jimbo-53-186511 When his daughter is offered an interview at a college in Washington D.C, over-protective father James Porter (Martin Lawrence) offers to drive his daughter from their hometown in Chicago to Washington D.C. Despite his good-intentions, James' interference and over-protective nature turns this road trip into something of a nightmare.There have been many road trip films over the years (all of varying quality), but none that I've seen so far have managed to be quite as annoying as College Road Trip...The underlying base of the story isn't actually too bad; an over-protective father struggling to let his child fly the nest and being unable to bear her being too far away from him. Deep, deep down there is quite a sweet story here, but unfortunately it's suffocated by a bunch of loud and annoying characters (Donny Osmond and his daughter were the worst examples and are two of the most irritating characters that I've ever witnessed on film). It's almost as though the filmmakers genuinely believe that by putting a bunch of unbearably happy people on the screen that this will somehow make its audience happy, but the truth is that a lot of these characters had the opposite effect on me; none of them felt believable and the relentless cheeriness and stupid dialogue that many of the characters were given never felt believable and a lot of the time it made me feel as though I was watching caricatures rather than real people. The film does seem to have all the clichés in the book; over-protective father, weird kid, rebellious teen who has awkward relationship with dad, but whom inevitably bonds with dad et al. The problem with this film isn't necessarily its clichéd approach, but more to do with the fact that the filmmakers don't make any of the characters or the dialogue funny. Character development is also a bit hit-and-miss; for example the weird kid is just weird and given no real development and isn't funny.The performances (if you can call them that) aren't up to much I'm afraid - but that's mainly because many of the actors are either shouting or screaming at one another. When watching this film it often felt like it was trying too hard to be funny and the more it tried the worse it got.There are one or two nice moments between Lawrence and Symone which prevent it from getting the minimum score, but other than that this is an unbearable, unfunny, loud and annoying film that would have greatly benefited from a less is more approach being employed.

vchimpanzee James is the police chief in a small Illinois town not too far from Chicago. Melanie is his daughter who eventually wants to go to law school, but James is determined to keep her safe, and that means a college close to home. She does really well in a mock trial. Unfortunately, Melanie really wants to go to Georgetown, which is a long way from Illinois in Washington, D.C.--and she is accepted.Melanie's friends Nancy and Katie are going to visit a sorority in Pittsburgh where one of them has a relative who is a sister. They will take Melanie along, and it's a quick trip from there to Georgetown. And Melanie's Grandma Porter lives in the area.James won't go along with the plan. He tricks Melanie into going along with him ... to Northwestern. While there, they meet the most annoyingly perky father and daughter, Doug and Wendy. And James has hired actors to pretend to be former Georgetown students who had really bad experiences. Will all of this make Melanie choose Northwestern and make her father happy? No, we have an exciting and disastrous road trip ahead.And it involves Melanie's genius younger brother Trey and his pet pig. And a disastrous wedding reception at a bed and breakfast. And a memorable music video of "Double Dutch Bus"--supposedly Melanie's favorite song as a child, but she doesn't seem to remember it now. The video involves numerous Japanese tourists on a bus, one of whom has an opera-quality voice and really should have been given more chances to show her talent.Grandma Porter is not a feeble old woman. She has friends who enjoy life. Her son, of course, thinks she needs a security system that is much more complicated than necessary.And Melanie does get to meet up with her friends.Before it is all over, we see jail, skydivers, and lots more hilarious situations that don't need to be mentioned.Does Melanie make it on time? Okay, it's not a masterpiece, but this is a very funny movie.I don't care much for the pig, but the chaos it causes does add a lot.And there is some substance as James and his daughter have some deep discussions.It is a family movie. There is taser violence but it's cartoonish. And a sorority sister named Chris, who has a male-sounding voice, sets up what could be naughty humor but isn't really. Another of the sisters is Bobbi, which makes things worse.Martin Lawrence gives his usual performance, though it's not exactly his best. he's good enough.It's a crazy adventure.

devil_730 What a very bland movie, I know it was a live-action Disney movie but by half way through the movie I just wanted to shut it off. So how come did I rate it a 6/10? The last 30 minutes of the movie (not the last fifteen but the fifteen minutes before it.) There's one sequence that will literally move you to tears. The score is amazing, the timing is just right and it'll surely make up for the dull movie. Without that sequence, I probably would've rated it a 3/10. I know they try to make it appealing to kids, but if it the movie was more serious then I say we could've had a great movie. If you're looking for a good Disney film, then I say skip it. But, if your a father to daughter(s), I say see it - a lot of fathers can relate to this (although the movie is highly over exaggerated.) For a rather dull movie, it does have a lot of heart.

joemamaohio There aren't many 'real life' G-rated movies out there nowadays, and "College Road Trip" is a great film for families, but I can't get over Martin Lawrence. He plays an overly-protective father who wants his daughter (Raven Simone) to stay close by as she decides what college to attend, and when she gets an interview at Georgetown - 700 miles from home - he tries to sabotage her chances of getting there.Sure, he's playing the role as a father who doesn't want his child to suffer the injustices of life, and that's very admirable, but the dirty stunts he pulls on his daughter is just downright disrespectful to her. If he raised her right, he wouldn't have anything to worry about. But this comes from a single guy who doesn't have a daughter to send to college, so maybe some parents ARE this over-protective...mine weren't, but maybe there's others that are.Basically it would've been a lot better WITHOUT Martin Lawrence. Raven Simone did an exceptional job, and the pig in the film is just funny...I like pigs.Basically I'm saying it's a great family film, but not one you'd want to watch with your buddies. But then again, a film like this wasn't created for that kind of audience anyway.