ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

wadeboi I suspect you're not going to get much out of this unless you're a serious Brady fan. That said, this is a Brady lover's fantasy come true...finally getting to have the camera swing around to the lives of the real kids. One wonders if the real kids didn't have far more interesting and provocative lives than the scripted ones. But I guess in the early 70s that kind of Real World would have been too real. Even today, you probably couldn't do a Real World about kids under 18. If this movie had been only about Sherwood Schwartz I would have given it a 10 because Michael Tucker is just mesmerizing to watch. Although he has a fairly small part, he steals every scene. Rebeccah Bush as Florence Henderson is possibly better than the original. She radiates elegance and glamor. Since this story is told through Barry Williams eyes, the provocative performance may be dramatic license. It's hard to imagine the real Florence Henderson wanting to french kiss in 1969 on a stage full of kids.Adam Brody as Barry Williams gets most of the screen time. He never quite nails Barry for me. Christopher Barnes, as I recall from the first Brady Bunch Movie feature film, had a more realistic performance. But you soon look beyond this defect and start to view this movie as if it were the same show in an alternate universe. The other key characters are also a little off the mark, but quite passable after a brief period of adjustment. The most jarring aspect is that in real life the kids aged rather dramatically over the course of five years. Here the same actors play their parts for the duration. I read the book and knew going in that this was mostly about Barry and Maureen but I was hoping for more of Chris Knight, the kid I most identified with in first run. Apparently Chris hated doing the show almost as much as Robert Reed. Too bad. By the final season, the real Chris was the best actor of all of the kids. The episode of "Peter" trying to land his first job was a refreshing departure from the "Gilligan's Island" slapstick. Both Chris and Robert Reed have a great tag scene together in that one. Here, up and coming star Ricky Ullman (Phil of the Future) plays Chris rather unevenly, but at times he does bear a passing resemblance. I don't remember Robert Reed coming off as such as spoiled sport in the book. He was certainly a good enough actor not to let it show on screen. Daniel Hugh Kelly tries hard but never really convinces me he's Robert Reed. And that may be more the fault of the script for giving his character too dark an edge for what should have been more of a lightweight documentary rather than a soap opera.The real life Barry looks terrific. He hasn't changed much. It would have been fun if the real cast had appeared in cameos.

Camille9847 Oh my...this sucker was laughably bad. I grew up with the Bunch on Reruns as did just about everyone else on the planet. Were those kids really that stupid? (I'm afraid the answer was yes...) Were their Parents really thick enough to hook them up with that slimeball manager? Did 'serious thespian' Robert Reed *really* not know what he was getting into with a sitcom directed by Sherwood 'Gilligan's Island' Schwartz? Barry comes off looking like a goffy little doofus (And I'm not sure this was intentional either), and he and Maureen have all the romantic spark of a plate of cold overcooked spaghetti. But, it was fairly true to the facts as I've heard 'em--and is an interesting tale of how a great show can shoot itself in the foot. Watch it just to watch some poor american sod who's way too tall mangle Davy Jones' accent while hitting on Maureen, as Barry glowers in the background. This alone is worth the price of admission!

rebeccascherer This Movie was awesome. I loved it so much I ordered the book and cd offered by NBC. I hope they replay this movie. I was able to get closer to my niece because she was able to understand why her mom and I loved the brady bunch. She liked the show before, but she loves it now. Just like her mother and I do.

Ed in St. Louis This was a well-done special. I'm always a sucker for these kind of shows....I love to see the process behind what makes something work. Naturally these guys weren't creating Shakespeare at the Paramount Studios--much to the consternation of Robert Reed--but the Brady Bunch series they put out was sweet and lighthearted, and made us forget our problems for a half-hour or so. One thing I didn't understand....why did the real Barry meet the real Maureen McCormick at the Paramount Studios at the end, only to deny that she was who she was? Did Maureen insist that she get no credit for appearing on this show? But otherwise, a very good way to remember a very happy series.