Yours, Mine and Ours Review

"Yours, Mine and Ours" reviews

Movie

Yours, Mine and Ours

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2009-08-24 21:02:02

Rating

1.5/5

Provider

CinemaSource

Review

This Thanksgiving, be thankful for two things: 1) you don't have 18 kids and 2) you don't have to see Yours, Mine and Ours. You've already seen it by way of Parenthood and Cheaper by the Dozen.

Story

Frank Beardsley (Dennis Quaid) is a widowed Admiral from the U.S. Coast Guard with eight kids and one hell of a regiment. In fact, you could call him downright anal retentive when it comes to raising his children. Meanwhile, his poor kids ardently hope that someday they'll land somewhere permanently. They get their wish when Frank runs into Helen North (Renee Russo), his former high school sweetheart. Helen is also widowed, a free-spirited handbag designer with 10 kids who takes a more relaxed approach to parenting. Deciding its fate they've been reunited, the two get married without their combined 18 children knowing about it. When the kids find out that their lives are about to drastically change, all 18 of them band together to break up their parents--but learn a few life lessons instead. Sweet, isn't it?

Acting

Watching Russo is always such a treat. Even grappling with a script like Yours, Mine and Ours, she manages to make the most of her eccentric, flustered character. Quaid, on the other hand, deviates little from the character he played in The Parent Trap, or The Rookie or any other movie he's been in lately. If you have seen one of his movies, you've seen them all. Thankfully, the kids are the best part of the movie, each of them finding a way to endear themselves. The youngest two kids--Ethan Beardsley (Ty Panitz) and Aldo North (Nicholas Roget-King)--are the most entertaining to watch because they are so young and naïve. Whether they are getting in trouble for something their older siblings put them up to, or fearing the "hammer" (aka the Admiral's discipline plan), they bring some welcomed relief in the otherwise stale comedy.

Direction

Director Raja Gosnell, best known for helming comedies such as Scooby Doo, Big Momma's House and Never Been Kissed, should know have known better than to try to resurrect and remold the Lucille Ball/Henry Fonda1968 original. It just isn't necessary. To start with, the story, which is based on the real Helen North Beardsley's book Who Gets the Last Drumstick?, isn't all that entertaining. It's also a little dated for these modern times, especially when we've seen the same material covered in far better films such as Parenthood. But at least Gosnell knows how to highlight the calamity of having 20 people together in one house--a house which also includes two large dogs and a pot-bellied pig. Yeah, a pig. Whether it's a paint fight among the family, or a party among the older kids, Gosnell puts you inside this zoo the Beardsley-Norths call home. Just be glad you don't live in it yourself.

Bottom Line

Hollywood.com rated this film 1 1/2 stars.

Movie

YOURS, MINE & OURS

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2006-03-27 15:30:36

Provider

Review

Proving the old adage that there's nothing new in Hollywood, Yours, Mine & Ours may have set new standards, being both a remake (the 1968 original starred Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda) and a rip-off. With Cheaper By The Dozen already into its second incarnation, this family comedy about two childhood sweethearts reunited in middle-age by when they have a whopping 18 children between them (her 10, him 8).

Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo play the odd couple, with their inevitable differences built into the situation like nuts and bolts. For him child-rearing is all discipline and military bearing (he is a high-ranking officer in the coast guard) while she errs on the side of relaxed, with a streak of hippydom.

This is something of a problem for the casting, since while Russo has "attractive middle-age woman" down pat, she's not to hot in the ditzy comedienne stakes for which this role cries out. The film trudges its way so joylessly through its predictable plot devices (would you believe the two vast broods don't get along, only coming together in an attempt to drive their parents apart?), which wouldn't matter in itself if the moments of slapstick weren't delivered with equal lack of relish.

Four separate studios came together to fund this movie. If there was any justice in Hollywood, that should be creating an awful lot of job vacancies very soon.