Kaydan Christian
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
SnoopyStyle
Adam (Jeremy Piven) and Joanne Fiedler (Jami Gertz) have their son Benjamin (Daryl Sabara)'s bar mitzvah coming up. They attend Adam's former best friend and Hollywood agent partner Arnie Stein (Larry Miller)'s son Zachary's grand bar mitzvah. It's Brentwood and the Fiedlers decide to top it. Casey Nudelman (Cheryl Hines) is the planner. Benjamin has a crush on Ashley Grunwald and Karen Sussman is his know-it-all classmate. Rose (Doris Roberts) is his grandmother. He doesn't like his parents' outlandish plans and invites his wacky estranged grandfather Irwin (Garry Marshall) who is living with Sacred Feather (Daryl Hannah) on an Indian reservation.This dysfunctional family is wacky. Their problems are not that relatable or actually that funny. It's broadly sit-comish. For example, it isn't enough for Irwin and Sacred Feather to be hippies but they have to live on an Indian reservation. Everybody has to be wacky on the next level. I would also like to like Daryl Sabara more but he doesn't have quite the right adorable loveability. There is a nice message in the end but I would have preferred better laughs.
danmax
As a Muslim young man, i had no idea how the whole Jewish thing worked. After seeing this charmer, I wish i had had a bar mitzvah. The family reminded me a lot of the movie The Other Sister, funny, sweet, touching, mega moms. I think movies such as this should be shown to everyone, so we learn the value of understanding other cultures, like blatinos and koreans. I took a date on this movie cuz i thought it would get me laid...y'know what i'm talking bout! but then i just loved it so much i was crying with happiness throughout, and it kind of weirded her out, but i'm looking to find a nice looking woman who really understands these things, and doesn't talk too much, and likes good movies by this fabulous directors, who has on his resume gems such as Runaway Bride (a.k.a. Pretty Woman 2), Pretty Woman 1, Raising Helen, Beaches and Exit to Eden. Shall I say more? i wanted to buy this movie so bad when it came out on DVD that i considered camping out in front of the store, but Tammy said, wait. I ended up buying it at my local Blockboster for only 3.99! Keep it real, boyz!
the_mad_mckenna
This is actually a nice film, and probably a very good family film that you can let teens see and they won't be bored/embarrassed (like "cheaper by the dozen"). While it doesn't have any hilarious moments, there are plenty of funny lines, plus the sight of what i think are Gary Marshall's actual buttocks (heaven help us all). The casting is very good, and while the film might have been a bit shirt, it did a good job of fleshing out the characters. Adam Goldberg's cameo might be the highlight of the film, so funny you'd think it's the return of the "Hebrew Hammer". I don't think you can go wrong with this one if you're sitting down with family and friends, even more so if they're Jewish!
LigiaMontoya
What bothers me about this movie is that it SHOULD have been better: there's real potential. The characters were enjoyable, the idea was good, the acting was excellent. But the whole things was very unconvincing. It was a common plot: a total idiot has a conversion and sees the light. But for that to work, it has to be at least a LITTLE convincing. In this case, the "conversion" was entirely off-screen, probably because they realized that it was just too extreme to make work on screen. Everything was all solved at the end, in a way that was too pat, too sudden and too simple. So it comes across like a long sitcom instead of a movie.
