Keeping Up with the Steins (2006)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Best movie ever!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Adam (Jeremy Piven) and Joanne Fiedler (Jami Gertz) have their son Benjamin (Daryl Sabara)'s bar mitzvah coming up. They attend Adam's former best friend and Hollywood agent partner Arnie Stein (Larry Miller)'s son Zachary's grand bar mitzvah. It's Brentwood and the Fiedlers decide to top it. Casey Nudelman (Cheryl Hines) is the planner. Benjamin has a crush on Ashley Grunwald and Karen Sussman is his know-it-all classmate. Rose (Doris Roberts) is his grandmother. He doesn't like his parents' outlandish plans and invites his wacky estranged grandfather Irwin (Garry Marshall) who is living with Sacred Feather (Daryl Hannah) on an Indian reservation.This dysfunctional family is wacky. Their problems are not that relatable or actually that funny. It's broadly sit-comish. For example, it isn't enough for Irwin and Sacred Feather to be hippies but they have to live on an Indian reservation. Everybody has to be wacky on the next level. I would also like to like Daryl Sabara more but he doesn't have quite the right adorable loveability. There is a nice message in the end but I would have preferred better laughs.

Being Jewish, I have a bias towards liking a film like this. The usage of Yiddish, along with the many exaggerations of the Jewish family are something most people won't understand, unless they grew up around it. Parts of this film I found to be hysterical, while my non-Jewish friend, sitting next to me, didn't get it at all. As for the film, it's a lie before the credits even stop rolling. Keeping Up With The Steins, really has very little to due with the Stein family, as they are part of the background story at best. The film is actually about a broken family, forced together on the eve of a child's Bar Mitzvah. Benjamin Fiedler (Daryl Sabara) is turning 13, which in the Jewish religion means that he is about to become a man. His parents are well off and are making huge plans for the event, but Ben wants no part of it. In an attempt to take the attention off himself, he sends an invitation to his estranged Grandfather that he's never met, a Grandfather, who shows up to the families wealthy neighborhood in an old RV, with a woman half his age. This is where the heart of the story comes from, as father and son are forced together after fifteen years. Jeremy Piven stars as the son and believe it or not he's a big time Hollywood agent, living in a life of luxury. This toned down version of Ari is forced to see his father, played by the legendary Garry Marshall. For the past 15 years, he's been living as a hippie, teaching on an Indian reservation. As soon as they see each other the two are at odds and it really is very funny. The star of the film is Spy Kids, Daryl Sabara, who I have never liked. He's just always so shy and painfully awkward, I really just don't understand his appeal. While he is a major part of the story, the parts of the film that feature him without Marshall or Piven are just painful. Keeping Up With The Steins isn't raunchy and much of the humor is intertwined in the Jewish religion. If you're not Jewish, you'll probably have the same reaction my friend did. Personally I loved it, but I can understand how this film won't appeal to everybody.

The Steins had an over the top Titanic themed Bar Mitzvah for their son. In this film, Ben Fielder is studying for his Bar Mitzvah in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California. His father is played by Jeremy Piven and his mother is played by Jami Getz. His paternal grandmother is played by the wonderful Doris Roberts and his paternal grandfather is played by Garry Marshall who is just as wonderful. His grandfather left his son and wife for another life where he teaches on the Navajo Indian reservation in New Mexico with his new younger girlfriend played by Daryl Hannah. Everybody is perfectly cast in this film. This film should have aired on television than in cinema. Anyway, the story about the coming of age and how unconventional grandfather relates to his conventional son and his family is worth watching. I enjoyed the film and would love to see it again. I saw it on television last weekend and I liked it.

As a Muslim young man, i had no idea how the whole Jewish thing worked. After seeing this charmer, I wish i had had a bar mitzvah. The family reminded me a lot of the movie The Other Sister, funny, sweet, touching, mega moms. I think movies such as this should be shown to everyone, so we learn the value of understanding other cultures, like blatinos and koreans. I took a date on this movie cuz i thought it would get me laid...y'know what i'm talking bout! but then i just loved it so much i was crying with happiness throughout, and it kind of weirded her out, but i'm looking to find a nice looking woman who really understands these things, and doesn't talk too much, and likes good movies by this fabulous directors, who has on his resume gems such as Runaway Bride (a.k.a. Pretty Woman 2), Pretty Woman 1, Raising Helen, Beaches and Exit to Eden. Shall I say more? i wanted to buy this movie so bad when it came out on DVD that i considered camping out in front of the store, but Tammy said, wait. I ended up buying it at my local Blockboster for only 3.99! Keep it real, boyz!