It Runs in the Family (2003)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

As Good As It Gets

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

You might think Kirk Douglas incapable of appearing in really bad movies but he's done a stinker or two and this one definitely qualifies. It borrows liberally from another movie where Dan Akroyd played Kirk's troubled adult son and Kirk, having suffered a recent stroke, had to make him believe before the credits rolled that he always loved him and did the best he could for him. That movie wasn't bad, as I recall, whereas this one stinks to high hell and there's nothing to be done about it. Almost every emotional moment comes off forced and false. That said, even with his speech impediment and other post-stroke problems, Kirk hands in by far the most competent performance. Unfortunately, it is clearly not nearly enough to elevate the horrible writing, stupid plot line, and pathetic performances of his fellow actors. Michael Douglas is a total turkey in this abysmal flick, in which he fends off another aggressive female intent on "raping him." You've done that one already, Mike, remember? Bernadette Peters, although looking surprisingly fit for a woman her age, is photographed from some very poor angles and just looks odd too much of the time. Her part is completely forgettable. The youngest Douglas comes off as a complete jerk (to use a less offensive term than the one I actually have in mind). The scene in which he's finally going to make love to the cute young girl he's been after for half the movie, then decides he can't have sex with her after all because "it wouldn't be right," is almost as shmarmy but not nearly as offensive as the scene where the same girl goes to his dorm room and finds him enthusiastically disco-dancing with his male roommate. Douglas really gets into it and I vaguely felt like throwing up. The part where Kirk and Michael send Kirk's dead brother across a suburban lake in a boat that they have torched, ala "The Vikings," is just kind of dumb but hardly the dumbest moment in a flick chock full of dumb moments. The Seder scene with everyone in their yarmulkes is just plain silly, in my opinion. OK, granted I'm not Jewish, but I think that is one tradition that ought to go the way, the skull caps on grown men, I mean. The youngest Douglas looks absolutely ridiculous in his because he plays an unrepentant dope dealer, but gee, he's got to wear his yarmulke for Seder to keep the older folks happy. It's ridiculous. In short, this movie is phony, false, forced, and exploitive of Kirk Douglas's various handicaps following his stroke. The entire Douglas clan ought to be thoroughly embarrassed for appearing in this piece of dung, because that is what it is. Kirk is capable of standout work and doesn't even scratch the surface of his capabilities simply because this movie, itself, is dead on arrival and nothing he does to resuscitate it has a chance to succeed.

Though It Runs In the Family could have been Kirk Douglas's swan song, his signature on his career as The Shootist was for John Wayne, the man went out and did another after this. And at the age of 90 he may still try another.It's not as bad as watching James Cagney in Terrible Joe Moran, that television film which had Cagney in a wheelchair and nearly all his lines dubbed in by impressionist Rich Little. Kirk is conceding to his limitations in the part, the stroke we all know he suffered is written in. Still remembering him in Spartacus or The Vikings or even in something as trite as My Dear Secretary, one remembers the tremendous energy he brought to all his parts. The energy unlike with Cagney, is still there, only his slurred speech is a reminder of what he sustained.Personally I like to remember my movie idols as they were in their prime, going out the way Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, or William Powell did. Kirk is the patriarch of the Gromberg family and son Michael and grandson Cameron play the same roles in the film. Even former wife Diana Douglas, Michael's real life mom, plays grandma. The problems of each generation is shown. In the end the family is all brought closer together.Kirk did his own homage to one of his former starring roles, The Vikings, when he and Michael take his brother's body and give him a viking funeral on a lake. It's the most poignant scene in the film.When he wrote his memoirs Kirk made much reference to his Russian Jewish heritage. In his prime I can only recall in Cast A Giant Shadow where that was part of the plot. In his old age, Kirk Douglas has gone back to his roots in a few projects. Another favorite scene of mine is the Passover Seder.Still it's painful to watch him, but you got to admire the man's grit.

I watched it 2 times, very endearing, each plot if carefully paid attention to can make you either sympathize or laugh or even cry, it's sweet, the father/son/grandson is adorable, funny, witty, and I think it touched my heart during the deaths of Pappys wife and brother.. It's hard to imagine your life partner gone after so long...and then to lose your brother within the same time, I think Michael and Kirk did a wonderful job, and "Asher" was an eye opener to anyone trying to stay as a teenager even when they should have priorities. Culkin was sweet as the conscience yet innocent child, their traditions were upheld, the characters were in depth, making the plots more understandable if you really pay attention and try to enjoy the movie instead of sit and criticize every action they make.

The type of humor that brings tears to your eyes instead of the silliness that usually passes for comedy these days. I seriously enjoyed watching Michael and Kirk Douglas working together, found the material touching and poignant, and found myself caring deeply about the characters. I don't know about you, but that works for me.