Such a frustrating disappointment

hyped garbage

Admirable film.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The most offensive thing about Johnson Family Vacation is its cloying ability to be safe and harmless at every turn. The film is a conceptual snore and an even bigger redundant mess of clichés, stale humor, and worn references once it begins to play itself out. It tells the story of a goofy but well-meaning family, led by the patriarch Nate Johnson (Cedric the Entertainer), who desperately wants to reconnect his distant family following the divorce with his wife Dorothy (Vanessa Williams). Him and his wife, along with their kids - the careless Nikki (Solange Knowles), the smart-ass D.J. (Bow Wow), and the precocious seven-year-old Destiny (Gabby Soleil) - plan to make the trek from Los Angeles to Missouri, sticking to a tight schedule concocted by Nate that will have them in Missouri in due time.What if I told you that sticking to the schedule didn't wind up happening? What if I told you that everything that could possibly go wrong for the family went wrong and they were met with a barrage of ridiculous circumstances? Would you be at all surprised or would you just go along with the film's silliness? There was a point in time, about thirty minutes into Johnson Family Vacation, where I sat back and instead of actively anticipating I was passively expecting and observing. I ceased any and all anticipation and just went on to expecting a rote assembly of clichés and preposterous circumstances. This is what I bill a film under the subgenre of "maximum antics, minimum laughter," or a film that is so heavily bent on situational humor it forgets to actually find the humor in such situations. What often entails, and does here, is a mindless excursion filled with comedic pitfalls and dead-ends begging to get a laugh out of its audience. The film is so menial and redundant that its existence begs a justification; it's so bland and flavorless that it's not even worth existing, let alone analyzing or reviewing.Again, Johnson Family Vacation isn't especially offensive in any regard; it's existence and its noticeable harmlessness is by far the most annoying thing about it. It does nothing to capitalize on its archetypes masquerading as characters - something that made successful road comedies like National Lampoon's Vacation, the film this wants to be so very much, lasting in impact and memorable. Instead, we get a comedy that operates on autopilot and, in turn, aims low, hits low, and provides us with almost nothing in terms of longevity.Starring: Cedric the Entertainer, Vanessa Williams, Solange Knowles, Bow Wow, and Gabby Soleil. Directed by: Christopher Eskrin.

This movie isn't so bad. In fact, for a comedy, for a 'light' movie, made to relax, in a Sunday afternoon, while u're watching it with your family, it's even a pretty good, funny movie. I think those who were criticized this movie so harsh, obviously were exaggerated, to say the least. I mean.. votes like 3-4..come on..Don't u think u are exaggerated? Or probably, until now, u haven't seen a REAL bad/boring movie..There are a few scenes in ''Johnson's family'' which are really funny, and this is the aim, after all. Beside, the womens, mother and daughter, are so hot..and they are playing their role pretty well..So, this was the first vote i've seen on IMDb that I think is quite incomprehensible, too harsh, exaggerated, after all, even ''gustibus no disputandum....''

This movie, was so bad my fiancé was asking me to turn it off and put her out of her misery. I would have but i figured i suffered through the first half of it, why not treat it like a visit to the dentist, and enjoy the pain. That is exactly what watching this movie was Painful, not funny at all, from the Rubber alligator to the Retardedly Big Hamburgers, Bow wows lack of acting skills, hell he doesn't have any skill, except making young black teenage girls get dizzy. This movie makes the Snoop Dawg airline film look good, and i thought that was impossible. While it is commendable to make a film without cursing, at least make it funny. I mean steve martin can make a movie without cursing and its hilarious.

Cedric the Entertainer is a fascinating man. I first saw him on the Steve Harvey show, and those two have been playing off of each others' comedy bits for a good amount of time. They were both in the Original Kings of Comedy with Bernie Mack and D.L. Hughley, and they are back together in this cutesy-pie family flick about going to a family reunion and encountering obstacles in every manner along the way. Picture National Lampoon's Vacation minus the funny main character (Chevy Chase) and throw in plenty of urban over saturation.This is interesting how Cedric plays such a straight character with hardly any humor (as an insurance salesman, his career before acting...a stretch, for Cedric sarcastically speaking) other than an occasional giggle at his manner of helping his family get along on this trip. Right off the bat, the movie starts heading straight to hell. Bow Wow (who was probably offered this role after his CDs stopped selling) plays a kid (who seems like he's nine) who keeps talking in -izzle terms and stereotyping right away. A quick (and pointless) cameo by Kurupt, the rapper, leads the audience down the wrong path entirely. Shannon Elizabeth was in the film briefly as a stoner/witch/hitchhiker who also wields an alligator, which was actually pretty great animating for the alligator...very creepy.There were funny moments, like the hanging of a flat-screen TV between JFK and a picture of Jesus...pretty symbolic and funny. Also, I liked the co-star Vanessa Williams' comment on tricked out SUVs: "It looks like a purse on wheels." Also, at the end, Steve Harvey plays the brother of Cedric who wins the family reunion-competition, and when his trophy is crushed by a truck, his performance at that point was pretty funny. But that's all...Most of the movie is based around sketch comedy and pieced together to seem like a movie. You can tell where they were trying to come up with filler for the film. There are pointless fart/urine jokes that have been overdone, a terrible CHP sequence with a jail moment and all that, and a family reunion that they know that they're going to hate, but they go anyways...FUN! :( Overall, I gave it a 4/10. It was a light-hearted movie that probably shouldn't be looked at this closely, but it does when the movie loses the audience's interest halfway through it. Don't even bother renting it; get National Lampoon's Vacation or European Vacation instead. This movie will appeal to your 10 or 11-year-old only, so beware.