College Road Trip (2008)

When his daughter is offered an interview at a college in Washington D.C, over-protective father James Porter (Martin Lawrence) offers to drive his daughter from their hometown in Chicago to Washington D.C. Despite his good-intentions, James' interference and over-protective nature turns this road trip into something of a nightmare.There have been many road trip films over the years (all of varying quality), but none that I've seen so far have managed to be quite as annoying as College Road Trip...The underlying base of the story isn't actually too bad; an over-protective father struggling to let his child fly the nest and being unable to bear her being too far away from him. Deep, deep down there is quite a sweet story here, but unfortunately it's suffocated by a bunch of loud and annoying characters (Donny Osmond and his daughter were the worst examples and are two of the most irritating characters that I've ever witnessed on film). It's almost as though the filmmakers genuinely believe that by putting a bunch of unbearably happy people on the screen that this will somehow make its audience happy, but the truth is that a lot of these characters had the opposite effect on me; none of them felt believable and the relentless cheeriness and stupid dialogue that many of the characters were given never felt believable and a lot of the time it made me feel as though I was watching caricatures rather than real people. The film does seem to have all the clichés in the book; over-protective father, weird kid, rebellious teen who has awkward relationship with dad, but whom inevitably bonds with dad et al. The problem with this film isn't necessarily its clichéd approach, but more to do with the fact that the filmmakers don't make any of the characters or the dialogue funny. Character development is also a bit hit-and-miss; for example the weird kid is just weird and given no real development and isn't funny.The performances (if you can call them that) aren't up to much I'm afraid - but that's mainly because many of the actors are either shouting or screaming at one another. When watching this film it often felt like it was trying too hard to be funny and the more it tried the worse it got.There are one or two nice moments between Lawrence and Symone which prevent it from getting the minimum score, but other than that this is an unbearable, unfunny, loud and annoying film that would have greatly benefited from a less is more approach being employed.

I hesitated for a very long time to watch this flick because I was convinced it was a stinker but to my surprise it was very funny. I thought the chemistry amongst the cast was excellent and helped a lot too. So many times you watch these films and the family is so poorly cast but I thought all the actors they got for the roles were a perfect match (even the actress that played Martin Lawrence's mother). When I saw in the previews that the family had a crazy pet pig I thought it was ridiculous and silly, but once you watch the film you quickly fall in love with the cute piggy. I don't think there is anything awful about this film, it's a harmless good time. In my opinion, it also had a very good message about parenting, being a teenager these days and understanding each other. So few films have valuable family messages to take away from them. And from time to time you might actually find yourself tearing up at the sentimental parts unless you're cold-hearted. Frankly, after watching this I don't get the hate other reviewers and critics have towards the film. I can't remember the last time I've seen a really good teen movie - they make so few that are actually worth viewing. It's also one of the few recent Martin Lawrence films I've enjoyed from beginning to end. And Donny Osmond was TOO funny! This should be must-see for parents whose kids will be leaving and going away to college and are finding it hard to let go. Watch this Disney movie with the whole family and have a good laugh. I highly recommend it.

Let me get things straight fellow IMDb reviewers. I'm a huge Horror movies fan. i breath Horror.Why did I watch this movie? Well, I was traveling to another state so in the tour bus the driver played this movie. I prepared a playlist for my Sony Mini Disc filled of rock and more. Heck, I was traveling in order to attend a Faith No More concert.BUT FOR SOME REASON, I couldn't stop watching the movie. The reason? Martin Lawrence. I mean, come on, the guy makes the funniest places on earth! Everything I looked up to the t.v. the man made extremely funny faces and it was justified by the cheesy but entertaining plot.The plot should equal plenty of craziness involving sex, booze, vulgarity but as it's a Disney movie, it needs to be family oriented, creative, having watered down jokes, and featuring white comedy situations.I really enjoyed most of the clichés and I don't feel guilty.I really laughed when the Asian guy made a funny face before singing, or when the sorority house mother gave electro shocks to Martin Lawrence, the face he made cracked me up!Ahhh, I'm a goofhead and I admit it, I don't feel guilty about it, and I'm proud to say that I enjoyed this family oriented movie.Give it a chance, it has some family oriented humor but it's original and funny.

What a very bland movie, I know it was a live-action Disney movie but by half way through the movie I just wanted to shut it off. So how come did I rate it a 6/10? The last 30 minutes of the movie (not the last fifteen but the fifteen minutes before it.) There's one sequence that will literally move you to tears. The score is amazing, the timing is just right and it'll surely make up for the dull movie. Without that sequence, I probably would've rated it a 3/10. I know they try to make it appealing to kids, but if it the movie was more serious then I say we could've had a great movie. If you're looking for a good Disney film, then I say skip it. But, if your a father to daughter(s), I say see it - a lot of fathers can relate to this (although the movie is highly over exaggerated.) For a rather dull movie, it does have a lot of heart.