RV

Review by Clint Morris

He’s been showering in crap for a while now, but in his latest film, Robin Williams is literally washing his orifice with stinky number twos.

As kindly dad, Bob Munro, Williams gets a real beating here: forced to be one with the remains of a transportable lavatory, obliged to drive a monstrous automobile off an unsteady cliff, ravaged by some raccoons, steer a bicycle down a steep mountain, and take a swim down a muddy rock face. Yep, Chevy Chase hasn’t answered his phone, so Mork’s inherited the Griswold throne.

In short, the film sees the Munro clan (Dad, Robin Williams, Mum, Cheryl Hines, and kids, Josh Hutcherson & JoJo) taking a road trip in an RV they’ve rented. Dad makes out they’re going on a nice family holiday – which the kids are about as excited as ducks without water about, considering the original plan was a trip to Hawaii – but he’s really headed up to the mountains to attend a business meeting, in a last ditch attempt to save his insecure job.

Along the way, they have many a mishap (as described above, in broad strokes), and encounter a couple of kooky sorts, namely some hillbilly camper veterans (Jeff Daniels playing Dad, Kristen Chenoweth playing Mum) who’re determined not to leave them alone.

Critics and the general public usually come to blows when it comes to films like these – or anything starring Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, Jim Carrey or Will Ferrell - so it’s best I review it from both sides.

As a critic, I wasn’t impressed. You’ve seen it all before – think of the Chevy Chase National Lampoon films, but set in the rockies – and you don’t need to see it again.  The jokes aren’t that fabulous either, always going for the easy chuckle, rather than well-merited wittiness. And my god, what is with those production values! The blue-screen is so blatantly overused – did they even get out into the outdoors at all, or was it all filmed completely on a soundstage? – You’d swear they blew their entire budget on the RV itself. As for a script? Think they ditched one in favour of a few dot points scrawled on the back of a shopper-docket somewhere.

Now, for the opinion of the ‘everyday cinemagoer’ – clearly something I’m not, but having spent an hour and a half with a hundred or so regular folk watching the thing, I think I can summon up an opinion on their behalf – : You’ll laugh, you may even laugh a lot. The audience I saw the film with was in stitches, most of the time. It’s Robin Williams doing what he does best (and refreshing to see after his morbid line-up of late), Cheryl Hines adding some comedy magic – and a side-splitting baritone  - as support, and Jeff Daniels hamming it up, ever so self-mockingly, the likes of which we haven’t seen him do since Harry and Lloyd hit the alps. It’s quite simply, crazy…in a good way. There’s always something happening on the screen, and it never outstays its welcome. 

Just watching how thrashed around the rental car gets is a laugh in itself. The film’s enjoyment factor might even have been helped by it’s lacklustre trailer, which had most expecting the poor cousin of Are We There Yet, or a really bad Vacation redo. It’s not a great movie, that’s for sure, but it’s much better than the trailer made it out to be.

But then, that’s the opinion of the cinemagoer…and I’m supposed to be a critic. Depending on who you are, and whose opinion you think matters in this regard, you’ll know whether you want to see the film or not.

3 out of 5

RV
Australian release: 1st June, 2006
Cast: Robin Williams, Cheryl Hines, Kristin Chenoweth, Jeff Daniels, Will Arnett
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Website: Click here.