Stephen Herek’s “The Chaperone” is dreadful enough to make you wish Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was still making family movies. Wrestling champ Paul “Triple H” Levesque is a fairly painless screen presence, but his taste in scripts may be even worse than former WWE colleague Johnson’s.
A getaway car driver released after seven years in the slammer, Levesque vows to go straight, and tries to win back the love of his obnoxious teenage daughter (Ariel Winter) and the ex-wife (Annabeth Gish) he abandoned. Somehow this involves abandoning another bank job and joining the daughter as a chaperone on a school trip to New Orleans.
For reasons too contrived to explain, Levesque’s former confederates (led by Kevin Corrigan) believe he’s stashed the loot in the bus, and chase him around the Big Easy. Listlessly directed by Herek (who helmed “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” 22 years ago), “The Chaperone” squanders nice locations and an expert comic performance by Yeardley Smith (the voice of Lisa Simpson) as the teacher trying to supervise the trip.