Keeping Up with the Steins (2006) Reviews

• Hilarious Film!

  coleal22006-05-11

  Great movie!! I was in a bad mood all day until I saw this movie. It made my day!! From the audience's responses, it made their day, too! I found Jeremy Piven's performance to be in line with his usual comedic excellence. When it comes to comedy, Jeremy is king. Excellent performances from other cast is definitely worth noting. Even though I'm not Jewish, I found the film totally entertaining. This film is more than slap stick comedy woven into a worn out display of one-liners. The characters are not static, and there is a serious current underlying the funny moments. It's a redemptive story about family being more important than money--in grand style. Good job, guys!

• not worth it

  gw002m2006-06-24

  So I saw this movie, not really knowing what it was about, and even then I was disappointed. First off, a lot of what they do relating to the actual bar mitzvah is simply wrong. but okay, i can get over that. I just feel like this movie had potential (and honestly there were a bunch of funny parts, it may have been funnier because I am Jewish, but there were many funny parts), but fell flat. The movie, like another commenter said, has nothing to do with the Steins. They call it "Keeping Up with the Steins", open up with a Stein bar mitzvah, then ignore them for the entire movie until the very end. You can't suddenly try to add a plot at the end of the movie... it doesn't work. Further, no one would possibly let the father do what he did. The wife, the kid, ANYONE ELSE would have said something. How about "get over it, this day is about your son, deal with your issues later." The day of the bar mitzvah is not the time to let that happen. Also, someone rediscovering Judaism, learning his Haftarah, and doing all that other stuff in less than a week? It's just too ridiculous. I agree with other posters... it had potential, but the characters were not developed well, the plot tried to do too much but then simply ignored the sub-plots (how about sacred feather and the cameraman? We're going to have him make passes at her like 3 times then never bring it up) it tried to create. Parts were funny, but the entire second half dragged to the point of becoming unbearable. I'd skip this one.

• Interesting Things...

  mcgee44682006-05-15

  Interesting thing about having seen 'Keeping Up with the Steins' on a Sunday at Fallbrook in the Valley - there was a fieldtrip of some school that had seen fit to come see the film as a group, then hold a sort of Q&A in the lobby. Ages of the folks in attendance ranged from 12 to about 60 and over. I love being in a full theatre when going to a film, particularly a comedy as you'll get laughs out of people that become infectious and actually make seeing the film that much better of an experience. Another interesting thing about the 'Steins' film: while Jeremy Piven and the young hero of the film are the driving characters, the lasting memories of a film-goer actually belong to Gary Marshall & Doris Roberts. The backstory of their relationship, how it affected Piven, and how they've let by-gones be by-gones while Piven clutches to his old grudges is beautifully and deftly handled by the director. Marshall delivers the father figure as likable to an audience as the characters he created on network television back in the 70's. One more interesting thing about the 'Steins': you don't have to be Jewish to appreciate the humor, you just have to recognize the strengths and failings of every human being represented in these characters.

• Maybe Better on the Small Screen?

  rsampron2006-06-24

  This is a coming-of-age story with a twist. There is more than one person coming-of-age. In a nutshell, it is the story of an angst-ridden thirteen year old boy whose troubles are doubled by his pending bar mitzvah. His father (Jeremy Piven) is a Hollywood agent intent on turning the bar mitzvah into a recruiting event to keep and grow his client base. This is complicated when his former partner, played by Larry Miller, throws a mega bar mitzvah for his own son, with the same intention in mind. Piven's angst at creating the perfect bar mitzvah/recruitment event is made worse by the arrival of his hippy-like father (Gary Marshall), who is attached to an early 40-something New Ager (Daryl Hannah) and teaching English to children on the Navajo reservation. I guess it's supposed to be funny, just looking at Marshall and Hannah. Marshall's and Piven's characters are estranged, the father having walked out on Piven and his mother (Doris Roberts) 26 years earlier. We have an angst-ridden triangle between the three men: grandfather, father, and grandson. (The trinity in a Jewish story?) Indeed, the only struggles in the story are between men. The men have no plot difficulties or unresolved issues with the women, or the women with each other. Frankly, there is no way men can have unresolved issues and not emotionally involve the women in their lives. It's just not realistic, not even in a satirical sense. I gave this film a "4" because of the story. It has a significant flaw. There is just no moment when I felt a human connection with the three men. I was shown all the events that led to the all-important climax, and then I felt nothing. It was like discovering I had swallowed a Chicklet instead of Viagra. No emotion. No "ah ha!" moment. I was more concerned that there wasn't enough butter on my popcorn. And because I felt no emotional connection with or between the three men, I did not feel their catharsis. And that's a real problem for a coming-of-age film. There were a few nice moments between the grandfather and grandson, but that was it. Not good. Regardless of what several "mainstream press" critics wrote and to the writer's and director's credit, I didn't see one stereotype. There were a few undeveloped characters, caricatures really, but that, too, is the fault of the storytellers— it's lazy, not malicious. Why it happened this way, I have no idea. Maybe they were forced to cut the film strangely or leave out things they wanted put in, due to money constraints. It just doesn't work. The acting was fine, featuring some of the best actors on television today. That made it marginally watchable. Maybe television is where this film should have been sold. I see this as a Starz film. Not quite HBO or Showtime material. IFC or Sundance will be its home in about six months. I counsel the writer and director to learn from this experience. You have to flesh out your characters more and let us in on their inner struggles. Don't tell us. Show us. That's what makes drama and comedy work, especially on film. Make us as tense as the characters appear because of the conflicts within the situation, and then resolve the audience's and characters' tensions at the same time. To paraphrase Woody Allen, if it's a comedy, make us bend with the character; if it's a drama, make us break. For example, don't match Richard Benjamin's Bill-O'Reilly-loving rabbi character with Marshall's tolerant grandfather, and do nothing with it. That could have been some very funny stuff as the two men synthesize their worldviews. Instead… pffft. Nothing. And finally, have a bigger theme— something the audience can sink its teeth into. I'm still not quite sure what it is. (And I won't venture a guess, because I don't want to spoil the ending for anybody.) Go back and watch how Chaplin created and then unknotted tension in "City Lights", how Sam Woods did it in "A Night at the Opera", how Marshall did it in "The Flamingo Kid" (another coming-of-age story), or even how it's done in the simplest episode of Piven's "Entourage". Have somebody check the treatment and script thoroughly for theme, conflict and catharsis. Then try it again. I don't want this to sound angry or mean-spirited. But the situation within the film was just lousy with potential for a better film. It was all wasted. And that's a shame.

• A Little Wonderful Gem of a Movie

  castleb72006-06-17

  We saw this in a small art house movie and I gotta tell you, they should make a heck of a lot more movies like "Keeping Up With the Steins" than the big block-buster movies which everybody sees and are basically wastes of time. This is a wonderful movie, tasteful in every aspect. You find yourself smiling throughout the 1 1/2 hour movie. My only negative is that I wish it were longer! It is not a knee slapping kind of comedy even though two or three times I laughed at loud. How I wish Hollywood would stand up and take notice about this kind of film. To me, this is the standout of the season so far. You don't have to be Jewish to enjoy this film, but as they say, "it couldn't hurt!" Run - don't walk to see this film. My rating - EXCELLENT!!