as Ice Cube—finally married to Nia Long, who’s pregnant with his twin babies—tries to replace the leaky roof he’s put over the heads of his ungrateful stepchildren (Aleisha Allen and Philip Bolden). “I can fix that,” Ice Cube says after breaking something. Too bad no one took a crack at fixing a script that fails to puts a modern-day spin on the suburban angst Cary Grant endured 60 years ago.

Acting
As a founding member of 1980s gangsta rap group N.W.A., Ice Cube made his bones scaring the living daylight out of white middle-class Americans. Now he’s entertaining their grandkids with innocuous family-friendly farces that once were Eddie Murphy’s bread and butter. You can’t blame Ice Cube for building upon his comedy franchises Barbershop and Friday, especially as he’s failed in his bid to be an action hero. But unlike The Pacifier, which Vin Diesel employed to poke fun at his tough-guy image, this kid-conscious franchise makes Ice Cube look softer than a life-size teddy bear. Sure, he’s man enough to more of a beating than he did the first time out as Nick Persons, but the scowling Ice Cube looks as uncomfortable bearing the brunt of these Home Alone-style humiliations as he does working with children and animals. Not so with John C. McGinley, the film’s lone source of amusement. He seems thrilled to be out of his doctor Scrubs and hamming it up as a happy-go-lucky man of many hats, including realtor, construction manager and midwife. Speaking of giving birth, Nia Long doesn’t have anything to do other than to exude the glow of an expectant mother. Unfortunately, Long’s onscreen kids, Aleisha Allen and Philip Bolden, don’t have much to do either. They were the driving force behind Ice Cube’s road rage in Are We There Yet? Now they barely get up to any mischief. And the better behaved they are, the less enjoyable Are We Done Yet? is.

Direction
Are We Done Yet? began life as a Blandings remake before Ice Cube et al. retooled it as this plain and predictable sequel. So that may explain why Allen and Bolden are no longer the cause of Ice Cube’s physical abuse. That’s a shame, as the antagonistic relationship they once shared made Are We There Yet? somewhat tolerable. Director Steve Carr clearly has no interest in exploring Ice Cube’s new role as a stepfather, not even if it results in more concussions. Then again, Carr’s there to merely serve as a one-man wrecking crew. He dutifully tears down Ice Cube’s house, but he doesn’t do it with much panache or originality. You just know Ice Cube will hit rock bottom when he tries to fall asleep while rain pours through his roofless house. At least Carr—who also directed such mediocre sequels as Dr. Dolittle 2 and Ice Cube’s Next Friday—has the good sense not to bring back the Tracy Morgan-voiced Satchel Paige bobblehead doll from Are We There Yet? And he does wrap up the proceedings with a welcome nod to the chaos Ice Cube endured on that long drive. Still, by the time Ice Cube steps foot in the dream house he’s built, you’re hoping that the trials and tribulations of his battered and bruised Nick Persons are indeed over and done with.

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