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If, 18 years ago, you'd told rapper Ice Cube he would have a hit family movie called Are We There Yet?, he would've sneered in your face. Yet here he is with that movie's sequel, Are We Done Yet?, in which Nick Persons (Cube, Barbershop, Friday) takes his new wife Suzanne (Nia Long, Big Momma's House) and her two cantankerous kids out to an old house in the country. Unfortunately, the house proves to have a few problems, and Nick finds himself at the mercy of real estate agent/contractor/house inspector/midwife Chuck (John C. McGinley, Scrubs), who before long is turning Nick's house--and his life--inside out.
The script for Are We Done Yet? is based on a classic (though little remembered) Cary Grant movie, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. While Cube doesn't have Grant's comic skills, he has grown into a comfortable and charming screen presence, and he gives this ramshackle entertainment a decent foundation. But it's McGinley who steals the movie with his truly bizarre yet mesmerizing performance. Aside from some pratfalls, Cube spends most of the movie staring in horror and astonishment at McGinley as the tall lanky white man walks a very fine line between comedy and schizophrenia. --Bret Fetzer
Synopsis
Rapper-turned-actor Ice Cube reprises his role as the everyman-sports-fanatic Nick Persons of the slapstick road trip comedy Are We There Yet? (2005), evolving from bachelorhood to domesticated family man in the hilarious home improvement farce Are We Done Yet? Now married to Suzanne (Nia Long) and stepfather to her kids, Lindsey (Aleisha Allen) and Kevin (Phillip Bolden), Nick decides to change careers, selling his half of a sports memorabilia store to launch a sports magazine. Just as he is about to get things started he finds out that Suzanne is pregnant with twins! Already cramped in his small city apartment, he decides it's time to move to the country, where he can raise his new family in more wide open spaces. They are charmed, and duped, by local realtor Chuck Mitchell Jr. (John C. McGinley), who also turns out to be the local inspector and general contractor, to purchase a beautiful mid-1800s house--a 'fixer-upper' on a sprawling property--complete with pond and guest house. But their dream home becomes a never ending nightmarish endeavour, and between Suzanne's pregnancy, Nick's magazine launch, and adapting to country life, it's not clear who will implode first, the house or the family.
Based on another RKO Radio Pictures film, Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), starring Cary Grant and Myrna Loy, Are We Done Yet? provides an entertaining look at how families cope, and eventually bond, through adversity. Ice Cube (Friday, Barbershop) and McGinley (Scrubs, Office Space) have tremendous on-screen chemistry, even though their comedic styles are quite different (Cube with his pessimistic and grimacing double-take responses and McGinley with his overbearing energy and game-show-host grin). Despite all the tension and some adult themes, Are We Done Yet? is a good, clean, fun-for-the-whole-family film.