Are We There Yet? (film)

Two rebellious children, Lindsey and Kevin Kingston (Aleisha Allen and Philip Daniel Bolden) sabotage the relationships of their divorced mother, determined to keep her single until their parents reconcile. Nick Persons (Ice Cube), a bachelor who hates children, purchases a brand new 2004 Lincoln Navigator and boasts with his beloved bobblehead doll of Satchel Paige, who comes to life at its own will – though only Nick can hear him. When he reaches his sports shop, he witnesses the woman of his dreams, Suzanne Kingston (Nia Long). On his way to talk to her, he is disgusted to find she has two kids, who turn out to be Lindsey and Kevin. Later that night, Nick runs into Suzanne on his way home, asking for a jump start because her car has broken down. After receiving an electric shock, he agrees to take her home, and once there, agrees to transport her wherever she needs to go. On New Year's Eve, he brings her to the local airport to go to Vancouver for a business meeting, but her ex-husband calls to say he is sick and cannot bring the children to the airport, leaving her to put her trust in Nick.

Once at her house, he meets Kevin and Lindsey for the second time and gives a pizza coupon for Lindsey and a corkscrew for Kevin. Kevin asks him if he wants to learn any Chinese and kicks him in the testicles and slaps him. Their babysitter (Nichelle Nichols) warns Nick he will fail as the kids bicker fighting over the front seat. They go to the airport to park, where Kevin accidentally damages Nick's car door. Nick yells at Kevin for having his car door damaged, making him cry, but bribes him with 10 dollars to make sure he doesn't get in trouble by the police. Inside the airport, Kevin learns that corkscrews are illegal to bring on planes. Unable to get to a trashcan, he removes the item in Nick's jacket pocket, which leads to Nick being tackled by security. After taking a train instead, the two kids jump off to collect a toy just as Nick boards, forcing him to jump off and land unsafely. When they lose their luggage, they reluctantly drive.

Believing Nick is only their mother's friend, the kids are tamed but still misbehave and show Nick no respect. At a truck stop, the two learn from one of Nick's friends, Marty (Jay Mohr), on his cellphone that he not only hates them, but also lied about not having feelings for their mother. Then the children have Kevin fake an asthma attack and lock Nick out of the suv. Lindsey then try’s to drive the car away but fails because of not know how to drive, then puts the car in reverse forcing nick to chase after them but he eventually try’s to stop the kids by trying to get in from the suv’s roof top. Being distracted Lindsey drives the car in a butchers statue causing the axe to fall on Nicks groan.Nick moans and coughs while crying. This signals to truck driver Al Buck (M.C. Gainey) that they have been kidnapped causing Nick to accidentally drive his car into the woods and down a mountain, resulting in heavy damage to the car, much to his horror and dismay, and ultimately running away to visit their father, with Nick stalking them on a horse but ultimately falling off.

Once they arrive at their father's house, however, they discovered that their father has not only moved on, but started a new family. Feeling betrayed and abandoned, they warm up to Nick, as he does them. Nick tells them his father also abandoned him. Throughout the rest of the trip, the three find themselves in several more mishaps, but each setback only strengthens their relationship. At one point, Kevin has to get an inhaler refill from a pharmacist working as a clown at a topsy-turvy children's New Year's Eve party, and during this, Lindsey reveals her music talent, singing a karaoke version of Aretha Franklin's "Respect". Back on the road, Kevin vomits on the car's windshield and then they pull into a rest area to clean out the car. While Kevin and Nick feed a deer some cookies, Lindsey accidentally scares it with a camera flash, causing the deer to fight Nick, resulting in him losing his keys. Because of this, Nick tries to hotwire the car using his lighter, but he accidentally sets the alarm off. After stopping the alarm, Nick slams the car's hood down, causing the lighter to tip over and set the inside of the car on fire. The car then explodes. Nick angrily blames the kids by pretending it was their fault, but calms down and apologizes immediately afterwards.

With the car now a heap of scrap metal, the family tries to hitchhike a ride from Al Buck, but he leaves Nick behind and drives off, still thinking Nick is a kidnapper. Nick hitches a ride from the driver of a billboard truck. To Al's surprise, the kids physically attack him in the van, leading to a chase that ends in Vancouver, where Nick fights Al, along with several men dressed as snowmen. During the fight, Kevin has an asthma attack and collapses. Nick rushes to his help and revives him. Witnessing the event, Suzanne believes trusting Nick was a mistake. After encouragement from Satchel, Nick goes to Suzanne's hotel to tell her and the kids say goodbye for good. After Suzanne realizes how much Nick and the kids have grown to care for each other, Suzanne explains that Nick is the one for her, and they kiss on New Year's Eve during the fireworks at Lindsey's suggestion.

• Ice Cube as Nicole persons
• Aleisha Allen as Lindsey Kingston
• Philip Daniel Bolden as Kevin Kingston
• Nia Long as Suzanne Kingston:
• Jay Mohr as Marty: Nick's best friend.
• M. C. Gainey as Al Buck
• Tracy Morgan as the voice of a Satchel Paige Bobblehead: Nick's prized possession and confidante, who speaks to him through his conscience.
  • David Barclay as the Satchel Paige Bobblehead puppeteer.
• C. Ernst Harth as Ernst: a truck driver who tries to help Nick save the kids from Big Al, but fails after Big Al crashes his truck.
• Nichelle Nichols as Miss Mable: Kevin and Lindsey's elderly babysitter.
• Sean Millington as Frank Kingston
• Henry Simmons as Carl: Suzanne's date who was scared off by Kevin and Lindsay.

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 12% of 116 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 3.32/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "This supposed family comedy starring the usually blameless Ice Cube and Nia Long has provoked most critics to write, Is it over yet?"[3] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 27 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[4] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[5]

In June 2010, Are We There Yet? premiered on TBS. The show's executive producer and creator is Ice Cube, who created and starred in the film adaptation. All of the roles from the film series are recast. Terry Crews, who previously worked with Ice Cube in Friday After Next and Lottery Ticket, takes over the role of Nick and Essence Atkins, who was in Half & Half and Smart Guy, takes over Nia Long's role as Suzanne. The show ended after three seasons in March 2013. Ice Cube has a recurring role as Suzanne's brother, Terrence.

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• Are We There Yet? on IMDb
• Are We There Yet? at Rotten Tomatoes
• Are We There Yet? at Box Office Mojo