Yours, Mine and Ours

A remake of the 1968 Lucille Ball/Henry Fonda film of the same name, this lacklustre comedy retains its dated set-up to uninspiring effect. Dennis Quaid is Frank, an officious widowed coastguard with eight kids. Moving back to his home town, he falls for childhood sweetheart Helen (Rene Russo), a handbag designer who has – wait for it – ten kids. But despite the military-father-meets-freethinking-maternal-type set-up, this is less ‘The Sound of Music’ than ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’ meets ‘The Pacifier’. The culture clash between Helen’s hippy child-rearing methods and Frank’s discipline is clumsily handled and the plot has little direction. The supposed obstacle to Frank and Helen’s successful marriage is the group of mischievous children, but they’re far too easily won over and – worse still – not funny. We’re left in little doubt as to the film’s conclusion, and with very little to entertain us along the way. Another pointless remake with a cast who should know better.