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Yours, Mine & Ours resurrects a 1968 comedy which starred Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda. This remake, with Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo as the parents of a modern-day "Brady Bunch" blended family, just doesn't cut it.

Peter T. Chattaway (Christianity Today Movies), who grew up with the '68 version, compares the two editions: "Alas, that moral sensibility—and the small, realistic touches that made the original film so endearing—are almost completely missing from the new Yours, Mine & Ours, which … turns the entire story into a series of physically painful pratfalls and extremely unlikely plot twists."

His closing words? "Young kids might like the film … and parents in a pinch might turn to the film as a babysitter, but really, that would be not unlike feeding your kids a bowl of marshmallows while the beer party goes on downstairs. This movie is every bit as junky, and that ain't good."

"It's refreshing to see a story that so strongly supports intact families," says Tom Neven (Plugged In), "and both parents and children learn important lessons about love, patience and the law of unintended consequences." But he can't decide who's supposed to enjoy this movie. "The Nickelodeon slapstick is not likely to appeal to teens. The conflict among the older teens is not likely to appeal to younger kids. And a bit of gratuitous though minor sexual content and some borderline language will likely have families thinking about whether they want to make Yours, Mine & Ours theirs."

Harry Forbes (Catholic News Service) says, "Despite a heart-tugging ending, director Raja Gosnell relies way too much on unrealistic slapstick. … Apart from some mild innuendo, there's nothing objectionable here from a moral standpoint. But you'll be better off renting the original. Even youngsters, we bet, will intuit the difference between that fine film and this dull, unfunny remake."

Lisa Rice (Crosswalk) says, "Audiences will just have to decide whether they care enough about the goal of family unity for this motley bunch, and whether it is worth the slapstick headaches to get there."

But Greg Wright (Hollywood Jesus) has a different perspective: "We can carp about Paramount's lack of originality; or we can be grateful that kids today can relive some of the fun that we enjoyed when we were younger—in the theatre, not at home watching decades-old movies on DVD."

Mainstream critics rate it among the worst films of the year.

Jonathan Larson's 1996 Broadway revision of La Bohème has been highly acclaimed, but now that it's come to the big screen, many critics wish it would go away. Rent, directed by Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone), brings back the original stage cast to perform music about the glories of love and the trials of AIDS. Apparently, the stage production is preferable.

Lisa Ann Cockrel (Christianity Today Movies) says the film's rebellious spirit seems out of tune. "For all their moaning about 'the man' and the injustice of modern life, none of the characters seems to be doing much about it on a personal level." Despite its big themes, she concludes that "it still seems a bit superficial. The dirty city streets are just a bit too tidy. The pain is just a bit too sanitized. The hair is just a bit too perfect. And it probably doesn't help that people are singing all the time. There's an energy in live theater, a give and take between the performers and the audience, a certain vulnerability, that can make musicals electric. Rent is a fan favorite on the stage for good reason … But on the screen musicals are more prone than most genres to seem cheesy, and this adaptation verges on Gouda."

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December (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49