> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# You keep ‘Yours’ to yourself
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/getting-the-girl-with-nostalgia/
- Published: 2005-11-23T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T08:14:14.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import

Used to be that remakes of decades-old movies were updated to reflect shifts in cultural mores. This, however, is not the case with the anachronistic “Yours, Mine & Ours,” a tedious rehashing of the 1968 family flick that starred Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball. Either the producers believe little has changed in American society over the last 37 years, or they’re simply banking that there are enough ideologically oldfangled folk out there who’ll buy into the fanciful, white-washed wholesomeness they’re selling. Hey, it worked for George Bush in the last two elections.

Most of what transpires in “YM&O” is so ridiculously farfetched that the whole picture could easily be mistaken for a parody ala “The Brady Bunch” movie.

There’s a manifest earnestness to the proceedings, and all but the most unsophisticated filmgoers will find very little to laugh about. Rene Russo and Dennis Quaid play former high school sweethearts, both conveniently widowed, who bump into each other at a 30-year high school reunion and impulsively tie the knot. They’ve got very little in common, save for unusually large broods — he’s got eight kids, she’s got ten (four of whom, in the interest of ethnic diversity, are adopted). He’s a by-the-book military lifer whose kids have been conditioned to march and salute; she’s a post-modern hippie/handbag designer who allows her children to freely express themselves by wearing their hair messy and dangle their modifiers and stuff. The inevitable kid culture clash gives way to a goofball plot to separate the parents. From there, director Raja Gosnell (“Never Been Kissed,” “Scooby Doo”) futilely tries to generate laughs out of coordinated chaos — paint fights, food fights, mud fights, etc. Tellingly, of the 18 young thesps that form the family not a single performance stands out — and what’s a kid movie without memorable kids? As for Russo and Quaid, she at least appears to be enjoying herself; he’s never looked more uncomfortable in a role.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/112305-19_01.jpg)

(Photo: Special to the Daily Press)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/112305-19_02.jpg)

(Photo: Special to the Daily Press)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 23, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/112305.pdf?ref=smdp.com)