if you like that sort of thing. I suppose this movie is harmless enough, but there is no chance that it will go down in the annals of cinematography as one of the best movies ever. It is, at best, harmless fluff.
To summarize, this movie features the Olsen twins who, at least temporarily, appear to have faded into obscurity. I suppose this is an example of poetic justice since a lot of the people in "TGHWG" who previously had perfectly viable careers apparently have disappeared from the cultural landscape.
Besides these charming cherubs, the movie stars Cynthia Geary, Jerry Van Dyke, Rhea Perlman and others who will probably soon grace the pages of Biography Magazine's "Where Are They Now" section. Geary plays the twins' ineffectual single mom who can't keep her children from escaping when they think she wants them gone. A highlight of the film is Geary's dead-on impression of the late Boris Karloff while reading "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" to her children. Geary's character also apparently spends a good bit of the movie fantasizing about what her life would be like with a working class hero (played to perfection by soap opera star J. Eddie Peck).
Perlman and Van Dyke (in his most challenging role since "Coach") play bumbling crooks who are somewhat harmless, despite the fact that they are, in fact, crooks. To be honest, crooks don't come any more harmless than these two, who probably couldn't hold up a fleeing turtle.
The most unfortunate victim of this movie is perhaps Stuart Margolin, who plays a detective. Margolin's appearance here is particularly tragic when you consider he was a big star prior to this. He had even appeared in "Women of the Prehistoric Planet" with John Agar. Of course, "Women of the Prehistoric Planet" was hardly Oscar material, so perhaps Margolin was also a victim of poetic justice. Unfortunately for those of us who fondly remember Margolin as Angel on "The Rockford Files", he too seems to have since disappeared off the face of the earth (although rumor has it he is now working at a 7-11 in Des Moines, Iowa under an assumed name).
In short, watching "To Grandmother's House We Go" most likely won't do you any harm. However, it will take up a significant chunk of your life that could have perhaps been better spent doing other things, such as watching reruns of "Gadabout Gaddis" or cleaning your gutters.
