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REVIEW:
College Road Trip
By
Kam Williams
When Melanie (Raven-Symone’)
gets waitlisted by Georgetown, the school asks her to come
to Washington for an interview in three days. So, the high
school senior impulsively decides to ride from Illinois to
DC with her best friends, Katie (Margo Harshman) and Nancy
(Brenda Song), since they’re already planning to drive
in that general direction in order to visit the University
of Pittsburgh.
However,
when Melanie’s overprotective father, Fox Springs’
Police Chief James Porter (Martin Lawrence) catches wind of
the impending all-girl road trip, he opts to drive his daughter
himself. With days dwindling down before her departure for
college, he figures that this will be his last chance to spend
a little quality time with Melanie before she moves out of
the house.
Besides,
the manipulative cop has an ace up his sleeve, namely, an
unscheduled pit stop at Northwestern where, with the help
of some undercover confederates, he’s hoping to talk
his daughter into changing her mind. What James never banked
on, however, is that his precocious young son, Trey (Eshaya
Draper), would stow away in the car, and bring his pet pig,
Arnold, along too.
This kookie
cast of characters keeps College Road Trip in motion,
one of those wacky misadventures fueled by an ever-compounding
comedy of errors. Unfortunately, director Roger Kumble (Cruel
Intentions) failed to include any humor aimed at anyone over
the age of about five in the film’s formulaic recipe.
This is a bit strange given that the movie isfeaturing the
theme of going off to college.
Anyhow,
before they arrive at Georgetown, the Porters and their anthropomorphic
boar get a flat tire, before having their car roll into a
ravine. Proceeding on foot, James soon becomes the straight
man for all manner of infantile slapstick, from being tasered
by a sorority house mother (Kelly Coffield) to falling off
a ladder.
Raven-Symone’,
at 23, looks a little mature to be playing a high school student.
But even more annoying is the casting of Na’Kia Bell
Smith as young Melanie in flashback sequences when there must
be plenty of file footage of Raven around at the age, given
that she has literally grown-up in front of the camera.
More funereal
than comical, with a universal message that gets lost in the
shuffle. Don’t tase me bro!
Fair
(1 star)
Rated G
Running time: 83 minutes
Studio: Walt Disney Picture
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