Order this DVD from Amazon.com

What can I say about Johnson Family Vacation? It's a really bad movie. Not the worst I have ever seen. Probably just the worst this year. The story is bad. It's been done before - and better (think Johnson Family Vacation minus the Johnson Family part). The acting is worse. And, for a comedy, I don't even think I laughed once. As a movie goer, I was generally offended by this movie. Not that there is anything offensive - just offended that this passes as entertainment.

Johnson Family Vacation is the story of the recently separated Nate Johnson (Cedric the Entertainer), who tries to get his family back together to drag them half way across the country to the Johnson Family Reunion so he can win the coveted "Family of the Year" Award. Along the way they encounter a number of different obstacles like Nate being left in a pool/hot tub without his swim shorts (see Vacation), they get into trouble with the police and a cup of urine (see Me, Myself and Irene) and pick up a psycho hitchhiker (see There's Something About Mary).

Basically, the whole plot is a recycled mess. There's more to making a funny movie than ripping off some of the better bits of other movies. And besides that, the movie seemed at times to be a forum to show off that Vanessa Williams can sing and that Bow Wow can rap. And don't even get me started on Shannon Elizabeth. How does she still get movie roles? She's a terrible actress - if you can even call her an actress. And it also seems she got some butchered plastic surgery. Forget 'There's Something About Mary'. What about there's something about Shannon - and it doesn't look right. Please.

Special features here include an audio commentary featuring Cedric the Entertainer, Bow Wow, director Christopher Eskin and producer Eric C. Rhone and another commentary from writers Todd R. Jones and Earl Richey Jones. The bad thing? This requires watching the movie another two times. The good thing? The commentaries are funnier than the actual feature. Listening to these guys try to convince us what comic gold we have here - now that's comedy! More features include a bevy of deleted scenes/outtakes with optional commentary, a standard making-of featurette, a trailer for Bill Cosby Himself, a TV Spot for the Johnson Family Vacation soundtrack and a public service announcement.

As I said earlier, this movie is simply a mish mash of bits from other movies. It's a complete rip-off, and it's offensive that this movie even got made. C'mon. Gimme a break.