¡Qué familia... Qué desastre!

'House Arrest' is a really cute movie and hopefully will influence parents to think about things before just getting a divorce. This movie may not be the most realistic portrayal of how a kid would act when he found out his parents were thinking about splitting (ie locking your parents in the basement) but the reactions are pretty genuine in the fact that just about all kids have problems with their parents. Some things were def. over-exaggerated though, like when Grover (Kyle Howard) finds divorce papers in the mail and then 'flips' out by shoving a bunch of papers around and knocking stuff over. No kid, well usually, would be that mad about their parents divorcing (I'm sure they would be upset, maybe cry, but like wrecking stuff in some sort of manner, yea right). The acting wasn't bad, I thought it was pretty good all around. The story was funny and if your parents aren't like any of the ones in the movie, you probably will appreciate your own family more. I recommend seeing this if you can, it's on HBO a lot.

Now this movie was a good one seeing as though it did not reach the big screen. Jamie Lee Curtis leads an all star cast in this hilarious comedy about love, Hope and a little bit of luck.

House arrest a must see holiday flick.

I don't know why a lot of critics attacked this movie. What is there to attack? That's the problem with critics, they're always way too serious. Lighten up! No one said this would be Saving Private Ryan. It's not even Honey I Shrunk The Kids, but it's still cute.

I mean think about it, at one point (well, more than one) in our lives we all just wish we could lock our parents in the basement. The acting is not superb but it's cute and the kind you would expect from a movie like this. The one person I will hand it to is Jennifer Tilly, who really stole the show as Jennifer Love Hewitt's teen-like mother. Not bad at all, though not near to becoming one of the best. This movie will soon be forgotten but if it ever comes on TV watch it.

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