Hausarrest

House Arrest

Two kids are shocked when their parents announce that they are separating. As a last resort, the siblings decide to lock them in the basement and not let them out until their marital problems are solved. However, the friends of the children soon find out about what they are up to, and force their parents into the basement as well. Will the group of couples be able to sort out their relationships, or is this just one really bad plan gone wrong?

Okay, first of all, it's unlikely that the events in 'House Arrest' would ever happen, but the film is still frothy and fun. Even though some of the acting is highly irritating, the children (apart from the main guy) are very funny, as is Jamie Lee Curtis. While everything about the film is far too predictable and safe (even for a family film), there's an energy about the production that is impossible to resist. A guilty pleasure.

~ 6/10 ~

I loved House Arrest as a kid. The idea of a bunch of kids being able to lock their parents in the basement and party till they die is one thing that crosses a kid's mind every now and then.

Kyle Howard and Amy Sakasitz are Grover and Stacey Beindorf, two kids who have just been told by their parents (Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Pollak) that they're getting a divorce. Like most kids, the Grover and Stacey don't want their parents to separate, and can't understand why they can't just try to work things out. So, they come up with a new kind of anarchist therapy--they decide to lock their parents in the basement and force them to work out their problems.

A plan like that is pretty incredible, especially when some of Grover's friends get wind of it and decide to add their parents to the mix. And they don't get along too well. Grover's bully-turned-buddy, TJ Krupp, doesn't get along well with his father (Christopher McDonald) a loud mouth obnoxious attorney who cheats on his timid wife. Mr. Krupp consistently berates those around him, even while the parents are in their brief moments of enjoying themselves in the basement. Brooke's (Jennifer Love Hewitt) trying to reform her mom (Jennifer Tilly) so that she won't keep acting like a teenager. And Matt (Mooky Arizona) is using preventative therapy because his dad (Wallace Shawn), who has been divorced twice before on the second anniversary of each marriage, is coming up on his second year again. And, Beindorf's parents just can't seem to talk out their problems without getting into a fight.

While the parents are stuck downstairs in a cleverly assembled cage (sort of), the kids take advantage of their independence. A house party, a dinner party, etc, until Grover sees that things are getting out of control and their losing sight of their objective--to get the parents to fix their problems. They eventually wise up, and behave like adults, in a well-meaning, but wholly naive way to get the parents to sort things out.

The funniest moments arise when Roy Walston shows up as the former police chief and nosey next door neighbor. He suspects something's up at the Beindorf house, and the kids find themselves going to great lengths after a while trying to keep their therapy plans a secret. Russell Harper as the wild and crazy TJ is also a load of laughs, because once the bully, the other kids aren't sure how to behave around one another. Also, too, the kids start to confront their own problems with each other, which are normal problems that arise in the High School caste system. Grover, for example, likes Brooke but never admits to her how he feels. TJ accuses Brooke of being an obnoxious princess who never paid much attention to anyone considered below her status as the "Ice Queen." And so forth. And finally, whenever Christopher MacDonald blows his top as the irritable Mr. Krupp, you get some pretty funny sequences. There's just so much of Mr. Krupp one can take without acting out violently (but kid-safe violence...after all, it's a family movie).

It's a pretty good movie for kids. They'll likely enjoy the cast, though older ones could be old enough to appreciate the family problems that arise.

This comedy, about a teenager and his younger sister who lock their parents in the basement until they work out their marital problems, is not as bad as it sounds. We wind up with a bunch of kids upstairs who know how to relate to one another but gradually have to work out how to keep practical things running, and a bunch of adults downstairs who are just the opposite. In truth, neither side does very well, but at least this is not the tired condescension of the kids screwing up and needing to be rescued by the adults: both groups are portrayed with a mix of severity and sympathy. Throw in a meddling retired chief of police across the street, and make him Ray Walston whom I think everybody loved most in "Picket Fences," and you have a film that is very entertaining, and also carries across some deeper meaning about what contributions young people and older ones can make to each other's ongoing development. Kyle Howard was 18 trying to play 14, which took a good deal of suspension of disbelief, but that miscasting seems to be an obsession Hollywood just can't seem to grow out of.

In the suburbs of Defiance, Ohio a sensitive and idealistic teenage boy is so shocked and distraught to learn that his parents are getting separated that he recruits his younger sister to help lock them in the basement in the desperate hope that they'll actually talk out their problems and come to a rational solution. It starts out as a good idea, until his friends bring over their parents and lock them into the basement as well. Film's premise is far-fetched and protracted, to be sure, but it benefits from a talented cast (especially Howard), believable characters, and a good sense of family values. Not easy to take seriously, but meaningful and really not bad for what it is. **½

Frankly I don't understand why people like to say "this wouldn't happen in real life" to put down a movie. If all we saw movies about were things that happened, it would be very dull indeed. Imagine it: "Harry Goes To The Mailbox, Discovers Bills!" But I digress. For a kid's movie, especially one that never made it to the silver screen as another commenter noted, I think House Arrest is quite good. It's cute, it's warmfuzzy, pretty funny at times (if you can pretend to be the 8-year-old that you once were); it has well-spoken kids and an emotional message and plot, unlike a lot of trash that poses as good family entertainment (read: Home > Alone! Spy Kids!). To put it bluntly, it's good, wholesome entertainment and if you have kids you won't find it a mental sacrifice to watch it with them. If I ever have kids, I will put this on my shelf.