House Arrest (1996)
Average Rating: 3.4/10
Reviews Counted: 27
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 25
Constructed out of cliches, thinly written characters, and fundamental misunderstandings of human nature, House Arrest is a dull (and borderline irresponsible) waste of a talented cast.
Average Rating: 3/10
Critic Reviews: 12
Fresh: 0 | Rotten: 12
Constructed out of cliches, thinly written characters, and fundamental misunderstandings of human nature, House Arrest is a dull (and borderline irresponsible) waste of a talented cast.
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Average Rating: 2.8/5
User Ratings: 19,882
Movie Info
Grover Reindorf (Kyle Howard) is a kid with a problem, which is how to keep his parents from divorcing. He hits on a solution that makes sense to him. Why not lock them up in the basement, and keep them there until they reconcile? He and his younger sister Stacey (Amy Sakasitz) agree to do just that, and they successfully lure their parents into the basement and lock them in. When their junior-high-school friends find out what they've done, they decide that their own misbehaving parents need
Aug 14, 1996 Wide
Apr 2, 2002
HBO Video
Cast
-
Jamie Lee Curtis
Janet Beindorf -
Kevin Pollak
Ned Beindorf -
Jennifer Tilly
Cindy Figler -
Christopher McDonald
Donald Krupp -
Sheila McCarthy
Gwenna Krupp -
Wallace Shawn
Vic Finley -
Caroline Aaron
Louise Finley -
Amy Sakasitz
Stacy Beindorf -
Ben Stein
Ralph Doyle -
Ray Walston
Chief Rocco -
Mooky Arizona
Matt Finley -
Russel Harper
T.J. Krupp -
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Brooke Figler -
Kyle Howard
Grover Beindorf
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House Arrest Trailer & Photos
All Critics (27) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (2) | Rotten (25) | DVD (1)
[A] predictable and sugarcoated (even criminally negligent) take on The Parent Trap.
Top CriticTo the slim degree that it qualifies as a comedy, House Arrest is a comedy with rank amateur pathos, and it's totally out of touch with its own superficially treated emotions.
A headache of a movie with a Parent Trap premise that quickly devolves into clamorous farce.
One of the year's worst movies... at least I hope so, or it's going to be a very bad year.
A tepid and repetitious comedy.
There's little to commend this formulaic and misleading fantasy, which seems sadly aimed at an especially fragile audience -- kids from broken homes who all too often blame themselves.
Only Pollak and Curtis create any semblance of character in this tapestry of stereotype, but the movie doesn't give them enough to do as the louder idiots take to the fore with clumsily imagined escape gambits.
Parents of America: Beware! Should you choose to sit through this insufferable bit of high-concept fluff, you will feel as though you have been unlawfully detained for nearly two hours.
Between the laughs beats a serious theme about the real victims in families pulled apart by lack of intimacy and the threat of divorce.
As I think about it, nothing much happens during the movie except for the parents making multiple attempts to escape and the kids foiling them every step. In a sentence, that's the story.
MGM can make millions with House Arrest. All they have to do is allow free admittance, and charge $10 a head for those wanting to run out of the theater before the end credits roll.
It seems that in bad comedies children always know better than their parents, and House Arrest plays out that tired premise for nearly two hours.
Every summer the studios release movies based on what seems to be a theory that correlates rising outdoor temperature directly with dropping IQs. The deeper into fiery summer we descend, the stupider the movies get.
Mostly, we get a string of tame set-pieces, one-dimensional characterizations, odd continuity gaps, and heavy-handed attempts at feel-good sentiment.
House Arrest, although seemingly a well intentioned comedy, is overly simplistic and falls flat.
House Arrest is one of those movies for children that seems far more immature than the audience.
Audience Reviews for House Arrest
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