Yours, Mine & Ours is less a remake of the 1968 Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda comedy than it is a reworking of Steve Martin's surprise 2003 hit Cheaper by the Dozen.
Cheaper tried to see how much chaos and mayhem 12 children could create when left to their own devices.
Yours, Mine & Ours attempts to increase the mayhem by increasing the number of children to 18.
Widower Frank Beardsley (Dennis Quaid) is a Coast Guard admiral who runs his household the way he runs his ships.
Frank's eight children are his crew and a happy ship-shape one they are.
Fashion designer Helen North (Rene Russo) is a widow with 10 children, six of whom she adopted before her husband's death.
Helen's home operates like a year-round summer camp complete with a pig and a gerbil as pets.
Frank and Helen knew each other in high school and when they meet again it's an instant physical and emotional connection.
They may be made for each other, but their respective households are not.
The Beardsley and North kids are oil and water.
The only thing they can agree on is finding a way to break up the marriage.
Quaid and Russo make a most believable romantic couple.
Even when things begin to fall apart, it's evident Frank and Helen are a good match.
The romantic comedy aspect of Yours, Mine & Ours is the best thing about the film, providing some gentle humour and sly comedy.
The slapstick antics of the children and their immediate dislike for each other feels as contrived as it is.
The animosity is a plot device to work in food fights, devious pranks and the impromptu rave the very day Frank and Helen go off to celebrate his promotion.
Everything is far too excessive.
These kids don't just spill one can of paint but gallons of it, so that everyone ends up slip-sliding through the mess.
With 18 young actors it's little wonder that only a few emerge with distinct personalities.
The teenage actors fare best. The youngest have to rely on varying degrees of cuteness.
The human actors don't stand a chance against their animal co-stars, especially the scene-stealing pig.
Director Raja Gosnell and screenwriters Ron Burch and David Kidd deserve credit for trying to make a family film that has something for adults as well as children.
Their intent is more admirable than the execution.
The script is not nearly clever or original enough and Gosnell's direction goes into panic mode each time he stages the chaos.
(This film is rated G)
