USA, 2004
Director: Christopher Erskin
Score: ***

JOHNSON FAMILY VACATION, the first full length feature starring the popular Black comic Cedric the Entertainer (BARBERSHOP and BIG MOMMA’S HOUSE), takes the stereotype of middle America - the family vacation on a road trip - one step further.  Nate Johnson (Cedric) sets out in a Lincoln Navigator with three unruly children and his estranged wife, Dorothy (Vanessa Williams) cross country to Missouri in order to win the much coveted Johnson Reunion Family of the Year award. 

Cedric, his face contorted to extremes by the strain of having to keep everything in control, encounters mishap after mishap such as being chased by an 18-wheeler, trapped in a hot tub by sex-craved fat women, hounded by a voodoo hitchhiker (Shannon Elizabeth).  But he is no angel either.  When not flirting with other women, he torments his son (Bow Wow) and daughter (Solange Knowles) disallowing them any freedom of any kind.  Director Christopher Erskin’s film, however, is funny enough, as Cedric and gang keep the visual gags coming fast and furious.  And if the humor on disasters is not enough, the jokes on family values, rap versus funk music and those on pure nonsense (Cedric also playing the womanizing Uncle Earl) add to the entertainment.  There are sections of the script by brothers Todd and Earl Jones that work clumsily, particularly those dealing with interaction among the family members like the re-conciliation between Nate and Dorothy or the part involving the youngest daughter, Destiny’s (Gabby Soleil) outgrowing her imaginary puppy phase.  The comedy works best and at its most outrageous when Cedric is allowed a free run doing his routines be it funky dancing or spitting out of one-liners.

The VACATION cast is fantastic.  Besides Cedric, gifted with the ability to make even the unfunny lines laughable, the much younger Bow Wow playing D.J., his son (the youngest solo rapper ever to hit #1 in the charts) makes perfect pairing as observed in the first 10 minutes of the film opening.  The film also celebrates the best of Black mores while simultaneously poking fun at religion and music.  Though VACATION may a few clichéd segments, the laugh-out loud moments and the ending combo funk/rap dance number are sufficient to make JOHNSON FAMILY VACATION worth a trip to the theatre.

Review by Gilbert Seah.