RV or Runaway Vacation[1] (also a reference to "Recreational Vehicle") is a 2006 comedy film starring Robin Williams, Cheryl Hines, Jeff Daniels, JoJo, Kristin Chenoweth, and Josh Hutcherson. The movie began filming in the Vancouver area and southern Alberta on May 25, 2005 and finished filming in December 2005. It was released on April 28, 2006 in North America. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 15, 2006.
Plot
At the start of the movie, Bob Munro (Robin Williams) is shown to have a very close and loving relationship with his young daughter Cassie. His wife Jamie (Cheryl Hines), says that things will change, but he doesn't believe her.
The film then cuts to approximately a decade later. Bob is now struggling with a dysfunctional family, with Cassie (Joanna "JoJo" Levesque) now 15, surly and sarcastic, son Carl (Josh Hutcherson) an adolescent weightlifter who likes Rap and Hip-Hop, and Bob is an employee of the fictional beverage company Pure Vibe in California. At a company picnic, Bob tells Cassie to make small talk with his boss Todd (Will Arnett). There, Cassie's teenage friend, Gretchen accuses Todd of making children unhealthy and throws her drink over him, or a 'vat of schmaltz', as Bob puts it. Bob is ignoring the possibility of him being fired, and instead looks forward to the vacation in Hawaii that his family has planned. However, at the last minute, Todd tells him that he will punish Bob by forcing him to cancel his vacation and give a presentation at the merger of Pure Vibe and the grassroots Alpine Soda company at Boulder, Colorado. With no choice but to accept for fear of losing a possible promotion, and not willing to disclose to his family the real reason for going to Boulder, Bob rents a Forest River Georgetown RV, which they promptly nickname "The Big Rolling Turd", and tells his family they're traveling to the Rockies. His family is reluctant to go on the trip, as they were looking forward to the trip to Hawaii, but go along anyway.
On their trip Bob and his family encounter many mishaps. These include Bob damaging the parking brake after attempting to pull out of the driveway, crashing into objects and leading the RV to run over a long row of shopping carts, flushing out a trio of raccoons with a stink bomb, and fixing a clogged sewage system which the RV manager Irv (Barry Sonnenfeld) never bothered to clean out from the previous tenants. Along the way, the Munroes meet another traveling family, the Gornickes, consisting of Travis (Jeff Daniels), Mary Jo (Kristin Chenoweth), and their sons and daughter, Earl (Hunter Parrish), Billy "Not Earl" (Alex Ferris), and Moon (Chloe Sonnenfeld). After failing to cook a meal, Bob agrees to have his family eat with the Gornickes. There, Earl develops a romantic interest in Cassie and Carl starts to like Moon, but thinking that the Gornickes are too strange for them, the Munroes decide to ditch them the next morning despite being invited by them to breakfast. Later, however, at another stop, they meet again and the Munroes think it is too unlikely to be a coincidence and believe they are stalking them. Again, Bob escapes the Gornickes, and further damages the RV in the process.
To disguise from his family that their vacation is really a business trip, Bob hides in the campsite's restroom, trying to do office work and e-mail his boss there. After Bob is distracted by Carl, a hitchhiker steals Bob's laptop from the men's room, leaving him with only a BlackBerry PDA. The hitchhiker is later picked up by the Gornickes' bus, but they eventually toss the hitchhiker out on the highway when Billy recognizes the stolen laptop. The Gornickes catch up to the Munros' RV, making gestures that they want to return the laptop. However,the Munroes purposely try to ignore them, and still thinking that the Gornickes are stalking them, they exit the highway. At their destination, Carl and Cassie meet three young gangsters at a playground, who act in a threatening manner. Bob scares off the gangsters by imitating their talking style (in the alternate DVD version, Bob imitates the stereotypical kung-fu master), leading them to regain respect for their father, and eventually the entire family begins to enjoy their vacation. However, needing to head to the merger meeting, Bob distracts his family by telling them he is sick and that they should go hiking without him; he then drives off in the RV to the meeting.
The meeting with Alpine Soda is a success, and Bob is invited to talk to the whole company the next day. Despite almost getting himself killed by taking a steep, treacherous trail to bypass a traffic jam, Bob gets back in time, leaving his family unaware. However, the next day the RV brakes fail again and it rolls into a lake. Bob lets it slip the true intentions of the Colorado vacation, and his family is upset by the news. Still needing to get to the meeting, a desperate Bob jumps into the lake to retrieve one of his family's bicycles to ride to the meeting. After Bob leaves, Jamie, Carl, and Cassie are picked up by the Gornickes'. The family is surprised that the Gornickes aren't all that strange after all, just as Bob catches him on the bike. Apologizing to his family, Bob is just about to blow off the meeting when Travis points out that they are just outside the hotel the meeting is being held at. Just before he leaves, Cassie tells Bob that she now understands the things he has to do for his family, which worries him.
At the meeting, Bob starts his speech and it goes well but then recommends against the merger, realizing that Todd would destroy a great independent company. This leads to Todd, Cassie and Carl getting in a skirmish and Bob is fired, but he decides to quit anyway. Bob also discovers that the Gornickes were people who only wanted to help. Later, Bob drives the ruined RV after it is pulled out of the lake. They are pulled over by the owners of the Alpine Soda Company with the help of the police. The owners, inspired by his speech, offer to employ him. Just then, the RV rolls again, running over the other cars.
As the credits roll, the two families are shown dancing and singing the song, "Route 66" (RV Style), at a party.
Soundtrack
The score was written by James Newton Howard and featured several members of the Lyle Lovett Band: Matt Rollings (keyboards), Russ Kunkel (drums), Ray Herndon (guitar), Viktor Krauss (bass), and Buck Reed (pedal steel). Alvin Chea, vocalist from Take 6, provided solo vocals. Additional music was provided by Stuart Michael Thomas and Blake Neely.
Several songs were featured prominently in the film including: "GTO", "Route 66", and "Stand By Your Man".
Cast
Box office and critical reception
RV grossed a moderate $86,892,180 in worldwide release,[2] and was panned by most critics and holds a "Rotten" score of 23% on Rotten Tomatoes.[3]
- "There is nothing I much disliked but little to really recommend." — Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
- "RV works up an ingratiating sweetness that partially compensates for its blunt predictability and meager laughs." — Justin Chang, Variety
In addition to these critical drubbings, RV was also the recipient of the Golden Raspberry Awards for the newly-created category "Worst Excuse for Family Entertainment".[4]
References
External links
