The Parent Trap (1998)

Fun fact about me: I’m a huge fan of Lindsay Lohan when she was a young actress even up to her teenage roles, probably ends around Mean Girls. I remember that I have no idea how I landed on watching The Parent Trap when I was young but it was long enough ago for me to not really remember too much of it. This was a pretty fresh watch. However, I’m big on these twin movies. I still love It Takes Two to absolute bits. After a month of horror, its high time for some more family fun sort of movies. I was saying that it was teen comedies but I think the correct term of it is family features mostly in November. Sometimes, we just gotta take it easy especially when my mind is in high panic phase or at least it will be soon if it hasn’t already.

Let’s check it out!

The Parent Trap (1998)

Director: Nancy Meyers

Cast: Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Quaid, Natasha Richardson, Elaine Hendrix, Lisa Ann Walter, Simon Kunz

Identical twins Annie and Hallie, separated at birth and each raised by one of their biological parents later they discover each other for the first time at summer camp and make a plan to bring their wayward parents back together.- IMDB

The best way to start this write-up is to first say that I haven’t watched the original The Parent Trap so I’m taking this one as a standalone, which it should be, even if it is a remake. The Parent Trap is kind of your cliche family movie. In many ways, I prefer It Takes Two over it if we were to compare, especially since there are many similarities between the two and I like the Olsen twins a tad more than a double of Lindsay Lohan. However, she does do a great job especially realizing that at a young age, she could do the British accent and the normal, plus there was some pretty fun parts. The Parent Trap isn’t a long movie either and carries some pretty entertaining times.

First of all, the cast is pretty good. Playing the father is Dennis Quaid who I do enjoy watching from time to time. Oddly, most of them are family films, except for Vantage Point. However, the fun isn’t exactly with these two adults meeting again and rekindling their love in a few days and putting all differences aside. The over the top character of Meredith, makes for some funny moments especially when she reacts quite funnily and as annoying as this character would be in real life, it offers a comedic element. My favorite character, other than Lindsay Lohans, have to go to the characters Chessy and Martin (portrayed by Lisa Ann Walter and Simon Kunz respectively) because they play the father’s sister and the butler on the mom’s side and was the adults pulling the strings and they were just hilarious together.

The Parent Trap does have some fun characters and that really elevate the movie quite a bit. The very young Lindsay Lohan is remarkable and cute. Probably one of the extremely shining moments of this rather cliche movie. In fact, having two Lindsay Lohans here shows the diversity of her acting. She doesn’t come off as bratty either. In fact, we actually can see the innocence of the two little girls here who really are hidden in the dark about having a twin and then not really understanding what made their parents fall apart but having that immense desire to put them back together since they are single still. Life (and love) is more complicated than that but the simplicity of Hallie and Annie does make for many fun moments.

Most family movies work with a formula, and The Parent Trap is no different. However, it is surprisingly entertaining and has lots of great moments. Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Quaid, and the other cast are all having fun with their respective roles and giving us some cool characters. In that end, that is what matters, right? Lots of movies are formulaic, especially with the amount of sequels and remakes that we get in one year nowadays, but the feeling we get out of some of these family movies carry weight. The Parent Trap is a at many times not only fun but has its fair share of heartwarming moments as well.

Have you seen The Parent Trap? How about the original? How do they compare?

Netflix A-Z: Yours, Mine and Ours (2005)

We’re almost done our first round of Netflix A-Z! I’ve been uber diverting from the original list.  I like being spontaneous so you know what, we’ll just let it flow.  I’ve been craving family comedy and Rene Russo and Dennis Quaid are cool.  This one looks like a bucket of fun and mischief. I’ve been one to love movies (when I was younger) like It Takes Two or The Parent Trap.  I have revisited the former this year and I still thought it was entertaining.  So, Its not a surprise that Yours, Mine and Ours seems like something right up my alley.

Let’s check it out! 🙂

Yours, Mine & Ours (2005)

Director: Raja Gosnell

Cast: Dennis Quaid, Rene Russo, Sean Faris, Danielle Panabaker, Katja Pevec, Drake Bell, Andrew Vo, Nicholas Roget-King, Linda Hunt

A widowed Coast Guard Admiral and a widow handbag designer fall in love and marry, much to the dismay of her 10 and his 8 children.-IMDB

I think the first thing I need to set straight is that when faced with family comedies, I’m very forgiving.  I expect that its predictable and that the humor is usually based on mischief and mishaps.  Yours, Mine and Ours is really no different.  It has all the tropes that you’d expect and the same with the storyline.  But like I said, I’m forgiving so its only met my expectations to just have fun with it. This family comedy is far from some of the best that I’d watch over and over again but I particularly love that there were some surprise younger appearances that I didn’t know was in this movie. I’ll touch on this when I discuss characters later.  The story might not be all that awesome but the kids are awesome.  They are a lot of fun to watch.

There’s nothing like creating two opposite characters to fall in love and meshing their different family values and habits together then adding 18 children into the mix. Mess versus order being the main thing. Its about finding a balance but its also that relationships aren’t built in a second.  It takes time and the same goal and you know its going to happen the same for these characters.  The kids are going to subconsciously get along and bond as they scheme to pull their parents apart and when they succeed, they will be the ones to try to mend it again.  However, what is fun are absolutely how this cast portrays the characters.  We know Rene Russo and Dennis Quaid already.  I don’t watch either of them frequently and honestly, I haven’t seen a movie of Rene Russo since The Thomas Crown Affair so its a totally different vibe here. However, the stars in this one are definitely the kids.  Its hard for me to say they are kids because it has some surprises.  Danielle Panabaker who is now in Flash, did Time Lapse and Friday the 13th remake, etc is in this and Sean Faris who is in Pretty Little Liars playing Detective Holbrook is also in this, playing two of the older siblings.  Watching them as teens is an interesting turn in events, more so for Sean Faris (although he was in Never Back Down) than Danielle Panabaker.

Excuse my ramble. I like those two.  Point is, the kids are awesome, especially the younger kids here.  You see the kid in the yellow shirt in the picture up there? He plays one of the younger ones called Aldo and he is seriously cute as a button.  And that is just the start. The shenanigans they pull may be predictable but still, you just need to accept this movie for what it is.  Its meant to be silly and entertaining suitable for everyone.  This brings me to the point that Dennis Quaid had some creepy expressions, especially one of his ending happy smiles. *shivers* And the dialogue he had was so cheesy and sappy.  *shivers*

Overall, there isn’t so much to say about  Yours, Mine & Ours.  Its a predictable family comedy.  Despite it being that, its exactly what I expected and wanted and its a nice feeling to come out feeling entertained. Its not great but the young cast here make up for a lot of the dialogue flaws in the parents and the whole “I’m not sure Dennis Quaid can do comedy” feeling that I was having.