College Road Trip Blu-ray delivers stunningly beautiful video and solid audio in this fan-pleasing Blu-ray release
Melanie is eagerly looking forward to taking her first big step towards independence when she plans a "girls only" road trip to check out prospective universities. However, when her imposing police-chief dad insists on escorting her instead, she soon finds her dream trip turning into a nightmare full of misfortune and turmoil. Dad wants to assure total security and safety for his precious daughter, while Melanie has a 17-year-old's need to become a grown woman and have her own sense of independence. Now, even as dad and daughter bicker, banter and careen from one disaster to the next on their journey, they are about to discover that, sometimes, going that extra mile to be together can forge a family bond so strong it can withstand anything—even wild curves ahead.
Call it an odd fascination, call it a loose screw, or call it some sort of need for self-inflicted
punishment, but I cannot help but want to watch family comedies like RV, Are We Done Yet?,
and
College Road Trip. Although
chances are high that such movies will scrape the bottom of the barrel in quality, taste, acting,
direction, and laughs, every time a new family comedy like this one comes out, my radar picks it
up
and stores it in my memory banks, eagerly awaiting the day when I might stumble across it on
TBS or some other station that plays these kinds of movies on a regular basis. In fact, I recently
fulfilled a desire to see a movie in this category, Johnson Family Vacation, when it ran on
late-night cable television a few weeks
ago. The film was as lame as I had expected, but when I
saw
it was on, I couldn't help but flip to it and suffer through the entire experience. Now we have
College Road Trip, a film about that special time in life when you traverse the country in
search of that perfect college that probably won't accept you at the end of the day, anyway.
Let's see them wait list my baby now!
When the film's main menu prominently features the sound of a flushing toilet, I get that sinking
feeling that the movie just might be worse than I had anticipated. Thankfully, the opposite
proved true, and while College Road Trip won't win any Oscars this year, it's a bit more
entertaining than your average family comedy (it probably doesn't hurt that I enjoy high school
and college-themed movies to begin with). College Road Trip stars Disney Channel star
Raven-Symoné as Melanie Porter, a brainiac high school grad-to-be who wants nothing more
than to gain admittance to her dream school, Georgetown. Unfortunately, her control freak
father, chief of police James Porter (Martin Lawrence, Wild Hogs) has been
waiting his daughter's entire life for her to attend Northwestern, a school 40 miles from their
Illinois home. When Melanie receives an invitation to attend a special interview for a select few
students who have been
wait listed at Georgetown, James decides to set out on a fun, father-daughter road trip where he
hopes to convince Melanie that Northwestern is where she belongs. With a couple of stowaways
and all the mishaps, wrong turns, and generally lame jokes you'd expect to accompany such a
journey, the film predictably moves along and revels in every family comedy cliché in the book.
College Road Trip wouldn't be a family comedy without a plethora of obstacles thrown
into the Porter family's path. A movie such as this one couldn't possibly be interesting if it was
played fairly straight and derived its laughs from the troubles regular people would find on such a
trip, could it? No, we need to have every conceivable problem and snag crop up along the way.
The entire movie is completely unoriginal and nearly one hundred percent predictable. For
example, the moment the Porters meet an obnoxious father and daughter on a similar college
road trip, is there any doubt how their fates will intertwine by the end? Nonetheless, where the
film sort of works well is through the chemistry shared between Lawrence and Raven. Although
their actions, dialogue, personalities, and obligatory sappy father-daughter coming-to-terms
moments are wholly generic and expected, they are played with just enough heart to make us
care and see this family mend and come together at the end. Such scenes come with the
heard-it-once-heard-it-one-hundred-times conventional family comedy "moment of honesty"
music, but because Lawrence and Raven play the moments as well as we can expect them to in a
movie such as this, the moments become quasi-touching despite their completely unoriginal feel.
What really bogs College Road Trip down is a completely worthless subplot featuring
Porter's young son, Trey (Eshaya Draper) and his chess-playing pig named Albert. Trey is billed as
a child genius who has developed a "super pig" and, when he learns that his father and sister are
preparing to visit Washington, D.C. (the home of Georgetown), he requests his father take word
of his super pig to the Department of Defense. Go figure that Trey and Albert sneak into the
family SUV and tag along on the trip, ensuring that we have about twenty minutes worth of filler
material as Albert muddies up the trip not only for the Porters, but for several unfortunate souls
they encounter
along the way as well. Honestly, these characters add nothing to the story except fifteen to
twenty
minutes of runtime, and while the child is undeniably cute, this subplot fails to add any heft or
prestige to the picture. The only reason I can fathom that this character was included in the film
was to set up a potential sequel in a few years as this "whiz kid" begins searching for a college,
perhaps this time he and his father will partake in a college road trip with an international flair
(Rhodes Scholar, maybe?).
Disney takes most other discs to school with an absolutely exceptional transfer for College
Road Trip. As expected, the studio that has arguably been Blu-ray's best friend has delivered
another first-rate disc in the form of this 1080p, 2.40:1 transfer. The image is crystal-clear and
offers a
very pleasing theatrical quality look and feel, complete with a layer of subtle grain and a
deep, crisp, sharp eye-popping transfer that makes straight A's. Detail is remarkably high and
provides a very nice lifelike look to the movie. The interior of the Porter household looks spic and
span, and every item the camera focuses on presents to us a realistic, natural appearance,
including the red couch in the living room, the wallpapered walls, and a lamp on a nightstand in a
bedroom. The house looks clean but lived in, a cozy abode that shines brightly on this disc.
Another fine example of the wonderful detail seen on the disc is in the green hat worn by
Melanie. Every weave and thread in it offers a lifelike texture. Various exterior shots sparkle,
too. Every shrub outside the house is highly detailed and intricate, and even the ones in the far
background never fail to provide eye-catching detail and clarity. Black levels are deep and true
with no apparent crushing issues. Colors are remarkably vibrant, but true to life. The movie
never fails to provide a wide array of color, from that aforementioned green hat to the various
Northwestern-purple clothes and accessories to the beautiful greens of the lawn and trees of the
various college campuses seen in the movie. I'm always impressed when studios deliver top-tier
transfers, even on their least-popular films, and I am happy to report that College Road
Trip is no exception.
College Road Trip enrolls on Blu-ray with a fairly standard-fare comedy style PCM 5.1
uncompressed soundtrack that is mostly front heavy. The occasional swelling of the score,
applause
from a crowd, or other nicety finds its way into the rear, but such instances are the exception
rather than the rule. The party scenes in chapter two are one of the high points in the track,
even
though they only come to us in brief spurts. The deep, pulsating dance music sounds fantastic as
it puts the subwoofer to good use, and the surrounds kick in, too. Dialogue is the primary vehicle
that moves the movie along, and it sounds perfect; every syllable of Mr. Porter's sarcastic
remarks to
his daughter, her high-pitched screeching while on the phone with her friends, and every squeal
from Albert the Pig is crystal clear and pitched perfectly. Bass rarely kicks in, but chapter six
features one of the better uses of it when a vehicle rolls over. The performance of "Double Dutch
Bus" is, from a technical perspective, the best-sounding few minutes in the movie, but as to
whether it is actually an enjoyable listen is certainly up for debate. College Road Trip
never
wows the viewer, but then again, the movie never presents any situations that would allow the
soundtrack to kick into overdrive. It does all that is asked of it, but demonstration material it
most
certainly is not.
College Road Trip enrolls viewers into supplemental features 101, a class headlined by
two
commentary tracks, the first featuring actress Raven-Symoné and director Roger Kumble. While
providing the essential background factoids and thoughts on the script, character motivations,
and
other pertinent details about the film, these participants remain laid back and affable, more than
willing to engage in a conversation with us about the College Road Trip experience. Track
number two features the film's writers, Emi Mochizuki and Carrie Evans. Two commentaries for a
family comedy such as College Road Trip feels a bit like overkill, and while the writers
maintain
a
listenable pace, other than some basic background on the story, much of the information feels
superfluous. Raven's Video Diary (1080i, 9:56) is a short piece shot by the film's star
herself (well, some of it) as she introduces us to the crew, actors, and the experience of working
on the set of College Road Trip. A music video entitled Double Dutch Bus (480p,
3:16), performed by Raven-Symoné, is next, and is followed by On the Set: 'Double Dutch
Bus' (1080p, 3:27), a short behind-the-scenes look at the filming of the music video. Ten
deleted scenes (1080p, 12:39) with optional commentary by director Roger Kumble come next.
Concluding the special features are alternate opening and ending scenes (1080p, 3:35), again
with optional commentary with the director, a gag reel (1080p, 2:47), and trailers for The Nightmare
Before Christmas, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and Tinker Bell.
College Road Trip left me with a smile on my face more often than not, which I suppose is
all I could ask of a movie such as this. Unfortunately, the movie is far from the perfect family
comedy (if there is such a thing) but it does rank as one of the most family-friendly comedies in
recent memory, and is appropriately rated "G." As short as the movie is, it could have been shorter,
but it works well enough anyway and should keep the youngest of audiences, and maybe even
those overbearing fathers and their college-bound daughters, entertained for the duration. Disney
brings College Road Trip to Blu-ray with a stunning picture quality, a serviceable lossless
soundtrack, and fairly standard helping of extra materials. Recommended as a rental for family
movie night.
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has announced that they will bring the Martin Lawrence and Raven comedy 'College Road Trip' to Blu-ray on July 15th, day-and-date with the DVD release. Video will be presented in 2.35:1 1080p and accompanied by a 5.1 24-bit ...
