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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: 20th Century Fox
Salesrank: 13662
Released: August 10, 2004 |
| Our Price: $3.74 |
| Used Price: $0.01 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Buckle up for the wildest road trip of the year! Cedric the Entertainer leads an all-star cast in this hilarious comedy adventure about a misfit family trying to survive outrageous obstacles (including each other) on a cross-country trek to their annual f
Description of Johnson Family Vacation:
Cedric the Entertainer (Barbershop, Intolerable Cruelty) lends his stubborn, skeptical charm to Johnson Family Vacation. Though separated from his wife (Vanessa Williams, Soul Food, Shaft), Nate Johnson (Cedric) pulls his family together so that they can compete for an award at the Johnson family reunion. Of course, the road trip from California to Missouri--featuring a sexy but crazy hitchhiker, motel high jinks, and an afternoon in jail--threatens to split up the family permanently. The humor of Johnson Family Vacation is rambling and ridiculous--for example, Williams fools Cedric into taking his swim trunks off in a motel hot tub, then leaves him to tiptoe through the motel naked. But Cedric and Williams both have undeniable charisma; together, they carry this shaggy dog of a movie through its more lackadaisacal moments. Also featuring Bow Wow, Solange Knowles, Shannon Elizabeth (American Pie), and Steve Harvey (Love Don't Cost a Thing). --Bret Fetzer
Johnson Family Vacation Reviews:
Very Satisfying 
2008-06-11 - Johnson Family Vacation is a wonderful family movie and is very humorus, sometimes in not the best ways. It has a great plot and it has its quirks like any other movie, I would recommend it, especially if you're a fan of Cedric the Entertainer { who plays 2 parts in the movie } 4 out of 5 stars.
Sub-par road trip movie 
2007-12-09 - At their best, road trip movies can be transformative adventures (e.g., "Y Tu Mama Tambien"; "Midnight Run"). At their worst, they can just be unfocused, meandering wastes of time. Unfortunately, this movie tended toward the latter. Instead of transformation we get one-liners and sight gags, and not even enough of those. Also this movie wasted of fine acting talent, especially, of all people, Shari Headley, whom I fell in love with in the classic "Coming to America," but is relegated to a bit part here. Come back Shari!
Johnson Family Vacation 
2007-01-13 - Cedric is excellent along with the rest of the cast. Better laughs than a Chevy Chase run.
GREAT MOVIE
2006-10-18 - I THINK JOHNSON FAMILY VACATION WAS A VERY HILARIOUS MOVIE. I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE MAJORITY OF ALL THE BAD REVIEWS I HAD READ. MY GUESS IS THEY DON'T LIKE AN AFRICAN AMERICAN VERSION OF THE SO CALLED CLASSIC CHEVY CHASE MOVIE. THIS MOVIE WAS SO FUNNY ! I LOVED THE PART WHEN THE VEHICLE WAS PIMPED OUT AND WHEN NATE AND HIS SON D.J. HAD IT OUT ABOUT THE CDS AND THREW THE CDS OUT OF THE WINDOW. THE MOVIE BECAME MORE AND MORE FUNNY WHEN THE FAMILY WERE AT FUN WORLD AND NATE RAN INTO THE CHEF MAKING DESTINY'S BIRTHDAY CAKE HAHAHAHAHA. I ESPECIALLY LOVED STEVE HARVEY WHEN HE CONSTANTLY TAUNTED HIS BROTHER. THIS WAS A GREAT MOVIE I RECOMMEND IT IF U R HAVING A BAD DAY OR JUST WANT SOMETHING FUNNY TO WATCH.
stall out
2006-02-15 - **1/2
In "Johnson Family Vacation," which is little more than an all-black version of the National Lampoon Vacation movies from twenty or so years ago, Nate Johnson loads his wife and three kids into the car and drives from their home in Los Angeles to a family reunion in Missouri. Along the way, of course, the family meets with a series of comic misadventures that threaten to prevent them from reaching their destination.
Despite the derivative storyline, the early scenes in the film exhibit a kind of playful spirit that bodes well for the rest of the movie. This is due in no small measure to Cedric the Entertainer, who, unlike so many of the comics who appear in these types of movies, doesn't feel the need to stand apart from the material in order to draw attention to himself. Indeed, it is the laid-back, unfussy way in which he delivers his lines that makes them so funny. He is also blessed with an attractive supporting cast that includes Vanessa Williams as his long-suffering wife and Bow Wow as his mouthy but generally good-hearted teenage son. The movie even includes some clever little satirical jabs at the accoutrements and symbols of modern-day black culture as Nate, the traditionalist, who listens to `70`s soul on his worn-out 8-tracks, goes toe-to-toe with his adolescent gansta' rap children.
But as the Johnsons tootle their way across country in their souped-up SUV, we begin to notice that the film itself has stalled out. About halfway through, it dawns on us that the movie isn't really going anywhere, that it is merely playing out variations on incidents we've seen earlier in the film, and that the set pieces and situations aren`t nearly as interesting or outrageous as they should be. This is truly a pity because, given the attractive cast, we really want to like "Johnson Family Vacation" more than we ultimately do.
Still, all things considered, this makes for a reasonable diverting, mindless time at the movies, and Cedric the Entertainer's moniker has rarely seemed so apt.
