It Takes Two (1995)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

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.

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

It Takes Two (1995): Dir: Andy Tennant / Cast: Ashley Olsen, Mary- Kate Olsen, Steve Guttenberg, Kirstie Alley, Jane Sibbett: Shameless remake of The Parent Trap about teamwork and collaboration between two scheming girls who happen to be twins. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen will obviously play opposite. One belongs to a wealthy household who arrives home to the news that her father is engaged to a snob. The other is an orphan sent to summer camp with her caseworker. The camp is located across the lake and both girls switch places to match her father up with the case worker. Directed by Andy Tennant with beautiful photography. Story is predictable and corny with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen rehearsing The Parent Trap. Is it any surprise that they accomplish their mission? Kirstie Alley and Steve Guttenberg have done better and will hopefully get over this pothole of a film. Jane Sibbett plays the snotty new woman whom Guttenberg feels the need to profess marriage to. These films are a dime a dozen and are aimed at young girls who will hopefully grow up to understand what a crock of sh*t this xerox charade really is. The film's purpose is to cash in the popularity of the Olsen twins who gained major popularity in the sitcom Full House. On the big screen they seem very small outside their sitcom universe. After about fifteen minutes of this then nausea should kick in. Score: 3 / 10

IT TAKES TWO (1995) ***1/2 One of the first Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen vehicles, it's a nice little family film which the young and young at heart will enjoy. The story, which seems to resemble that of 'The Parent Trap', has the Olsen twins play opposites in social standings - Mary-Kate, an orphan who lives in a foster system; Ashley, the daughter of a well-to-do millionaire - who cross paths at a summer camp. In hopes of getting a taste of a different lifestyle, they trade lives for the weekend, and their caretakers don't deduce they're both taking care of different girls. The production's whole is not extremely intelligent by any means, but noteworthy Steve Guttenburg and Kirstie Alley are very watchable in their roles.

This modern day Prince and the Pauper meets The Parent Trap actually does not seem so bad considering that I am not a big fan (I am putting this lightly) of the Olsen Twins, or Mary Kate and Ashley as they prefer. The story is vaguely entertaining and has the prerequisite kids-are-superior-to-adults-and-know-what's-best-for-them-more-than-they-themselves-do lesson to it (Man, that's a lot of dashes...or is it hyphens? That always confused me.). On the bad side, they actually have the twins trying for accents. Mary Kate as the street-wise urchin Amanda uses a kinda New Yorky accent, but only around her fellow orphan children, surprisingly. The rest of the time she seems to talk fairly normally, which is a little inconsistent. Then again, I do not know anybody from New York, so maybe they only let their accents out when they want to? Ashley as the upper crust poor little rich girl Alyssa uses a partial British accent that consists wholly of her talking very slowly so that she can enunciate and sound all hoighty-toighty. It actually makes her sound less "well-bred" and more "bad actor." Both twins' accents often slip and they talk normally in several scenes. These details combined with the "gee, are we supposed to dislike her or something?" stepmother, the over-establishment of the vast differences in the girls' lives, an extremely rare case of identical strangers, and enough cute kids and sugary sweet moments to give any sweet tooth a headache are just some problems. I hate to be nitpicky, but during the scene where the girls are mistaken by their respective friends as the opposite girl, how come no one noticed the differences in wardrobe? Yes, they were almost similar, but one was wearing short overalls, the other long, one had a flannel shirt and the other did not, etc. Oh well, I won't lose sleep over it either way. Finally, I do recommend this movie if only to see the Olsens when they were still cute, and also because it is probably the last box office hit they will ever have. (Yes, I went there!) (Er...and I hope that Mary Kate recovers well. Hey, my heart is not total ice!)

I stumbled on this family film while channel surfing the other night. I happened to catch it right from the opening titles. The Olsen girls had me hooked from the first minutes. I couldn't stop watching this movie until the final credits rolled. Having raised two girls I was particularly tuned into the Olsen girls. I was blown away by how cute and funny and bright they were. And I thought the love story though predictable was tastefully handled and fairly intelligent. All in all a most enjoyable experience.