The Brady Bunch in the White House (2002)

GARY COLE CHANNELING ROBERT REED GETS A STAR

The only reason to watch this installment of the Brady Bunch Movie Franchise is to marvel at Gary Cole's dead-on impersonation of the late, great Robert Reed. This from a guy who once played an all-night radio talk show host on TV? Cole even physically resembles the Brady dad.

Too bad everyone else makes you moan for the originals. Though, I must admit, the producers/casting directors keep on getting great Marcias.

Oh, and the plot -- others have stressed that the plot is ludicrous and patently improbable, but that's not the real problem. The issue is this: would Mike Brady REALLY behave this way? It doesn't matter if you have to suspend disbelief; this is make-believe, after all. But a scriptwriter's first rule is DO NOT VIOLATE THE RULES OF YOUR CHARACTER'S UNIVERSE.And in the Brady Universe, Mike and Carol would not behave as they do in this flick.
February 13, 2006

Far Out!

This movie wasn't that bad.I like it better than A Very Brady Sequel.Marcia and Mike were good.Everyone else was too old,young,or just didn't look like the character. September 3, 2005

Not Brady, not funny

"The Brady Bunch in The White House" is like Chinese food that's been left on the counter overnight - unappetizing and best left in the box.

My husband and I loved the first two Brady Bunch movies so we couldn't wait to order "The Brady Bunch in The White House". We assumed it had also been a theatrical release. If we had known it was a made-for-TV movie, we never would have ordered it.

If we had watched it on TV, we would have commented on how terrible it was after the first fifteen minutes and turned the channel to watch a rerun of The Simpsons. However, we paid $20 for it so we watched every agonizingly horrible moment of it.

Obviously, this TV movie did not have the budget of the earlier theatrical releases ("The Brady Bunch Movie" and "A Very Brady Sequel") so they could not afford to hire decent writers, a decent director or a decent cast. The actors playing the kids were not recognizable as the Brady kids with the possible exception of the young woman playing Marcia although she was not nearly as skilled as Christine Taylor from the first two movies. The "girl" who played Jan looked to be well in her twenties, Cindy was too small and almost incomprehensible with her lisp. The other kids were at least as bad.

The actress playing Alice brought no "Alice-ness" to the role. Instead she was like a stranger in the family and a damned unfunny one at that.

I had hoped that Saul Rubineck would add some much needed humour to this insipid script but although he was more professional than most of the other actors that littered the screen, he was not given a single funny line. But then nobody else was either.

Besides the obvious problems with this movie - bad script, bad acting, bad direction and bad casting, the main reason this movie doesn't work is that in this movie the Brady's are a part of the modern world. In the first two films, the Brady's not only don't live in the modern world, they don't acknowledge that there IS a modern world. That's the joke. They left the joke out of this film.

The bottom line is this movie is a stinker. Skip it. Don't buy it. Don't rent it. Don't waste two hours watching it on TV. February 8, 2005

Last-ditch attempt to cash in on nostalgia

The only reason why I gave this movie two stars is the idea that Mike Brady would make a great and scandal-free (Were the writers trying to imply something?) president. I actually have no disagreement on that point.

I have a big disagreement with how Mr. Brady finds himself in the White House. The Brady Bunch was built on a foundation of cheese, but their White House occupancy is a new level of absurdity.

We never see Mike getting elected or undergoing any of the constitutional procedures which people are supposed to go through on their way to becoming the president. Don't tell me that everybody in the government is either so unethical or mysteriously gone that a California architect has to save the country. An eight year old could easily see through this movie's script.

I usually like political movies of all types, but this one even had me instead longing for the dentist's chair. It looks like a red, white, and blue version of the ill-fated variety hour (which was made with the television cast).

Greedy entertainment executives were placing the 'Brady Bunch' image on a product without first wondering if the overall concept was reasonably consistent with the tone and image of the original series. Why didn't anybody at the studios remember that a majority of people would NOT watch something just because it had the 'Brady Bunch' name on it?

Making matters worse, this project has yet another cast playing the Brady's; they make the movie cast actually look authentic by their collective lack of acting skills. January 14, 2005

If I Could Rate It 0 Stars...

...well, you know that cliche.

I'm a HUUUUUUUGE Brady Bunch fan. I'll definitely be one of the people who buys Season 1 of the original series on release day, if Sherwood Schwartz and Paramount ever release it. Also, I thought the Brady films were HILARIOUS!!! Shelly Long and Gary Cole made great Mike and Carol Bradys, and the actors and actresses who played the Brady Kids were funny and memorable.

Sadly, this third entry into the Brady Movie 'trilogy' is horrible, at best. Gary Cole and Shelly Long have to work with weak dialogue, a lame storyline, and a supporting cast that you wished could have stayed locked away in the Presidential Bunker for a long time. I think the only non-veteran actor or actress in the film that went on to something successful was one of the girls at Marcia's slumber party, who's currently in that irritating McDonald's commercial with that guy who can't find his Happy Meal toy.

I'm surprised that this film was even allowed to be broadcast on TV, it was so wretched. It definitely ranks (pun intended) with other misfires, like the Variety Hour and The Bradys spinoff. What's really sad is that I think this also puts the final nail in the coffin of the 'anything Brady' nostalgia phase, which also included the Growing Up Brady movie. After this film, I wonder if any more Brady-related projects will be made.

Already Sherwood and Paramount - it's time to clean the palate with the release of Season 1 of the Brady Bunch TV series!!!! November 7, 2004

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