Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
Admiral Frank Beardsley returns to New London to run the Coast Guard Academy, his last stop before a probable promotion to head the Guard. A widower with eight children, he runs a loving but tight ship, with charts and salutes. The kids long for a permanent home. Helen North is a free spirit, a designer whose ten children live in loving chaos, with occasional group hugs. Helen and Frank, high school sweethearts, reconnect at a reunion, and it's love at first re-sighting. They marry on the spot. Then the problems start as two sets of kids, the free spirits and the disciplined preppies, must live together. The warring factions agree to work together to end the marriage.
A paint-by-numbers remake of the 1968 original, 'Yours, Mine & Ours' (2005) brings little new to the blended-family comedy formula. The plot is entirely predictable — opposites attract, kids rebel, love wins — with no surprises or emotional depth. Acting from Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo is competent but unremarkable, and the large ensemble of child actors is largely underdeveloped. Cinematography is flat and functional, typical of mid-2000s family comedies with no visual ambition. Novelty is the film's weakest point: it's a remake of a remake concept, recycling familiar tropes with no distinctive voice or craft. The ending resolves exactly as expected with a feel-good reconciliation that feels entirely unearned given the thin character development throughout.