'Johnson Family Vacation': Cedric the Entertainer & SUV headline wild summer movie

Ebony, May, 2004

THE stars of Fox's summer vacation drama, Johnson Family Vacation, are Cedric The Entertainer, Bow Wow, Vanessa L. Williams and a hip-hop Lincoln Navigator with Burberry interior, spinning rims, video-game consoles and a running-at-the-mouth navigation system.

From the beginning, the producers say, the luxury SUV Navigator, which is "rigged to the heights of hip-hop perfection," was considered another character in the movie, another member of the out-of-control, disaster-prone family of Nate Johnson, who sets out on a cross-country trek from California to Missouri with three unruly children and one unsatisfied wife, to attend the Johnson clan's annual reunion.

Virtually ignored by his separated wife (Vanessa L. Williams), dissed by his rapper-wannabe son (Bow Wow), his Lolita-like teenage daughter (Solange), and his dreamy youngest child (Gabby Soleil), Nate Johnson is determined to make it to Missouri to compete for the Johnson Reunion Family of the Year award. But the center of the movie is the trip, not the destination. For along the way, the family is chased by an 18-wheeler-driver seeking revenge, taken into custody by police, set adrift in a cornfield and trapped in a hot tub nightmare.

In the process, there is great synergy between Johnson, who hates hip-hop and the hip-hop aspirations of his son, and "the hip-hop" Navigator, which was accidentally "tricked out" when he took it to the shop to get an eight-track player installed.