A road trip not worth taking

Rating: 4/10 (20 June 2009)

Family road trip movie revolving around a children's beauty pageant is rated R, so it will not be to everyone's taste. Decent cast -- Greg Kinnear is the dad and and Alan Arkin is the granddad == but few laughs and frankly, I felt everyone tried much too hard. Toni Coillette as the mom is just plain annoying. SUNSHINE is clearly an indie, so it will appeal largely to that mindset, and not the mainstream audience. And again, it is an R, even after it is cleaned up for TV. The finale is bizarre, to say the least, and doesn't come off the way I suspect the directors intended. It is, frankly, embarrassing. After awhile, you kind of wish the dilapidated vehicle the family is riding in from their home in Albuquerque to the pageant in Redondo Beach would blow up. With them in it.