Truly Dreadful Film

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This Film is the best film Ever! If you haven't seen it yet I strongly suggest you watch it, as soon as possible. Kate Hudson Is the best actress, She never fails to impress me on any of her movies and this is just Wow. I love how no matter what character she is playing she can just hook you to the screen and make you just fall in love with her. Her acting in this film is just amazing, impressive and funny. It had me in tears, then laughing hysterically, to oahing and aahing when she fell in love it was just unbelievable. So watch it, If your a Kate Hudson fan or a fan of family comedy's/tear jerker's/heartfelt then you will fall in love with this film and all of the characters!

It's a movie where the best of it is its double meaning title! It's not a bad movie; just an OK. I think big part of its problem (that didn't make it an "excellent" one) is that it didn't want to make comedy while it had all the capacities, it relayed on very easy solutions and recycled stuff (the storyline of the teen girl and the party reminded me of a too similar one, in the too similar movie, Uncle Buck !), and finally it lacked the surprises so much. So according to that the outcome was something between traditional and boring.Being unbelievably predictable isn't the tragedy here, we know the formula, and experienced it dozens of time before. But this movie couldn't make its material creative, its stalemates hard to solve, and its case effective. For instance there wasn't a good deal of problems around the lead. The teen girl forgave her utterly naively at the end. The boyfriend of (Paris Hilton) got an amputated storyline (most probably the movie makers forgot about him later ?!). And that lover priest didn't produce anything; comedy nor romance. His storyline was extremely blank. Obviously the movie doesn't score high, or actually score, when it comes to comedy or romance.The dialog was poor except for couple of lines I liked, however irrelevant to the main story, like "we don't sell used cars, we sell cars that had a previous owner", or "you're not a bad person, but what you did was very bad". I hated using big, real big, names like (Helen Mirren) and (Hector Elizondo) in trivial, rather cameos of roles. And it doesn't need an expert to know well that this is a (Joan Cusack) movie. Although, I'm not a fan of her (sometimes I can't just look at her !), but it takes a nut to not admitting that her character was the hardest, most attractive, one. And she nailed it, being the most memorable factor about this movie as a whole. In any case I prefer another not-a-kids-person-with-kids or from-ignorant-to-parent movies like (The Pacifier), or (Big Momma's House 2) both from the next year 2005; simply – while being average themselves – they did have some things to be watched more than (Raising Helen). Finally, it's kind of indolent movie, that doesn't want to be watchable enough, or know much about the situation it deals with. Yet can be used to spend 100 minutes with lovely cast, totally uncomplicated time, and (Kate Hudson)'s smile & chic clothes if you don't have any useful things to do!

I think the movie makes the mistake that its more cheerful and happy, instead of being dramatic. The core of the movie is its drama but this just doesn't work out fully due to the fact that everything around it is too cheerful and made in a comedy kind of style. The movie even finds room to put in a love-story, which is just a bit too much I'm afraid. The movie should had focused some more on the mourning and real problems, if the movie wanted to make a real lasting and effective impression. Instead now the problems in the movie are too trivial and don't seem significant enough, when considering 3 young children lost their parents and they're being raised by her aunt who definitely is an inexperienced one, as a 'parent'. You can say that the movie is too 'Hollywood' and therefor also becomes formulaic, standard and rather predictable.The movie is definitely well made for a 'comedy' and it has some great characters in it, that help to make the movie. There is a good balance of characters that are funny (although perhaps a bit too over-the-top) and characters that are serious. It's the thing that keeps the movie going and make it a pleasant one to watch.It's not like the story is really heading anywhere in the movie. Especially the middle of the movie is a sort of a drag, after a good and quite promising first minutes. Seemed like the movie wasn't too sure what direction to head in after that. It falls back to a lot of clichés to eventually of course also end in a clichéd and predictable way. The movie is perhaps also a bit too long. At least more then it really needed to be. Perhaps some side-plots should had been dropped.Amazingly the movie really has a big and superb cast, with actors such as Kate Hudson, Joan Cusack, Helen Mirren, Hector Elizondo and Felicity Huffman in it. But all the more great is the children-cast. Spencer Breslin and Abigail Breslin are two of the great child-actors of our time and in this movie they once more show why. And then there is Hayden Panettiere, who is a strange case. For her age she's great but I have doubts if people in 10 years from now still know who she is. If she wants to continue being taking seriously and show that she's up for the task, she needs to start taking some more serious roles fast, or else she continues being typecast over and over again, until eventually she is considered to be too old by Hollywood. She needs to stop doing these cheerful movies and cheerful roles. Even when her character is supposed to be mad she has something cheerful in her. She has the potential to become a great actress, if she can make the step to more serious and demanding roles NOW.I consider this to be a watchable movie, as long as you can handle most of the Hollywood clichés.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This was a really funny and inspiring movie starring Kate Hudson. In the movie, she plays Helen, a swinging, carefree spirit who works for a modeling agency. She is really enjoying her lifestyle when her sister and sister's husband are killed in a car accident, and Helen is given custody of their children over their other, more responsible sister. (Joan Cusack) Complications ensue as Helen has to make adjustments to her lifestyle as she tries to juggle it with her newly-found responsibilities. Along the way, she finds romance with a priest who works as a teacher at a school where she enrolls the kids.Overall, I thought this was a funny movie, even though it was a tad bit formulaic. (but then again, what movie isn't?) I enjoyed it when I saw it, and you might like it too. I loved the scene when they shopped for a new turtle. Kate Hudson was perfect in the lead role, and I thought the movie was well cast. I recommend this if you like comedies and Kate Hudson.*** out of ****