Friday, June 09, 2006

RV: RUNAWAY VACATION saddens the heart

RV: RUNAWAY VACATION is the latest in a long line of lacklustre family movies starring ageing Hollywood funny-men on auto-pilot. I am thinking of hack-repetitive movies like CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN and YOURS, MINE & OURS or even FUN WITH DICK AND JANE. In this latest offering, we have Robin Williams doing his tired act. He decides to pack his bickering family into a giant RV (that's a posh camper van to us Brits) and take them on a road-trip across America. Naturally, they come up against lots of obstacles, whence derives the obligatory slapstick comedy. They also pick up a stalker family led by Jeff Daniels. The whole exercise is well-produced and runs as clockwork. Too well. It's like Hollywood has a factory for family movies that produces this soul-less mediocre bilge. Indeed, I spent much of my time in the theatre musing on the career arc that took director, Barry Sonnenfeld, from photographing art-house classics like BLOOD SIMPLE to directing this stuff. Anyways, it's no longer half-term, so there's no real need for a movie like RV. If in doubt, take your kids to see THE THIEF LORD.

RV is on release in the US and UK and hits Germany on June 29th 2006, France on July 19th and Austria on September 22nd.

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