The Brady Bunch in the White House (2002)

One of my all time favorites.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fresh and Exciting

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I didn't care for the first "Brady Bunch" movie, but I enjoyed the second one because it savaged the Brady mentality more. When I heard the premise for this third movie, I thought it was a great premise. The square Bradys in a high position of power? It's ripe for humor.Unfortunately, I found most of the actual execution disappointing. First of all, the productions are inconsistent. Since this entry was made for TV, the budget was obviously slashed, and as a result much of the movie has a cheap feeling.The second was the acting. I admit that Canadian actor Saul Rubinek was amusing, and Shelley Long and Gary Cole (reprising their roles) give it their best as always, but I didn't care for the new actors cast in the Brady children roles. They seemed to just be reading their lines instead of really making real characters.But what's really disappointing about this movie is the writing. There is very little story after the Bradys get to the White House, just a bunch of vignettes with little to no relation to each other. And there is surprisingly less footage that you'd think of Mike and Carol Brady actually doing the duties of president/vice president. And what little footage there is is unimaginative. What if Mike Brady hosted Middle East peace talks? What if Carol Brady was interviewed by a political commentator like Rush Limbaugh? Nothing like those two examples ever happens here, despite the opportunities for humor being endless.Even if you're a fan of "The Brady Bunch", chances are you'll find little to laugh about here.

I got through the whole thing -- barely -- so I can't give it a 1 or 2. Rating it 4 is generous based on some pretty good performances. Gary Cole and Shelly Long are perfectly cast. The kids in this film do a pretty good job, but it seems more difficult to reprise the kids' roles. There are long setups for lame jokes that really detract from this movie. The writing is really what suffered here. I also gave this movie points because it is a poof, not a straight treatment. Producing spoofs of the Bradys is the only way to go. Any Brady treatment that tries to remain true to the original (such as the awful TV reunion) is doomed.

All and all it's a pretty fun romp despite some discrepancies. Just sit and enjoy the ride. A big plus also are the actors playing the Brady girls. I thought they were the best of the bunch for these parts considering that Christina Taylor, Elise Cox and Olivia Hack are too old for these parts right now.This movie is BAD, but I still find it quite charming. I've been a Brady Bunch fan for as long as I remember and I'm an even bigger fan of the two theatrical features that parody the show. The movie's title "The Brady Bunch in the White House" pretty much screams, ...ummm... well it screams something, what it is, I don't know, but it's pretty obvious that this made for TV movie wasn't trying to take itself too seriously.I did notice that the strengths of the first two theatrical features were in the way that the world treated the Bradys' wholesomeness. As long as the world outside of their house was as real as our own, the gimmick worked. It worked effectively in the first two movies, but in this one it suffers a bit because it seems that the world in this feature is just as kooky. Not wholesome or 70s groovy, just strange. This doesn't work in favor of the movie and it suffers because now all the Bradys have to work against is cartoon villains and strange sexual innuendo that doesn't gel as well this time around. Also, I never really liked how the movies portrayed Jan. I don't think she's at all like how the Jan I remember. Alice in the previous movies was a pretty good character and the actress brought new life to her. The Alice in this movie however doesn't look a thing like Alice. She does bring in enough energy though to sustain the illusion of Alice, but she physically doesn't look like an Alice. The script is pretty bad as well. It was obviously rushed.I still find it a cute addition to the Brady Bunch franchise and worth at least a watch. It's not that bad, I mean, it's not Gigli.

The entire premise behind the "New" Brady movies has pretty much been run into the ground. Yes, they are clueless. Yes, they are from an age that never actually existed. Yes, we can all see the references to old Brady episodes sprinkled throughout the movie. (Mikes plans in the tube, the broken vase from playing ball in the house, Jan jealous of Marcia, etc., etc.) but it is just not funny the third time around. Mike becomes president because of his insistence of finding out who owns a lottery ticket Bobby found. Hilarity is supposed to ensue when the evil of Washington takes on the blissful naive goodness of the Brady's. It's just one joke though. It is funny a couple of times, but mostly it is the theatrical movies scripts put into a cheap White House set. Nothing new here, except the kids that play the Brady children.