Foster (2011)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Crappy film

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Child actor Maurice Cole is just a little angel figuratively and literally. Maurice Cole who plays an orphaned 7 year old boy named Eli walks unexpectedly into the lives of married couple Zooey (Toni Collette) and Alec (Ioan Gruffudd) just before Christmas. Zooey manages a children's bookstore with her mother and Zooey's husband Alec owns and operates an old fashioned toy factory which his deceased father opened 50 years ago. Alec has been running into tough financial problems the past two years and his older workforce on the toy factory floor who used to work for his father in their hey days are growing impatient due to business slowly evaporating as are their salaries.Now this little 7 year old orphan boy Eli insists on dressing impeccably each day in a neat dress suit, business tie and a fedora and his knowledge of the world economy and politics is astounding. Eli is as cute as a button and he gradually wins over the hearts and then the souls of the heartbroken couple Zooey and Alec who two years earlier suffered a great loss of their own.This is a story of despair, tragic events, financial turmoil, unexplained miracles and a few angels in the house. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry and it will make you feel loved with a spirit greater than the feeling one gets just by saying those magic words...Merry Christmas.A Christmas themed film with a deserving 8 out of 10 rating.

Stop calling the young man "Spooky" or "The Creepiest movie child ever". COME ON!!! Give the guy a brake. How dare you people. You should be ashamed of your self. Cant believe you people don't have anything better to do with your time. Putting down a child. Is it because the word "ANGEL" was in the title. WHAT A BUNCH OF JERKS. Get over it. If you don't like the movie just say so. Maurice Cole was remarkable. Good job little man. As for the movie it self. Its a good family movie. Little things in the movie maybe stood out of place. But come on, how many action movies do we watch where Bruce willis or Will smith should have died a hundred times or more and everyone is like what a great flick. So real. This was a great family movie and gives good people hope.

Drawing inspiration from "It's a Wonderful Life" and urban legends involving giving a ride to the ghost of that girl that was killed after the prom 20 years ago, "Angel in the House" as it is known in the U.S. looks like it may have been a Hallmark TV movie in the UK. Quirky Australian Toni Collette dons a heavy Scottish accent and reaches for warmth and pathos but her past characterizations - particularly in the U.S. television show "United States of Tara" - make the viewer assume her character isn't crazy from grief but rather just plain crazy. She's married to the standard clueless white male character that now populates every non-action movie since "Mr. Mom". Into their disorderly existence walks in a offputtingly polite and well-dressed seven year old who naps a lot and Mr. Potts a homeless drifter who the viewer assumes is secretly a serial killer. While the script follows precisely the trajectory you expect once the basis premise has been established, the desired effect of touching warmth and personal growth never quite comes together. While Collette's awkward characterization of the grief stricken mother is one issue, the weirdness of the visiting foster child and his minder Mr. Pots are perhaps more at fault. The cinematography doesn't help, never has a day at Windsor, England's LEGOLAND looked quite as overcast and as little fun. Also, the father's idea to save his dying toy business is just stupid and fairly cynical. In short, a fairly good film to hate watch but not one to touch your heart.

The only reason I gave this one star was because Toni Colette is in it. This is possibly the worst movie I have ever sat all the way through. As bad as it was through the length of the movie, it GOT EVEN WORSE at the end. Why actors like Toni Colette and Richard E. Grant got involved with this piece of smarmy trash is unfathomable. Toni bravely shouldered her way through this sodden, unbelievable mess, but even she couldn't pull two stars out of me. As another reviewer noted, it like the absolute worst of mindless Hollywood pap, but the film is actually British!Sorry, I don't mean to go on about how awful it was, but I'm still in shock from having watched it. I hope that kid never ever gets another role and, for pity's sake, can somebody please ban that writer/director from movie making?