Excellent but underrated film

A Disappointing Continuation

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Filmed on location in a drab real world setting instead of on an artistically designed backlot, this production, like many a remake, suffers by comparison to the original hit show and other better remakes, such as the Little Rascals or Dennis the Menace. The narrow focus of the dull witted producers seems to have been on production design and the issue of how to tastefully update from the golden age 50's to the 90's. In so thinking, they have put style above substance and altogether fallen short of the achievement of the original. The mise en scene moves from the idealized small town suburb of Hollywoodland to the gloomier landscape of an authentic 90's exurb, with the occasional camp fast food sign and ugly parking lot thrown in for ironic documentary effect. This is meant to make the audience believe the remake is more realistic, yet it drains the beloved TV favorite of iconic appeal. The bland characterization and lackluster acting suffer from a similar shortcoming--a missing sense of drama or a lack of imaginative expressiveness, all in the service of verisimilitude. There's unfortunately also "studied anachronism." 50's cars are randomly thrown onto the set together with more modern makes, a fumblingly inappropriate attempt to capture nostalgic 50's feeling. Probably the lead headed film makers thought they were being clever but it fell flat like the rest of the movie. A good remake may still be made. Until then, watch the reruns.

I rented the movie with great hope I watch a "Leave it to Beaver" rerun every time they come on. What I got was a cheap overated mockery of great television. They turned the show into a complete mess. The characters, with Eddie Haskell as the one exception, were not even similar to that of the TV show. If it ain't broke don't fix it and next leave good wholesome television alone.

Seems amazing what trouble a little kid can get himself into at times. Quite an interesting watch - the plot revolves around the kid Beaver and the problems he has trying to do the things that will get his father to approve of him and like him more, and his older brother's attempts to woo a girl who likes another. Somehow, these people all manage to entangle themselves into one another's lives and makes for some pretty predictable sequences and scenes. But I like shows with kids as stars, and this is one of the better ones to come from the studios.

This is a rather unfocused movie that actually has less depth than the sitcom it's based on. For the kid who played the Beav, it seemed like they wanted all the cuteness and none of the character. The story kept throwing random bits and pieces around, mostly cliches, without tying them together except in the most superficial ways. Scenes that should have been comedic were played by the numbers. The performances were all stiff and lifeless, with the possible exception of the Beaver. There wasn't a trace of chemistry in the entire movie. Ward was presented in a very disjointed manner. June was completely irrelevant, as if the shallow well of the writers' ideas had run dry by the time they got to her. Eddie seemed all wrong. He should have been a Harry Flashman-like character, but in some scenes he came across as either a shy, nervous kid, or even as one of the Good Guys. The "villains" of the movie were only intermittently relevant to the story, and some of that seemed overly artificial and manufactured.All in all, a dull, lifeless movie.