House Arrest (1996) Reviews

• A Wonderful Family Movie!

  Darkest_Rose2003-05-25

  After Grover(Kyle Howard) and his younger sister Stacy(Amy Sakasitz) find out that their parents, Janet(Jamie Lee Curtis)and Ned Beindorf(Kevin Pollak) are getting separated and maybe divorced they decide to lock them in the basement so that they can figure things out. But during school, Grover tells his friend Matt(Mooky Arizona)what he did to his parents and the school bully T.J.(Russel Harper)hears them and decides to lock his parents in Grover's basement too, along with Matt's parents and Brooke's mother too. Brooke is played by Jennifer Love Hewitt and she plays a popular girl in school on who Grover has a big crush on. I thought this was a wonderful family movie. It was very funny and I think it can be enjoyed by both kids and adults. All the actors do a good job and it's just a very entertaining movie. A lot of people have complained and said that this movie was very unrealistic and things like that would never happen in real life but c'mon, what movie is really realistic and things that happen in movies usually don't happen in real life but you should enjoy movies such as these while you still can. Anyways, I would give House Arrest 9/10.

• Cut little comedy

  White Dolphin2000-10-16

  I don't know why a lot of critics attacked this movie. What is there to attack? That's the problem with critics, they're always way too serious. Lighten up! No one said this would be Saving Private Ryan. It's not even Honey I Shrunk The Kids, but it's still cute. I mean think about it, at one point (well, more than one) in our lives we all just wish we could lock our parents in the basement. The acting is not superb but it's cute and the kind you would expect from a movie like this. The one person I will hand it to is Jennifer Tilly, who really stole the show as Jennifer Love Hewitt's teen-like mother. Not bad at all, though not near to becoming one of the best. This movie will soon be forgotten but if it ever comes on TV watch it.

• good actors make it worthwhile

  Special-K882002-11-25

  After learning that his parents are getting separated, a sensitive, idealistic teenage boy is so shocked and distraught that he recruits his younger sister to help lock them in the basement in the desperate hope that they'll actually talk out their problems and come to a rational solution. It starts out as a good idea, until his friends bring over their parents and lock them into the basement as well. Film's premise is far-fetched and protracted, to be sure, but it benefits from a talented cast (especially Howard), believable characters, and a good sense of family values. Not easy to take seriously, but meaningful and not bad for what it is. **½

• Good flick

  scissorhands__emily2006-04-24

  'House Arrest' is a really cute movie and hopefully will influence parents to think about things before just getting a divorce. This movie may not be the most realistic portrayal of how a kid would act when he found out his parents were thinking about splitting (ie locking your parents in the basement) but the reactions are pretty genuine in the fact that just about all kids have problems with their parents. Some things were def. over-exaggerated though, like when Grover (Kyle Howard) finds divorce papers in the mail and then 'flips' out by shoving a bunch of papers around and knocking stuff over. No kid, well usually, would be that mad about their parents divorcing (I'm sure they would be upset, maybe cry, but like wrecking stuff in some sort of manner, yea right). The acting wasn't bad, I thought it was pretty good all around. The story was funny and if your parents aren't like any of the ones in the movie, you probably will appreciate your own family more. I recommend seeing this if you can, it's on HBO a lot.

• Funny with a useful lesson

  shneur2006-04-24

  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.