RV (film)

RV (also known as Runaway Vacation) is a 2006 road comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, produced by Lucy Fisher and Douglas Wick, written by Geoff Rodkey and starring Robin Williams, with Jeff Daniels, Cheryl Hines, Kristin Chenoweth, Will Arnett, Joanna "JoJo" Levesque and Josh Hutcherson. It follows a beverage company executive and his dysfunctional family who rent an RV for a road trip from Los Angeles to the Colorado Rockies, where they ultimately have to contend with a bizarre community of campers.

The film was produced by Columbia Pictures, Relativity Media, Intermedia and Red Wagon Entertainment. It was released in the United States on April 28, 2006, distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It was negatively received by critics and grossed $87.5 million worldwide against a $50 million budget.

Plot
Bob Munro, a successful executive at the large soda company Pure Vibe in Los Angeles, struggles with the whims of his self-absorbed boss Todd Mallory. His family — his materialistic wife Jamie and their teenage children, the sharp-tongued Cassie and the self-confident Carl — are also demanding, and he had promised them a vacation in Hawaii. Todd seeks to acquire the Alpine Soda company in Boulder, Colorado, and threatens to fire Bob if he does not promote the takeover, as revenge for Cassie's friend hurling a bottle of green schmaltz on Todd at a company luncheon in protest of Alpine putting unhealthy sodas in schools. Todd's demand on Bob forces the Munros to cancel their vacation. Bob, concealing from his family the real reason for not going to Hawaii, rents an RV and tells his family that they are traveling to the Rockies; Bob plans to make a detour in Colorado to secretly attend the meeting in Boulder.

The trip is marked by numerous mishaps. Bob's inexperience in handling the large vehicle results in him colliding with various obstacles and damaging the parking brake. During a stopover in Nevada, to the amusement of other campers, Bob must fix an unsavory clog in the toilet tank. The family also fumigates the RV with stink bombs to drive out three intrusive raccoons. During the trip, the Munros have several encounters with the Gornickes, a good-natured but exhausting family who live in their own RV.

As they approach Colorado, the Munros begin to reconnect as a family and enjoy the beauty of their surroundings. Nearing Boulder, Bob fakes an upset stomach and sends the rest of the family on a hike before meeting with the Alpine Soda owners. The meeting is promising for Bob and Todd, but on the way back, Bob gets stuck in a traffic jam, forcing him to take the RV through a treacherous four-wheel-drive trail. With considerable difficulty and a badly battered vehicle, Bob returns to his unsuspecting family.

Todd calls Bob and demands that he return the next day to repeat the presentation to the entire Alpine Soda staff. However, the RV's parking brake fails again and sends it rolling into a mountain lake. Through a careless remark by Bob, the family surmises his secrecy and reproaches him. Bob explains that he fears for his job and the Munros' standard of living. Determined, Bob retrieves a bicycle from the sunken RV, and he makes his way to the meeting alone. The Gornickes appear and pick up the Munros, with patriarch Travis saying that he will take the Munros to wherever they need to be. Along the way, the families bond; Bob catches up to them, reconciling with his family and the Gornickes.

Travis reveals that he took the Munros to the Alpine Soda headquarters, leading Bob to step in front of the workforce and pitch the takeover to them. Following an epiphany, however, he dissuades them and encourages their independence, aware that Todd would ruin the brand. In retaliation, Todd fires Bob on the spot, but Bob tells him that he quits anyway. The Munros, on their way home in their sodden and battered RV, are stopped by a police officer on behalf of the Alpine Soda owners, who offer Bob a job overseeing their company's expansion. The RV's parking brake fails once again, flattening both the police car and the company owners' car.

Production
The film began principal photography in the Vancouver area and southern Alberta on May 25, 2005, and finished filming the following August.

Soundtrack
The score was written by James Newton Howard and features several members of Lyle Lovett's band: Matt Rollings (keyboards), Russ Kunkel (drums), Ray Herndon (guitar), Viktor Krauss (bass) and Buck Reid (pedal steel). Alvin Chea, vocalist from Take 6, provided solo vocals. Additional music was provided by Stuart Michael Thomas and Blake Neely. Several songs were featured prominently in the film, including "GTO", "Route 66", "Cherry Bomb" and "Stand by Your Man".

Release
The film was theatrically released in North America on April 28, 2006, by Columbia Pictures, and was released on UMD, DVD and Blu-ray on August 15, 2006, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

The film grossed $71.7 million in America and $15.8 million in other territories, for a total gross of $87.5 million, against a production budget of $50 million. In its opening weekend, it finished number one at the box office, with $16.4 million in 3,639 theaters.

Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 24%, based on 122 reviews, and an average rating of 4.26/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "An unoriginal and only occasionally funny family road-trip movie, RV is a mediocre effort that not even the charisma of Robin Williams can save." On Metacritic, it has a score of 33 out of 100, based on reviews from 28 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of "B+" on a scale of A+ to F.

Justin Chang of Variety said, "RV works up an ingratiating sweetness that partially compensates for its blunt predictability and meager laughs."

Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film two stars out of four. He wrote, "There is nothing I much disliked but little to really recommend."