Fathers' Day

Yeah, the plot's kinda lame and not too believable, but the stars are able to make it a fun time. In fact, the best moments are the ones that serve not to advance the story, but allow Williams and Crystal do their trademark acts.

Billy Crystal is a master of the non-response, such as when told that he has a 15 year old son, continuing to slowly drink his coffee. Robin Williams is the improv master. It's fun to guess which lines were written in the screenplay, and which ones just came from his head full of characters.

We know everything will turn out OK in the end, but there are enough unexpected twists and turns to keep the story interesting, and some pretty funny minor characters.

Stop me if you've heard this one before. Take a terrific French comedy, produce an American remake, and watch many of the laughs disappear. Even the two huge talents who star in this film can't save it. This film isn't nearly as bad as most of the reviews seem to suggest, but it really is nothing more than ordinary at best. Do yourself a favour, and watch the original film, "Les Comperes", instead of this one. Plus, Gerard Depardieu seems as though he could give a stronger head-butt than Billy Crystal, don't you think?

I thought this was going to be one of the funniest movies I have ever seen when I finally saw it on TV. Man was I wrong, it had a few funny parts to it but it could've been a lot better than what it was. Robin Williams acts too kiddy-like and didn't even make me laugh none the whole movie (That's a first for Robin Williams movies). I think Billy Crystal did a good job playing it as a straight business man but why did they rate this movie as a comedy??? The funniest part of the movie was by an actor that nobody even knows. The part where the boy's real father gets stuck in the outhouse. This is not a terrible movie but it's not all that great either. ** of 4

For a movie that stars Robin Williams and Billy Crystal, you'd automatically expect this film to be laugh out loud funny, but instead, what you get is a contrived cliche after cliche film that never actually goes anywhere. The jokes really don't add up anywhere because the humor is stale. Ivan Reitman's a good director but it seems he's got to pick up better scripts. "Father's Day" suffers unnecessary length and a script that seems to dwell a little too much on dull.

When you put together the talents of Robin Williams and Billy Crystal, you bet your life people are gonna expect big things. I myself expected big things. The movie doesn't deliver on all levels. There are some badly written gags and lame dialogue ("He's having some problems with his testicles"). But throughout 80 % of the movie I was entertained and got a fair share of laughs. Naturally, Billy and Robin have incredible chemistry and I'm sure a lot of their stuff was ad-libbed. They just could've used a better script. Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel wrote the great comedy "Mr. Saturday Night," so I did expect better from them. The two guys don't always seem secure with the material, and rightfully so, like with that lame running gag about "the whirl."

Nevertheless, "Fathers' Day" is a delightful comedy and it definitely has its moments. Some won't be as satisfied as others, but I myself was satisfied.

My score: 7 (out of 10)