Inside Pulse Review – RV

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Credit: www.impawards.com

Director:

Barry Sonnenfeld

Cast:

Robin Williams……….Bob Munro
Cheryl Hines……….Jamie Munro
Jeff Daniels……….Travis Gornicke
Kristin Chenoweth……….Mary Jo Gornicke
Joanna “JoJo” Levesque……….Cassie Munro
Josh Hutcherson……….Carl Munro
Hunter Parrish……….Earl Gornicke
Chloe Sonnenfeld……….Moon Gornicke
Will Arnett……….Todd Mallory

Columbia presents RV. Written by Geoff Rodkey. Running time: 98 minutes. Rated PG (for crude humor, innuendo and language).

Road trips can be a fun endeavor. If the family is involved, though, they can turn into one big shouting match. The navigator, usually the mom, yells at her husband because he won’t stop and ask for directions. I have witnessed this many times. In these moments you can tell if the road trip will be rocky or smooth sailing. Composure is essential if a family wants to survive 30 hours together in a cramped space with four wheels.

A recreational vehicle is another matter altogether. They are big, awkward contraptions that get four miles to the gallon. The problem with traveling in a recreational vehicle is that you have to spend your nights in RV parks with RV people. These aren’t trailer trash, but Jamie Munro believes them to be. RV people can be clingy so she assures her husband that “we’re not friendly.” That’s the understatement of the year. The Munros don’t even enjoy each other’s company. Bob Munro echoes this sentiment by telling his wife, “We watch TV in four separate rooms and I.M. each other when it’s time to eat dinner.” Such a sad state of affairs resorting to instant messaging to get the attention of a son or daughter.

Nevertheless, they will travel to Colorado together in a gigantic rented RV, with a picture of director Barry Sonnenfeld emblazoned on the passenger side. Now that’s scary. The number of cross-country road pictures, family or otherwise, is a genre unto itself. National parks like Yellowstone are often mentioned. Raccoons are typically the varmints that sneak aboard a traveling vessel, causing loads of trouble. Why is it always raccoons?

Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo would have been the parents of choice 20 years ago, but for this trek Robin Williams and Cheryl Hines play the mom and dad, Bob and Jamie Munro. The couple has two children. Cassie (Joanna “JoJo” Levesque) is the rebellious one at the age of 15. Carl (Josh Hutcherson) is a few years younger than her, but is still nice. Cassie is put off by her father because she finds him to be a nuisance. To think, when she was five years old she told him she would never marry, and instead stay home with her father forever. A lot can happen in ten years it seems.

The plan was for them to take a trip to Hawaii, but Bob’s germaphobic boss Todd (Will Arnett) needed him to write an advertising proposal and make a presentation in Boulder, Colo. Afraid to tell his wife about the presentation, Bob chooses to rent the giant Barry Sonnenfeld RV and announces to the family that we’re going camping. The suburbanites and the great outdoors don’t mix. This becomes abundantly obvious when Bob has to perform the task of emptying the sewage. A job of this magnitude isn’t brain surgery, and yet, in movies at least, ineptitude reaches an all time high. As the trailers and TV ads can attest, it isn’t the “Field of Dreams moment” one might expect.

The rule of the road is to be friendly, but not too friendly. The Munros find out the hard way when they meet the Gornicke family – Travis and Mary Jo (Jeff Daniels and Kristin Chenoweth) and their kids Earl, Moon, and Billy. The friendliness of the Gornickes may be too much for some to handle, but they are from Texas, it’s to be expected. Traveling in a streamlined bus, the family is good-natured and do everything together. They sing country songs, live on the road, and are friendly to others.

It takes some time for the movie to settle into a rhythm. When it does, the Munros get into one pickle after another. Whether it is trying to avoid the Gornickes, or remembering the emergency brake doesn’t work, something always goes wrong. Boy, this must be the unluckiest family on earth.

This convoy of mishaps is pleasing to a degree but the incompetence level is left to be desired. The first time the Munros try to make a quick getaway from the Gornickes, it’s fun. When they try to avoid the cheerful family again and again it gets monotonous. Like the old tortoise and the hare fable, big city folks can’t elude Texans forever.

RV never rises above being anything more than a run-of-the-mill family film. Essentially, the RV trip is an extended second act with a small beginning and ending as bookends. At least it tries to have moments where the Munros stop being their self-effacing selves and act like a family. Scenes where the recreational vehicle is not in motion are enjoyable; the driving sequences, not so much. Other pleasant moments were the scenes involving the Gornicke family, especially the patriarch. Jeff Daniels is superb at creating energetic characters; his Travis Gornicke is no different. Too bad his animated performance had to be wasted in a lifeless movie.

CATEGORY SCORE
STORY 3 / 10
ACTING 4 / 10
LOOK/FEEL 2 / 10
ORIGINALITY 3 / 10
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE 2.5 / 10

Travis Leamons is one of the Inside Pulse Originals and currently holds the position of Managing Editor at Inside Pulse Movies. He's told that the position is his until he's dead or if "The Boss" can find somebody better. I expect the best and I give the best. Here's the beer. Here's the entertainment. Now have fun. That's an order!