House Arrest (1996): Dir: Harry Winer / Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Pollack, Jennifer Tilly, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ray Walston: Pathetic excuse for a comedy let alone family entertainment. Two children lock their bickering parents in the basement to work out their marriage problems but when word gets around, more parents are brought to the same basement. While the parents continue to bicker, the kids wreck the house and invade the liquor cabinet. Why is this suppose to be funny? The children are in deep hurt and director Harry Winer seems to indicate that viewers will be humored by it. Story is predictable and it praises the deviance in the conclusion. Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Pollack are at the mercy of bad writing. The yell and blame at each other but will get back together in the conclusion because the screenwriter prefers happy endings as oppose to realistic ones. Jennifer Tilly plays a drunken idiot whose daughter, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt whines about it. They are the kind of mother daughter combo usually separated in the court system because responsibility is not amongst their code of ethics. Ray Walston plays a spying neighbor who is likely hiding out on his agent for having him cast in this junk. Instead of the damage of parental separation it advertises lewd behavior. It should be locked in a basement and never seen again. Score: 0 / 10

I'll mince no words about "House Arrest": it is pure kiddie fare. The plot is ridiculous, the acting is outrageous, and the characters are overly colorful. Yet, the whole film is just plain fun!

For a basic plot summary, "House Arrest" sees young Grover Beindorf (Kyle Howard) lock his nearing-divorce parents (Jamie Lee Curtis & Kevin Pollak) in the basement in hopes of seeing them work out their problems. Predictably, insanity ensues and pretty soon three other "parental units" are trapped as well.

From beginning to end, the sight gags and goofy humor abound. The parents "down below" scheme to escape and bicker amongst themselves, the kids "above" struggle with their newfound freedom, and all the while a comically nosy neighbor tries to put the pieces together.

What always charms me about this movie is how it espouses such a great message at its core: kids just wanting their parents to get along. Incredibly sappy, for sure, but also innocent and sweet. Besides that, the auxiliary cast (especially Jennifer Tilly, Christopher McDonald, & Wallace "Rex from Toy Story" Shawn) really drives the humorous moments with their wacky antics and predicaments. Oh yeah, and a young Jennifer Love Hewitt will be every young boy's fantasy after watching this movie (!).

Thus, "House Arrest" may be cornball through and through, but director Harry Winer makes no bones about it and embraces the zany hilarity. Show this to your children and try to remember being a kid yourself!

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.