The Guilt Trip

Road Trip/Guilt Trip.  Hmmm.... Are we talking about some kind of mother here? Actually it was a lengthy product placement ad for GAP, M&Ms, Costco, and K-Mart among other brands, but who's counting? Mom thinks her son should be married, he thinks she should start dating again. One thing leads to another and he ends up inviting her to join him on a trip across the country.

Our hero is a scientist who has developed an ecologically pure cleaning product. Problem is, he is a scientist, not a promoter, so he has set out on a coast-to-coast road trip in a last-ditch effort to meet various buyers for chain stores. What HE finds exciting, his would-be buyers find boring, so he's not doing very well. In the meantime, his mother is a parody of a stereotype, which becomes very wearisome very quickly; it's no wonder he won't take her advice.

We watch:

• Seth Rogan ("50/50") is our inventor about to attempt a chance of a lifetime. All of his savings and inheritance are at stake here.
• Barbra Streisand ("Little Fockers") is a house-bound "woman of a certain age" who jumps at the chance to join her son in a cross-country road trip. It's far more liberating than she expects.
• Brett Cullen ("Red Dawn") is the dashing executive who provides table-side moral support to our gal as she tries to eat a four- pound steak (so it's free) in Texas.

This is a road picture that has funny moments or it is a comedy about a road trip, either way, we were mildly amused, but that's about it. The stereotypical Jewish mother is waaay overdone and when her exas- perated son finally yells at her to "Shut UP!" we couldn't help but agree.  ...sigh...

By the way, don't be in a rush to exit the theatre, most of the fun was in the outtakes during the final credits.

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Here is a link to a preview:
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1898685465/
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