BUY THE DVD:
| |
Coming Soon!
|
|
|
SYNOPSIS:
| |
two people get married and have a combined total of eighteen kids and have a had time getting the offspring to like one another.
|
|
|
MOVIE FACT:
| |
the party band in the movie is a christian alternative rock band called hawk nelson.
|
|
|
RATING:
|
zero out of four possible stars
|
|
|
|
Family films have found forgiveness in past years for being too light on reality and too heavy on mindless goo-covered gags, but the 2005 remake of Yours, Mine, & Ours is a film completely lacking in any sort of charm of believability. It would be easier to believe the denizens of Middle Earth were alive and real than believe Renee Russo, Dennis Quaid, and their thousands of children constitute any sort of entertaining family. Due to the overwhelming lack of romantic chemistry between leads Russo and Quaid, the film must survive on a razor thin plot and countless Nickelodeon style gags and in its eighty some-odd minutes (that's sans-credits), it's difficult to find a film less deserving of the moniker, "family film."
It goes without saying that audience members older than the age of 10 will find a viewing of this film extremely tedious, but it would be an interesting experiment to see just how young a viewer would have to be to find sincere enjoyment in an hour and a half of obvious stunts, slips, and slides. Most of the stunts have the deadly combination of having been tried thousands of times before on film with the lovely addition of being blatantly obvious a good ten minutes before the stunt occurs. It's interesting to note the similarities between director Raja Gosnell's last feature film, the blinding Scooby-Doo 2, was equally filled with garish colors and hyperactive characters. In fact, looking at his resume, excepting 1999's Never Been Kissed, every one of Gosnell's films has been of the brainless variety.
But brainless doesn't mean a film can't generate healthy box office. Just look at the recent successful run of Vince Vaughn movies (Old School, Dodgeball, The Wedding Crashers, etc.). Dumb doesn't necessarily mean a box office failure. In fact, if it's done well, a film whose main purpose is sight gags and verbal debauchery can sell its share of tickets and have a healthy life beyond the theater on home video. But Yours, Mine, & Ours is pushed to the point of being insincere with its lack of believability concerning the familial relationships presented And just when you think the filmmakers can't throw any less interesting gags out, they introduce a giant pig.
How can a film with so much focus on a brood of eighteen children all seemingly affected with attention deficit disorder also be the product of such bland comedy? Obviously attempting to capitalize on the success of the recent Cheaper by the Dozen remake, even that fairly shallow attempt at family comedy seems leaps and bounds more impressive than this film. The movie should be held aloft as an example of a film whose creators went far beyond the call of duty in searching for the lowest common denominator for everything in the film.
From the dialogue to the characters to the plot (I hope I don't get hate mail for suggesting the film has a plot), it's easy to see the cold-hearted influence of a big-time Hollywood executive slapping together a film in two micro-seconds in order to capitalize on the success of like minded movies (The Pacifier, Bringing Down the House, Are We There Yet?). Rumor has it that the filming started in the beginning of April, and with its late November United States release date, that makes a short eight months that the filmmakers spent to get this beast to the screen.
With a cast of thousands, including performances from a bevy of unknown actors playing the eighteen North-Beardsley children, the Yours, Mine, & Ours of 2005 has none of the simple and natural charm of the 1968 version. Even though Lucille Ball was in her late fifties and was the mother of a very small infant, suspending one's disbelief for the entirety of that film was not something that required effort. The 2005 version is a trial for anyone unlucky enough not to be in control of the remote during its ninety minutes of disappointingly slapstick and hollow comedy. If family comedies are your bag, definitely catch the 1968 original at the video store, but leave this remake on the shelf.
Review by Kelsey Wyatt.
| |
|
