dfortier5
Joined Jun 2005
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Reviews7
dfortier5's rating
This series has to be the second best series on French Canadian television. "Le retour" being the best. Both series were written by the same writers, Anne Boyer and Michel D'Astous.
The story revolves around a century (starting in the year 1900) in the lives of two families; the rich Desrochers-Mannings who own a summer home and the poor Belziles their closest neighbors. The rich and the poor's lives are intermingled in a realistic way.
Since the story revolves around the summer home over 100 years, more than one time line is followed at the same time. We may see one character as a child and in the next scene as an adult. The "future" scenes are intermixed wonderfully well with the "past" from the very beginning of the series. We see shadows of things to come in the past and shadows of the past in the future scenes. The eras merge together in a magical, brilliant way that helps us fully understand the story since the past in intimately linked to the future.
The characters are wonderfully coloured, as usual for these writers. The acting is wonderful and the visual effects are superbly convincing. This is a very different type of show with brilliant ideas. Anne and Michel outdid themselves on this series! Most of the actors are well known and do a superb job! All around an excellent series!
The story revolves around a century (starting in the year 1900) in the lives of two families; the rich Desrochers-Mannings who own a summer home and the poor Belziles their closest neighbors. The rich and the poor's lives are intermingled in a realistic way.
Since the story revolves around the summer home over 100 years, more than one time line is followed at the same time. We may see one character as a child and in the next scene as an adult. The "future" scenes are intermixed wonderfully well with the "past" from the very beginning of the series. We see shadows of things to come in the past and shadows of the past in the future scenes. The eras merge together in a magical, brilliant way that helps us fully understand the story since the past in intimately linked to the future.
The characters are wonderfully coloured, as usual for these writers. The acting is wonderful and the visual effects are superbly convincing. This is a very different type of show with brilliant ideas. Anne and Michel outdid themselves on this series! Most of the actors are well known and do a superb job! All around an excellent series!
I was the father of 2 when Passe Partout started. I don't know how I started watching the shows but I ended up loving it as much as my children! The line I remember most is "deux fesses qui s'connaissent" which was very provocative for a kids show in my opinion of the time. But we all loved the show nonetheless.
This show was so good for both parents and kids! The whole cast were heros to scores of kids. They learned and were entertained all at the same time. Much the French equivalent in quality and education as Sesame Street was.
They just don't make them like this anymore!!!
This show was so good for both parents and kids! The whole cast were heros to scores of kids. They learned and were entertained all at the same time. Much the French equivalent in quality and education as Sesame Street was.
They just don't make them like this anymore!!!
Aside from the fact that Yours, Mine and Ours 2005 can't hold a candle to the original 1968 movie, this new movie is not as bad as I thought it would be. Although it wasn't nearly as good as what I wanted it to be either.
First off, this movie has absolutely nothing in common with the real North-Beardsley story. The filmmakers never even bothered to contact Frank (who is now 90) or any of his 20 children to let them know this movie would be made, which shows total lack of respect, class and decency on their part.
The trailers and commercials don't do this movie justice. It's not really a fair representation of the movie. I wouldn't call it a 'family' comedy. It's more a movie for young children, although I find that Frank saying the words "pissed off" in front of the children was very inappropriate! And Dylan's suggestion that the parents find Miranda and Phoebe in lesbian sex was equally inappropriate and in very bad taste! Much more so since this is a kids' movie! The story itself is not bad, almost plausible, except for the fact that Frank & Helen marry impulsively. Forget the 18 kids, what responsible parent would realistically do that? The movie is very Disney-ish, which in my opinion is a good thing. The slapstick comedy may make some people laugh. I chuckled, but generally didn't find the movie funny. My wife found it cute.
What I didn't like is that it's very choppy. You get the feeling that they forgot to tell us something between this scene and the next. The slapstick scenes are too long and the "story-telling" scenes are too short. The movie would be much better if they spent less time on the slapstick and took the time to develop the kids' characters. It would have been a better movie had it been longer. I came away feeling like they didn't tell me the whole story, only the point-form story.
The small boys, Lao, Ely, Otter, Aldo and Ethan are extremely cute! That's the film's best asset! Of course the best line in the movie is by 4-year-old Ethan who says "I don't want to loose another mommy!" The Indian twins, Bina and Marissa were loud-mouthed pains, but I guess they did a good job, because that's what their characters are like. The middle kids, Naoko, Harry, Michael, Mick, Kelly, Jimi and Joni all were good in their rolls and had interesting characters, but they all get blurred together. Sean Faris who plays the eldest, William, was not at all believable in the role of big brother. He looked the part, but he didn't act it. The teens, Christina, Phoebe and Dylan were good and believable. It's just too bad we didn't get to know the kids better, because all of them had interesting characters.
Dennis Quaid plays the father, Frank, who is 48 years old. Sorry, but Dennis looked WAY older than 48! He needed a lot more make-up to hide his real age. He actually looked older than his real age, 51. He also is not at all believable as a military man. He doesn't exude any authority what so ever. All he knows how to do is blow his whistle and yell. That's not authority. That's someone who's out of control. They should have picked another actor for the role.
Rene Russo plays Helen who is also 48. She hides her age (51) well. She's also believable as a free spirited person, but she's not at all believable as the mother of 10. She looks too anorexic to have given birth to 4 kids. She also doesn't look motherly at all. The character Helen is also a big slob! "A house is for free expression, not good impression." Maybe if you're alone, but with 10 kids? Yeah, right!
The multiple animals were fun and in Helen's family it's believable that they would have several animals. But who ever thought up the idea of having a pig as a pet in this film is out of his mind! Who has a pig for a pet inside city limits? Come on! Let's get real here. The pig was way over the top, very obnoxious and really made the movie look cheesy.
I wondered what Linda Hunt, who plays the housekeeper, Mrs. Munion, was doing in the story. Can a family of 20 really afford a maid? Why would you even need a maid when you have many capable hands to help with the housework? I liked the character. She was funny and well played, but unfortunately she was totally useless to the story.
It may not sound like it, but all in all I liked this movie. It's just sad to know that the filmmakers didn't care enough about the project to put in the effort to make it a much better film, when it would have been so easy to do so.
First off, this movie has absolutely nothing in common with the real North-Beardsley story. The filmmakers never even bothered to contact Frank (who is now 90) or any of his 20 children to let them know this movie would be made, which shows total lack of respect, class and decency on their part.
The trailers and commercials don't do this movie justice. It's not really a fair representation of the movie. I wouldn't call it a 'family' comedy. It's more a movie for young children, although I find that Frank saying the words "pissed off" in front of the children was very inappropriate! And Dylan's suggestion that the parents find Miranda and Phoebe in lesbian sex was equally inappropriate and in very bad taste! Much more so since this is a kids' movie! The story itself is not bad, almost plausible, except for the fact that Frank & Helen marry impulsively. Forget the 18 kids, what responsible parent would realistically do that? The movie is very Disney-ish, which in my opinion is a good thing. The slapstick comedy may make some people laugh. I chuckled, but generally didn't find the movie funny. My wife found it cute.
What I didn't like is that it's very choppy. You get the feeling that they forgot to tell us something between this scene and the next. The slapstick scenes are too long and the "story-telling" scenes are too short. The movie would be much better if they spent less time on the slapstick and took the time to develop the kids' characters. It would have been a better movie had it been longer. I came away feeling like they didn't tell me the whole story, only the point-form story.
The small boys, Lao, Ely, Otter, Aldo and Ethan are extremely cute! That's the film's best asset! Of course the best line in the movie is by 4-year-old Ethan who says "I don't want to loose another mommy!" The Indian twins, Bina and Marissa were loud-mouthed pains, but I guess they did a good job, because that's what their characters are like. The middle kids, Naoko, Harry, Michael, Mick, Kelly, Jimi and Joni all were good in their rolls and had interesting characters, but they all get blurred together. Sean Faris who plays the eldest, William, was not at all believable in the role of big brother. He looked the part, but he didn't act it. The teens, Christina, Phoebe and Dylan were good and believable. It's just too bad we didn't get to know the kids better, because all of them had interesting characters.
Dennis Quaid plays the father, Frank, who is 48 years old. Sorry, but Dennis looked WAY older than 48! He needed a lot more make-up to hide his real age. He actually looked older than his real age, 51. He also is not at all believable as a military man. He doesn't exude any authority what so ever. All he knows how to do is blow his whistle and yell. That's not authority. That's someone who's out of control. They should have picked another actor for the role.
Rene Russo plays Helen who is also 48. She hides her age (51) well. She's also believable as a free spirited person, but she's not at all believable as the mother of 10. She looks too anorexic to have given birth to 4 kids. She also doesn't look motherly at all. The character Helen is also a big slob! "A house is for free expression, not good impression." Maybe if you're alone, but with 10 kids? Yeah, right!
The multiple animals were fun and in Helen's family it's believable that they would have several animals. But who ever thought up the idea of having a pig as a pet in this film is out of his mind! Who has a pig for a pet inside city limits? Come on! Let's get real here. The pig was way over the top, very obnoxious and really made the movie look cheesy.
I wondered what Linda Hunt, who plays the housekeeper, Mrs. Munion, was doing in the story. Can a family of 20 really afford a maid? Why would you even need a maid when you have many capable hands to help with the housework? I liked the character. She was funny and well played, but unfortunately she was totally useless to the story.
It may not sound like it, but all in all I liked this movie. It's just sad to know that the filmmakers didn't care enough about the project to put in the effort to make it a much better film, when it would have been so easy to do so.