Main Cast: Rene Russo, Dennis Quaid, Linda Hunt
Release Date 16 March 2006
Running Time 88 minutesBased on a film from 1968 (that starred Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda), this is a genially sprawling family comedy about two huge families that come together to create total chaos.
Helen (Renee Russo) is the free-spirited mother of ten, including six adopted children of various races. Meanwhile, Admiral Frank Beardsley (Dennis Quaid) has eight well-trained Anglo Saxon overachievers, including a class president shoo-in (Sean Faris), a cheerleader (Katija Pevec) and a pair of sugar-addict twins (Brecken and Bridger Palmer).
Among those on Helen's free-spirit side are a cute guitar-playing hipster chick (Danielle Panabaker), a sullen emo boy (Drake Bell), a rapper (Lil' JJ), a hissy-fit throwing young Asian fashion designer (Lao North), twins from India (Jennifer and Jessica Habib), and a potbellied pig.
When Helen and Frank impulsively wed after reuniting at a class reunion, their differing clans resent suddenly having to share bedrooms and bathroom time with such polar opposites. Devious plans are hatched, wars waged, and very few heads escape being doused with paint or other thick gooey matter, especially poor Frank's, whose regimented military mind can hardly fathom the complexities of so many run-amok age groups.