The Review - AT THE MOVIES with DAN CARRIER Published: 21 August 2008
Martin Lawrence and Raven Symone take a trip
College plots familiar course
COLLEGE ROAD TRIP
Directed by Roger Kumble
Certificate 12a
NOT one for me, thanks – this takes a tired formula, the coming of age college comedy, and wrings its poor little neck. Melanie (Raven Symone) is the high-performing student who decides to tour a few colleges before she decides which one will have the honour of furthering her education.
She plans to take a gaggle of girls with her on this freeway-hopping, dormitory bunkathon, but her suspicious police chief father decides it sounds like far too much fun and hitches a lift to ensure nothing untoward happens to his sweet 17-year-old.
Dad wants his little girl to go to a university round the corner from the family home, but she’s having none of it, and wants to head to Philadelphia with her chums to check out the action.
The Disney “aah” factor raises its head – dad and daughter begin to bond as they encounter the odd mishap on route, and it’s not too much of a plot spoiler to let you know that Dad (Martin Lawrence) lets his little girl go, after a fashion.
This is not a good film. It’s not funny enough to work as a straight-up comedy and certainly isn’t smutty enough to sit alongside more “adult” road trip films