Mad Families (2017)

Mad Families (2017)

Three families compete for a camping spot during a busy Fourth of July holiday weekend. Mad Families centers on three families - one Hispanic, one African American, one Caucasian - who find themselves sharing the same camping space on a Fourth of July holiday weekend. When none of them volunteer to vacate the site, they try to figure out a way to cohabitate peacefully, but eventually decide on a series of competitions to determine a winner. As the families face off in a series of hysterical contests, the brassy, biting Charlie quips and complains his way through the great outdoors, but ultimately, with the help of his fellow campers, ends up realizing what's most important in life.

Rating: NR

Genre: Comedy

Directed By: Fred Wolf (II)

Written By: Fred Wolf (II), David Spade

On Disc/Streaming: Jan 12, 2017

Runtime: 89 minutes

When comedians speak about Fred Wolf as a person, they’re usually very kind, describing his sharp sense of humor and general pleasantness. I’m sure Wolf is a gentleman, but he’s a lousy filmmaker. The screenwriter of “Joe Dirt 2,” “Grown Ups” and its sequel, and “Black Sheep,” Wolf returns behind the camera to guide “Mad Families,” which isn’t really a movie, but more of a loose collection of improvisational dueling and random characterization that’s occasionally broken up by childish racial humor. Wolf is credited as the director, but there’s no noticeable control over the picture, which basically brings a large group of actors to a single rural location and allows them to do whatever they want, no matter how useless and painfully unfunny it is. “Mad Families” is available to watch free online, but even then, it feels like too high a price, handing a chunk of life over to Wolf, who doesn’t deserve it. “Mad Families” is a low-budget production, immediately planting itself at the state park location, using a variety of actors to liven up the proceedings for what’s essentially a filmed play, without varied places for characters to explore.

Wolf can’t handle more than simple set-ups, depending on the ensemble to do everything with the screenplay (credited to Wolf and David Spade), which is little more than a Film 101 collection of family confusion and conflicts. However, before anything resembling a story can begin, Wolf’s sense of humor is established, which largely consists of jokes about race, with cultures crashing into one another over the weekend, inspiring tiresome jabs that reinforce stereotypes. Wolf and Spade have an agreeable premise for an adequate romp, but they insist on thinking small with the one-liners, inspiring agonizing predictability. “Mad Families” is a vicious waste of time for viewers, who are subjected to incredibly lame material sold at a painfully casual speed, shellacked with artificial sentimentality and poisoned by witless riffing. It’s a 90 minute example of directorial indifference, reserved only for those who found “Joe Dirt 2” stimulating entertainment.

I would give the movie a 2/5. #Moviereview #Blogging #Vigalcollective.