Though, I can respect Mr. Cube for wanting to think outside the box, someone never told him that a disgruntled man around bratty kids is not. If Cube wanted to think outside the box, he should have thought in the lines of independent film, or documentary. But then, this is the man that starred in the “Friday” films, so it’s all relative. Cube who has his own production company has yet to turn out anything original and this is never really any different.
A man who hates kids, falls for a woman who has kids, he has to take them across country, they fight, find common ground and like one another. All of this includes vomiting, a ridiculously forced musical number, bad physical comedy, and a talking bobble head doll (?). Was I the only one spooked out by the talking bobble head doll or what? And man, man did I hate these kids. The writing is bad enough for the creators to never display a redeeming feature in these two children. They’re spoiled, snotty, obnoxious and very loud, while Nia Long has a bit part as an obnoxious mother who comes off as a flirtatious manipulator who palms her kids off on Cube’s poor sucker of a character just so she can get away from them.
Why would a respectable mother leave her children with a man she barely knows, who bats at kids violently in his store? It makes no sense. Long barely has a role to call her own while these kids torture Cube’s schmuck of a lead character. I never found anyone even remotely likable, and it just goes completely downhill from the very beginning. “Are We There Yet?” is a comedy that exercises all the makings of a Cube family vehicle, and lacks in comedy, wit, or genuine humanity. It’s a waste of time, and a horrendous attempt at family fodder.