Film Review: 'The Carters Family Reunion'

It's 4th of July weekend, and that means it's time for a Carter family reunion. Problem is, this year, Errol Carter (Kenneth Madison) and his wife Angela (Reaco Boyd) are stuck in Brazil. Forced into quarantine after catching Dengue fever during their exotic vacation, it's up to their daughter Erica (Sophia Knolton) to gather what's left to the Carter clan and put something together in time for a proper Independence Day celebration.

As everyone works to get the food cooked and the house decorated, other dilemmas play out. Jeffrey Davidson (Bryan G. Thompson) embarks on a chaotic journey to make it to the reunion. Erica frets over her complicated relationship with Jeffrey, her one-night stand lover turned father of her daughter Sidney (Aniya Langston). Her brother Robert (Byron Adrian Shorter) agonizes over his future after a devastating breakup. There may be more sparks flying this 4th of July than just the fireworks.

The first few seconds of this movie brought back some bad memories from last November. The radio static almost felt like a callback to the horrid sound design of Thanksgiving With the Carters. While this movie's audio is nowhere near as bad, The Carters Family Reunion shares plenty of the original film's other flaws. The improved acting and more active plot at least make it a comparatively more enjoyable watch. To start with the positives, let's talk about the story. While Thanksgiving With the Carters was intent on being a boring collection of conversations and flashbacks, The Carters Family Reunion has a little more to offer. There's a greater emphasis on comedy than on the melodramatic strife within the Carter family. The humor is a mixed bag and there are still some lengthy stretches of nothing happening (the barbershop montage being the most memorable instance). But between the road trip of disasters that Jeffrey endures and the bits of hilarity to be found in the Carters' various conversations, there are more chuckles to be had here than there were in the previous film.

But a somewhat higher laugh count isn't enough to save a movie. It certainly can't make up for where The Carters Family Reunion follows in its predecessor's footsteps. The comedy may be more pronounced this time around, but there are just as many jokes that crash and burn as there are jokes that stick the landing. The gag with Jeffrey having trouble at the coffee shop--aka, an extended "millennial hipsters be weird" joke--goes on forever despite it being dead out of the gates. His stale encounter with wannabe hitchhiker Socorro feels like it lasts even longer and ends with an out-of-nowhere fart joke. If you're going to use toilet humor, have it make sense or at least do it in a way that's actually funny. Diajesma Orozco's flat-as-a-pancake acting makes the scene even more unbearable. What's worse is that the script hints at what could be hilarious future scenes, only for them to receive no payoff. Creepy tow truck receptionist Shawntaria (voiced by Stephanie Breedlove) is set up to make a physical appearance that never comes, and an incident involving Sidney and some fireworks is completely forgotten about.

WARNING: Minor Spoilers Below

As for the story, it's just as predictable as the first movie and contains another problematic storyline connected to Robert. In Thanksgiving With the Carters, he had to deal with a controlling father deriding his ambitions to be a musician. Here, even with Errol sequestered in Brazil, Robert grapples with his future now that his relationship with Opal is over. With Opal having been my favorite character from Thanksgiving With the Carters, I was more than a little miffed seeing the sequel derail her so badly. Not only does Kelsey Delemar not reprise her role, but Opal apparently went from lovable cinnamon roll to cold-hearted adulteress in the time between the two movies. It's a jarring and inexplicable development and Opal deserves better after how much heavy lifting she did carrying Thanksgiving With the Carters.

This leads to Robert's lazily written and slightly troubling character arc. It starts out fine, with Robert smoking weed with a friend and opening up about how he feels confused about what he wants from his future. He felt like he had to return to medical school (the career path his father was pressuring him to take) for Opal's sake. But now that she's gone, he's not sure what he wants to do. This could've made for a heartwarming arc about Robert rediscovering his passion for music in the midst of his wacky "hallucinating about dancing babies" subplot. But instead, Robert's career dilemma is dismissed in favor of the movie deciding all Robert needs is a new woman to breed with. I'm serious, the film operates on the belief that Robert has to have a woman at his side to "be a man" and that he's obligated to continue the Carter bloodline. I could buy those antiquated implications being played for laughs (after all, they're delivered by an imaginary talking infant) if Robert didn't end the movie dancing with a random woman who seemingly materialized out of thin air to act as Robert's "reward" for getting over his heartache.

The ending also wraps up the film's "central conflict" with no fanfare. Contrary to what the official synopsis implies, that conflict isn't about Erica and company having to hastily take over the reunion preparations. After the opening minutes, no one expresses any real worry about not getting everything ready on time. Instead, more focus is put on whether or not Jeffrey will make it to the reunion and on how Erica is uncertain about where her and Jeffrey's relationship is headed. Again, this could've made for an emotional character arc had the writers done anything with it. Instead, Erica and Jeffrey briefly fret about their romantic future before Jeffrey suddenly arrives at the reunion in the final few minutes to declare his love for Erica, which she readily reciprocates. Also, it's laughable how the movie ends with the Carters supposedly watching fireworks. The shots of the family looking up at the sky were clearly filmed when it was still light out--a stark contrast to the night sky seen in the fireworks footage.

Spoilers Over

The returning actors are just as good as they were the first time around and there are a few newcomers who are fun to watch in action. Sharon Gilbert and Pheola Epps are riots as Mae and Bee, with Ronald Gamble being just as amusing as Mae's better half Victor. Bryan G. Thompson brings consistent comedy to Jeffrey's only-funny-half-of-the-time reunion expedition and Philip Wrencher is adorkably sweet as Omar. John D. Gordon makes an unexpected reappearance as Dante, who has shed the nasty traits he had when he joined the Carters for Thanksgiving. Now he's joking around with the Carter men, is surprisingly friendly with Jeffrey, and is implied to be on amicable terms with ex-girlfriend Erica. Gordon works well with Dante's loosened personality, and speaking of loosening up, Sophia Knolton gives a very improved performance. While her screentime is greatly reduced from what she received in the first film, Knolton is significantly more relaxed as Erica lets her snark flag fly. Her onscreen daughter Aniya Langston is as stiff as she was before, but at least Sidney doesn't get enough time to start aggravating me again.

For all the improvements that The Carters Family Reunion brings to this series, it still succumbs to old problems. The pacing is clunky enough to have your interest waning, the story and humor are both half-baked, and the production values still occasionally slap you in the face with their tackiness. It's a step up from Thanksgiving With the Carters, but it's still a movie with all the boredom and awkwardness that can be found at an actual family reunion. Can the Carters pull off a surprise showstopper with their second Turkey Day feature? Stay tuned to find out...

Score: 3.5 out of 10 vegan potato salads.