To decide how good a film is there are 2 primary issues -- the storyline/script and the acting.

The storyline/script here is pretty decent for a comedy. Obsessive husband/father inherits yacht...goes to retrieve it out of county...has to hire a skipper to sail her back to the States. Revolutionaries, pirates, gales are among the crises the wacky American family survives. But they almost don't survive the skipper -- Captain Ron -- Kurt Russell.

What sets this agreeable comedy apart is Kurt Russell's acting as Captain Ron. It's a bravura performance...perhaps his best.

In terms of the other actors, the only really significant parts are those of the family. Martin Short is very good as the obsessive father/husband. I enjoyed Mary Kay Place as his wife. The rest of the supporting actors do their jobs, and Benjamin Salisbury and Meadow Sisto do well as the children.

This is just a good, fun movie, with one great performance topping it off. Recommended!

Captain Ron is a real cheesy, but fairly enjoyable family comedy. Martin Short inherits a yacht and convinces his family to accompany him to pick up his boat and to have a family vacation. The boat does not exactly live up to Martin Short's expectations and the agency interested in buying the boat hires local Captain Ron to lead the voyage across the Caribbean. Kurt Russell gives a great over the top performance as our beloved captain. He is a likable, crazy seaman who at times borders on inept, but still gets the job done. Martin Short's character is an uptight weenie, of which our hero Captain Ron drives crazy during the course of the film. This brings to mind Bill Murray classic What About Bob?, where Bill Murray drove Richard Dreyfuss nuts while simultaneously winning the favor of the rest of the family. There are occasional nods to Overboard as well. I am not trying to convince anyone that Captain Ron is of the same quality of the classic comedies I have just mentioned. However, Captain Ron is still fun to watch and there are many far worst movies out there.

Splashy adventures in the Caribbean as a mild-mannered big city businessman suddenly inherits a yacht and talks his reluctant family into a spontaneous month-long sea voyage. Martin Short is the oft-frustrated family man, whipped and stifled by the corporate world, who almost instantly regrets hiring his polar opposite (a mostly shirtless, mulleted, eye-patched Kurt Russell) to teach his family how to control their new toy. Most of the fun lies in watching Russell do whatever he wants - flirting with the wife and daughter, teaching the son to drink and gamble, pushing the boat to the point of disintegration - which rankles the father who sees himself being replaced by a newer, hipper model.

There's nothing world-shattering here. It's a simple recipe that coasts on easy laughs and nice scenery, but at least it has a unique angle and a decent amount of heart. Short is vanilla and snobby as the leading man, prickly and unlikable, but that's how the character is written. Russell, on the other hand, pushes an overshadowing support role, one which could've easily been just as grating, into something more personable and endearing. We buy into Captain Ron's world philosophy because the actor also buys into it.

As formulaic, predictable family comedies go, one could do far worse. Bonus points to those who choose to lean into the winking urban legend that this is how Snake Plissken relaxes between escapes.