A Timely Blogathon – Yours, Mine and Ours (2005) – MovieRob

This post is my first entry in this month’s A Timely Blogathon being run by Anna of Film Grimoire and myself.

Stick around to see (at least) one new entry a day from many of the talented writers who have joined us in watching and reviewing films under 90 minutes long.

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“[to Phoebe] Nothing says time to come out of the bathroom like: *Fire!* ” – Dylan

Number of Times Seen – 2 (23 Mar 2006 and 3 Jul 2016)

Brief Synopsis – A Coast Guard officer widower with 8 kids meets his high school sweetheart who happens to be a free spirited widow with ten kids and they decide to get married and join their divergent families together.

My Take on it – As many of my readers already know, I’m a HUGE fan of the original version of this film starring Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball.

I saw this remake about a decade ago and was pretty unimpressed with what they tried to do here.

A rewatch didn’t change that view for me at all

The main issue here is in the reworking of the plot that tries to focus much more on the views of the 18 kids who are trying to break up the family instead of the parents who are trying to join them together.

I’ve always been a fan of both Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo, but they have so little chemistry together here and instead of a couple who have so much in common (like in the original), they are complete opposites here when it comes to their views on life and on raising their kids.

This movie is yet another prime example of why remakes are completely unnecessary and in general a waste of time.

The original is so much better and much more entertaining!

Bottom Line – Nowhere near as good as the original. As much as I love Quaid and Russo they have so little chemistry together here.  The plot falters mainly because it focuses more on the kids than the attempts of the parents to join the families as one. Prime example of why remakes are completely unnecessary.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – This was the first film to be co-produced by Paramount and MGM. The original 1968 film was produced by Desliu Productions, which merged with Paramount the year before, so the film’s copyright was renewed by Paramount. However, United Artists (owned by MGM since 1981) has retained full distribution rights to the 1968 film to this day (UA once owned the rights to Paramount’s “Popeye” cartoons, and a few early Paramount sound features that had been sold to Warner Bros. for remakes). Columbia (which collaborated with Paramount on another 2005 remake, “The Longest Yard”) became involved once its parent company, Sony, purchased a stake in MGM. (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy

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