Jamie
Yours, Mine & Ours is of course the classic buddy cop comedy film about Detective Frank Yours, a hardscrabble cop from the wrong side of the tracks. He doesn’t play by nobody’s rules and is all about cracking skulls. Detective Benson Mine is his worst nightmare. The preppy nogoodnick son of the mayor, he’s always got a wisecrack for the brass and a wink for the ladies. Ooooooh boy, and wouldn’t you know it they’ve been paired up to solve a series of mysterious serial murders. And oh ho, what’s this? They have to do all this all while taking care of Baby Dudley Ours, the only survivor of the latest grisly murder who may hold the key to the whole thing…. Alright, fine, that’s not what the film is about. Let me break it down for you:
Alright I gotta give it to you, the original film was quite charming in kinda of a quaint, plotless kind of way and in fact the first thirty minutes of the new one was also kinda charming. Was it super weird that Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo reconnect in their hometown of New London, CT and then after seeing each other at their high school reunion get married? And I don’t mean, hey we should get married sometime, let’s plan a wedding. I mean they apparently come home from the reunion married and their kids are understandably like ‘WTF, mate?’ Yes it was very weird and confusing. Still, it was kinda nice that a couple of older people who lost their spouses could find a future together.
That’s where it ends for me. I can’t stand these types of unpleasant films where people are pitted against each other for the “amusement” of the audience. What’s worse is that the kids all gang up on poor mismatched Russo and Quaid and make them hate each other. Are they perfect for each other? Hell no. In fact the kids seem to be the only adults in the room that realize that they make no sense together and that maybe their rush to the altar was a bit misguided. Does that mean I’ll find the dissolution of their marriage a barrel of laughs? Nope. They may not make logical sense with each other, but do you know what does make sense? A couple of silver fox/cougar hotties enjoying each others’ company… you know, sexually. So get with the program, kids.
So, I think we can all agree that this was a torture chamber of horrors that should never have been made. Too harsh? Well, fine, that they took a perfectly fine original film and turned it into a generic comedy complete with free-spirits pitted against conservatives. Much like The Break-Up before it they seem to find all their humor in people fighting. It had only one redeeming thing about it: a scene where one of the kids, fresh off successfully breaking up their parents, asks if his siblings would enjoy some delicious double stuf oreos. I didn’t laugh much, but I laughed at that. Patrick?
Patrick
‘Ello everyone! Yours, Mine & Ours (2005)? More like Poor Idle Hours … uh, amirite? I don’t think I am actually, that is gibberish. Back in 2005 some film executive asked their assistant to watch the original Yours, Mine and Ours and tell him about it. That assistant called it a “really pleasant story about two compatible people who fall in love and have a big family.” And the executive, crestfallen, looked up and said “Well, I suppose we’ll just have to make them an odd couple and have everyone hate each other.” Let’s go!
- A remake of a very pleasant film is made decidedly unpleasant. The story of film production in the 00s.
- Whole story elements make no sense. They impulsively get married on a whim without telling anyone? Even weirder Frank knows he’s probably going to be moving to Washington D.C. and doesn’t seem to remember that for half the film? And weirder still he ends up getting the promotion after being at the Coast Guard academy for only a few months? None of this adds up!
- Hawk Nelson is the band at the party that Drake Bell is pretending to be a guitarist for, in case anyone is curious.
- You can tell this was a much longer film that was then cut to about 80 minutes to form a vaguely coherent story. Jerry O’Connell and David Koechner play major roles in the first third of the film and then disappear to only appear for a split second riiiiiight at the end of the film.
- Brought to you by sailing. Amazing how quickly Frank gets his sailing boat from San Diego to Connecticut … unless there is supposed to be more time passing. Impossible to tell. Mark of good storytelling.
- Unbelievable Product Placement (What?) for the aforementioned Oreos. Pretty nice Setting as a Character (Where?) for New London, Connecticut. And Worst Twist (How?) for Chekov’s Lighthouse Story paying off in the end. Definitely a Bad unpleasant no-good film.
- Can you tell I didn’t like this film? Amazingly the original is pretty good, if a bit old fashioned. There isn’t really much drama (beyond a decision as to whether they will adopt each other’s kids), but there is a lot of story and heart and the two leads seem to work well together. I liked it.
This needs a remake to the remake. Although, I suppose it would make more sense as a series. There are 18 kids plus two adults, but the stories can come in pairs. So 1 episode for the adults getting together. Then 9 episodes, each telling a story about how two of the kids get along / compete / interact. That’s it. Ten episode seasons, and you can mix and match the 20 people as you wish, but every season it tells 10 vignettes about this big family and them working together and learning and loving, etc. Nailed it.
Cheerios,
The Sklogs
Bad Movie Twins 