THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 18, 1996 TAG: 9608160048
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: 42 lines
THE CHANGE in the way Hollywood presents kids is radical, if not, indeed, calling for radicalism.
Children, in movies at least, used to help out their parents. In the 1961 flick ``The Parent Trap,'' twin daughters, played by Hayley Mills, reunited their about-to-divorce parents by the most wiley and hilarious tactics. ``The Parent Trap'' is a far, and gentle, distance from ``House Arrest.''
In this new release, the kids, again trying to head off divorce, lock their parents in the basement and hold them hostage in a most noisy, and markedly unfunny, way.
Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Pollak (signaling that they've given up on prestigious careers) play the hapless parents who, at their 18th anniversary, let slip that they're considering a divorce. Their angelic son and small, cute daughter promptly lock them in the basement.
Things get out of hand when the writers apparently couldn't come up with anything to keep this personal and warm. It could have been a comedy about family relationships. Instead, it's a mess.
Other neighborhood kids get the idea, and other parents are locked in the basement, including a baby-voiced mom who tries to act like a teenager (Jennifer Tilly), a much-married dad who is near the end of his usual two-year marriage (Wallace Shawn) and an over-the-top lawyer who blusters a lot. Ray Walston, as the suspicious ex-cop next door, almost steals the movie.
The in-charge kids wreck the house (a scene that seemed to particularly delight the youngest members of the audience). The film, though, is repetitive and goes nowhere. Aside from being socially irresponsible in the most heinous way, it simply isn't very funny. MEMO: MOVIE REVIEW
``House Arrest''
Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Pollak, Jennifer Tilly, Christopher
McDonald, Wallace Shawn, Ray Walston
Director: Harry Winer
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (silly but still a bad message for kids)
Mal's rating: one and a half stars by CNB