My Brother the Pig

I was looking for Scarlett Johansson movies that I haven't watched and came across this one streaming on U-tube. It in general deserves its low rating, it isn't a particularly good movie, but it doesn't deserve the approximately 25% votes of "1" in the IMDb. I'd suggest "4" or "5" is more appropriate. It does have some redeeming qualities and seems mostly to be a kids' movie.

This came out right after her break-out role in "The Horse Whisperer", and of course now in 2023 we can look back at the large number of feature roles she has had. She has become a genuine movie star. So it was fun seeing her when she was about 14.

Her family lives in the L. A. area, she has a very annoying younger brother who often acts like a pig at home, his eating habits, his tendency to make messes. They also have a 25-yr-old nanny who is from a family in Mexico. When the parents leave for a trip bicycling across the French wine country, the kids run a bit wild.

The big event is when the brother goes into the nanny's room without permission, encounters some ancient voodoo artifacts, and is turned into a real pig, a juvenile one. So it turns out the only hope for a remedy is the take a road trip back to Mexico, to see if her old grandma can work her magic and turn him back before the parents return. And avoiding the local butcher as they go along.

Yes, much of the movie is very silly, and although they get into many binds most of them aren't that funny. The final scene isn't particularly funny or touching. But it was entertaining enough (on a rainy day inside) to see Johansson in a very early role.

Caught this on Showtime last month.. with kids, 8, 9, 13. They wanted to save it on our DVR so it must be good. I enjoyed watching it more than most crud that the kids make me watch (over the hedge, firehouse dog, Barbie movie) and the cast was like a whose who of Hollywood. Fun comedy, good animals and original. Good family flick. It's not going to change the world, but it's solid family entertainment that I could watch also. There's also a kid (Disney kid?) that is the smart kid that is really likable. Eva Mendes is fun, and sexy, also. Scarlett looks just the same as an adult. They are showing it daily it seems. Catch it.

I spent about a week of time downloading this film, knowing that such old films are mostly out of sources now. I saw the low rating of it on IMDb and I only thought that people might have underrated that film. I didn't expect it to be a great one like other movies with the little goddess in, such as "The horse whisperer" or "Manny & Lo", but I still paid that much efforts downloading it because my goddess was the #1 on the cast list, but only to disappoint myself a bit later. The film is basically worthless, and even my goddess's performance didn't contain any spectacle worth speaking of. The part I hated most while watching that film was when my goddess was looking for a "bathroom", walking gingerly with both hands gripping her pubic area... which was downright nasty and disgusting, IMHO. Yet she began dancing vivaciously right after a bath somehow.

It was only her brother "George" that was incarnated into a pig, but it seemed like each character in that film had got his/her brain transformed into a pig's, IMHO. The whole movie was pretty stupid, and rather childish even by a child's standard.

I rented this from the "family" section of my local video store, and much to my dismay, there was a large amount of foul language coming from the mouth of Scarlett Johansen. Her (and the rest of the cast's) acting was far below her performance in The Horse Whisperer a year prior. The only similarity is that once again she plays a teen with a bad attitude that gets overcome in the end. The plot might have been written by my 2 year old. It became painful to watch after a while, but my kids insisted on watching it to the end (we had to keep saying, "oh that's a bad word!" as the language was inappropriate for the under 13 crowd. Absolutely a waste of a dollar to rent!

Richard Caldwell (Judge Reinhold) and Kathy Caldwell (Romy Windsor) are the parents. Their daughter Kathy (Scarlett Johansson) hates her little brother George and his pranks. Matilda (Eva Mendes) is their nanny. Kathy is frustrated that George remains unpunished for his bad behavior. While the parents are away in France, George gets into Matilda's secret magic crystals and gets turned into a pig. They with George's friend Freud have to go to Mexico to seek help from Matilda's Grandma Berta.

This is a family film with a teenage ScarJo. She's perfectly fine in this. I like the first half like one of those silly body snatching 70's Disney movies. It's fine until they decide to take the little kid. It makes no sense even if his parents don't care about it. They don't even seek permission from the parents. A better premise would be him as a car stowaway. Then they split up for no reason and put the kid in charge of the pig. Something is wrong with these people. Also splitting them up detracts the chemistry between the characters. The second half is pretty annoying. Kathy turns into an annoying tween girl. Matilda turns into an annoying idiot. Freud is still an annoying little boy. They should have done a MacGuffin hunt instead. So the movie turns into a kiddie chase and it gets really boring after escaping the town.