In normal movie world, Are We Done Yet? would have been the first movie in this series. First, newlyweds Nick (Ice Cube) and Suzanne (Nia Long) would redo their new home, then Nick would take the bratty kids on a road trip.

Often vilified as one of the worst films ever made, Are We Done Yet? is far better than its pedigree would suggest. Mining the home improvement milieu has been done before, and if you've seen The Money Pit you know exactly what's going to happen here. Nick and co. will move into what looks like a dream house, but it will fall apart before their very eyes. A group of incompetant repairmen and contractors will attempt to save it. Nick will have a lot of drywall fall on his head. And the stress will cause much marital strife. The "original" spin here vs. The Money Pit: Suzanne is pregnant.

Well, it's admittedly not much to hang on to, uniqueness-wise (and in fact the film is a remake of sorts of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House). But it's at least lip service paid in the direction of originality.

For anyone who spends every weekend at Home Depot, Are We Done Yet? will at least offer a bit of "been there/done that" amusement, and if nothing else it makes you feel better about your own housing predicament vs. the mess Nick is in. It starts with electrical failure then moves to drywall, a rotten roof, plumbing, and even vermin. Before long, Nick's house is pretty much a "tear down," and naturally he'll try to give it a go himself to fix it up.

There's not much to carry Done, and its attempts to freshen up the plot mostly fall flat. Daughter Lindsey (Aleisha Allen) comes off as a grating harpy (and is even given an awful, out-of-key musical number in the middle of the film), and John McGinley's real estate agent Chuck Mitchell is only hit and miss. The gag: He's a true jack-of-all-trades, also serving as the town contractor, inspector, and midwife. Get it!?

There's plenty of physical comedy here but most of the gags fall flat. As a family-friendly comedy, it's passable but far from inspired. Unless your kid is forced to tag along with you to the hardware store every weekend, he or she probably won't want to sit through the whole thing, either.

DVD extras include a gag reel, two featurettes, and an interactive quiz.



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