I remember when Ice Cube was a scowling gansta rapper with a jheri curl and a big gold chain. If you had told me then that he would evolve into a successful, bankable actor and producer, I wouldn’t have believed you. But with several successful movie franchises behind him (Friday and Barbershop) as well as starring roles along side George Clooney, X and Y, I think it’s safe to say that Ice Cube has arrived. In Are We There Yet? the multi-hyphenate (rapper-actor-producer) is taking on a new challenge: children.

Are We There Yet? is a mixture of Home Alone inspired pranks and a children’s version of Planes, Trains & Automobiles. Trouble starts almost immediately when confirmed bachelor, sports memorabilia store owner and proud driver of a brand new tricked out Navigator, Nick Persons (Ice Cube) meets Suzanne Kingston (Nia Long), the hot single mother and event planner who works across the street. He is immediately smitten until he sees her two children, Kevin (Philip Bolden) and Lindsey (Aleisha Allen). You see Nick has a policy of not dating ‘breeders.’ But as fate, and a talking Satchel Paige bobble-head doll (Tracy Morgan), would have it things are about to change. When the children’s father backs out of taking them for New Year’s Eve, Nick volunteers to bring the children to Vancouver where Suzanne is supervising an event. The kids, however, are still holding on to the hope that their parents will reunite and they will do anything to keep new suitors from getting close to their mother.

Are We There Yet? is all about physical humor and sight gags. Director Brian Levant and screenwriters Steven Gary Banks and Claudia Grazioso get a lot of mileage out of pee, fart and barf jokes, which kids love. The gradual destruction of Nick’s Navigator was also the source of many laughs.

Yet, a kid’s road trip movie is about the kids and for the first half of the movie, I just didn’t like them. They were extremely sadistic and bratty and manipulative. Kevin was the brainy, asthmatic who, at around 8, still couldn’t control his bodily functions. 12-year-old Lindsey was the smart-alecky, eye-rolling, know-it-all. I wouldn’t have faulted Ice Cube one bit if he would have just drove them back home. Banks and Grazioso tried to make Lindsey and Kevin sympathetic by explaining their motivation (to see their parents back together) but these kids were so corrosive and so cruel that it was hard to empathize with them.

In the second half of the movie, there is a turning point, in both the plot and the kids’ perception of Nick. At that point, I actually began to feel for them. Maybe that was by design but it is hard to spend the first half of a movie disliking two of the main characters that much, especially when they are kids.

Like in Alfie a few months ago, Nia Long isn’t given much to do besides look amazing, which doesn’t seem to take any effort on her part. Fans of Long would be better served watching her on Third Watch where she actually is more than a pretty face.

At times, Are We There Yet? is a fairly intense movie with the kids being involved in several scary car chases and near-miss accidents. Yet in the end, I was surprised by how much heart the movie had and by the fact that I eventually did come to care for the kids. The families in the audience seemed to enjoy it as well. I think it would make a great matinee with the kids (along with a stern discussion of why kids should not play with cars).