Kid... napping !

This wasn't the best movie I've seen in recent times but it was a fun movie. I liked the concept of holding the oldies hostage while they sort their affairs out.

The bonus I guess is that if your're a fan of Jennifer Love Hewitt as I am she's in this movie and her role though minor is good, and hey she's kinda hot you know so that's a bonus.

I can't really fault the film and yes there's an awful lot of bad reviews around about it but I think it's well worth the 6/10 I gave it.

It's a fun film for everyone, without being too over sentimental or sugar filled. I was surprised to see Jennifer Tilly in this as I felt it too lightweight for her, but there you go guess she needed the work.

This comedy, about a teenager and his younger sister who lock their parents in the basement until they work out their marital problems, is not as bad as it sounds. We wind up with a bunch of kids upstairs who know how to relate to one another but gradually have to work out how to keep practical things running, and a bunch of adults downstairs who are just the opposite. In truth, neither side does very well, but at least this is not the tired condescension of the kids screwing up and needing to be rescued by the adults: both groups are portrayed with a mix of severity and sympathy. Throw in a meddling retired chief of police across the street, and make him Ray Walston whom I think everybody loved most in "Picket Fences," and you have a film that is very entertaining, and also carries across some deeper meaning about what contributions young people and older ones can make to each other's ongoing development. Kyle Howard was 18 trying to play 14, which took a good deal of suspension of disbelief, but that miscasting seems to be an obsession Hollywood just can't seem to grow out of.

'House Arrest' is a really cute movie and hopefully will influence parents to think about things before just getting a divorce. This movie may not be the most realistic portrayal of how a kid would act when he found out his parents were thinking about splitting (ie locking your parents in the basement) but the reactions are pretty genuine in the fact that just about all kids have problems with their parents. Some things were def. over-exaggerated though, like when Grover (Kyle Howard) finds divorce papers in the mail and then 'flips' out by shoving a bunch of papers around and knocking stuff over. No kid, well usually, would be that mad about their parents divorcing (I'm sure they would be upset, maybe cry, but like wrecking stuff in some sort of manner, yea right). The acting wasn't bad, I thought it was pretty good all around. The story was funny and if your parents aren't like any of the ones in the movie, you probably will appreciate your own family more. I recommend seeing this if you can, it's on HBO a lot.

I don't know why a lot of critics attacked this movie. What is there to attack? That's the problem with critics, they're always way too serious. Lighten up! No one said this would be Saving Private Ryan. It's not even Honey I Shrunk The Kids, but it's still cute.

I mean think about it, at one point (well, more than one) in our lives we all just wish we could lock our parents in the basement. The acting is not superb but it's cute and the kind you would expect from a movie like this. The one person I will hand it to is Jennifer Tilly, who really stole the show as Jennifer Love Hewitt's teen-like mother. Not bad at all, though not near to becoming one of the best. This movie will soon be forgotten but if it ever comes on TV watch it.

I loved House Arrest as a kid. The idea of a bunch of kids being able to lock their parents in the basement and party till they die is one thing that crosses a kid's mind every now and then.

Kyle Howard and Amy Sakasitz are Grover and Stacey Beindorf, two kids who have just been told by their parents (Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Pollak) that they're getting a divorce. Like most kids, the Grover and Stacey don't want their parents to separate, and can't understand why they can't just try to work things out. So, they come up with a new kind of anarchist therapy--they decide to lock their parents in the basement and force them to work out their problems.

A plan like that is pretty incredible, especially when some of Grover's friends get wind of it and decide to add their parents to the mix. And they don't get along too well. Grover's bully-turned-buddy, TJ Krupp, doesn't get along well with his father (Christopher McDonald) a loud mouth obnoxious attorney who cheats on his timid wife. Mr. Krupp consistently berates those around him, even while the parents are in their brief moments of enjoying themselves in the basement. Brooke's (Jennifer Love Hewitt) trying to reform her mom (Jennifer Tilly) so that she won't keep acting like a teenager. And Matt (Mooky Arizona) is using preventative therapy because his dad (Wallace Shawn), who has been divorced twice before on the second anniversary of each marriage, is coming up on his second year again. And, Beindorf's parents just can't seem to talk out their problems without getting into a fight.

While the parents are stuck downstairs in a cleverly assembled cage (sort of), the kids take advantage of their independence. A house party, a dinner party, etc, until Grover sees that things are getting out of control and their losing sight of their objective--to get the parents to fix their problems. They eventually wise up, and behave like adults, in a well-meaning, but wholly naive way to get the parents to sort things out.

The funniest moments arise when Roy Walston shows up as the former police chief and nosey next door neighbor. He suspects something's up at the Beindorf house, and the kids find themselves going to great lengths after a while trying to keep their therapy plans a secret. Russell Harper as the wild and crazy TJ is also a load of laughs, because once the bully, the other kids aren't sure how to behave around one another. Also, too, the kids start to confront their own problems with each other, which are normal problems that arise in the High School caste system. Grover, for example, likes Brooke but never admits to her how he feels. TJ accuses Brooke of being an obnoxious princess who never paid much attention to anyone considered below her status as the "Ice Queen." And so forth. And finally, whenever Christopher MacDonald blows his top as the irritable Mr. Krupp, you get some pretty funny sequences. There's just so much of Mr. Krupp one can take without acting out violently (but kid-safe violence...after all, it's a family movie).

It's a pretty good movie for kids. They'll likely enjoy the cast, though older ones could be old enough to appreciate the family problems that arise.