The Brady Bunch Movie

The Brady Bunch Movie
February 17, 1995
Paramount
Comedy, Musical
DVD
B

This was released on my 27th birthday and I saw it with two younger friends, who are still two of my best friends.  We all enjoyed the movie, but I was the one laughing at nearly every detail, down to the way that Mike hits a golf ball into a glass bottle.  You have to remember that I'd grown up watching B Bunch multiple times, but this was still pre-Internet (for me anyway) and I hadn't had anyone to discuss such details with.  At the time, I probably would've given the movie an A-.

When I saw it again, after buying it and its very Brady sequel on DVD, I found the humor much staler and contrived.  This time, I guess it caught me in the right mood, and I could appreciate it for what it is: a loving if ribald parody of the show.  Having the Bradys inexplicably stuck in the '70s in the era of grunge and car phones (it's never explained why they haven't aged beyond the fourth or fifth season, although there may be some Groundhog-Day-like theory out there) works because their sunny view of life was out of place in the early '70s to begin with.  Also, even after all the Brady parodies in the past two decades (including the clever recent Snickers commercial), this still holds up, due to that attention to detail (most notably in the costumes) and some impersonations that range from adequate to uncanny.

For convenience's sake, I'm going to, well, bunch the Bradys and Alice (with the exception of Shelley Long) under the tag of "Movie Bradys."  They are composed of

• Gary Cole as Mike
• Henriette Mantel as Alice
• Christopher Daniel Barnes as Greg
• Christine Taylor as Marcia
• Paul Sutera as Peter
• Jennifer Elise Cox as Jan
• Jesse Lee Soffer as Bobby
• Olivia Hack as Cindy

The younger kids are adequate.  They look and sound vaguely like the originals.  Bobby is given almost nothing to do, although lisping Thindy has some moments, mostly interacting with the ever versatile Michael McKean, as scheming neighbor Larry Dittmeyer.  Sutera isn't quite right as Peter but he does OK, and ironically is more successful with girls than Greg, whose "Hey, groovy chick" patter and tendency to serenade with songs like "Clowns Never Laughed Before" scare off more chicks than they attract.  Barnes was in a classic Brady homage on the otherwise forgettable sitcom Day by Day, which I will discuss on my TV blog someday.  He's not quite right as Greg either, particularly in looks, but he certainly gives it his all.

Mantel doesn't look quite right as Alice, but she gives a good impersonation.  Long has the burden of her own sitcom image as Diane Chambers on Cheers, but she does capture the worried and cheerful sides of Carol Brady, although not the naughty side.  (Florence Henderson is one of the actual Bradys making a cameo, and at the age of about 60 she shows off a nice pair of gams.)

The real stand-outs are Cole, Taylor, and Cox.  Except for Taylor, none of them exactly looks like their TV counterparts, but they've got the voices and mannerisms down cold.  In this and the sequel (which inspired a lot of memes a couple months ago, more of that in its place), the Marcia-Jan rivalry is raised to eleven, with Taylor's sweet bitch of a Marcia playing off of Cox's neurotic turned psychotic Jan.  (Cox had played Jan onstage in The Real Live Brady Bunch, so she's really got it down pat, from the voice to the hair-swinging.)  And Cole makes us realize how empty Mike's platitudes could be, while he delivers the nonsense with Robert-Reedian earnestness.  Kudos to director Betty Thomas and to screenwriters Bonnie & Terry Turner (of Wayne's World).

If I have any quibbles, I think there should've been more musical numbers (the one at Sears is hilariously out of the blue), and maybe even more cameos.  Note, not only does Davy Jones sing at the dance for Marcia (as he did on the show), but Peter Tork and Mickey Dolenz appear later.  Also of note, the movie is relatively gay-friendly, with not only a gay male interracial couple as neighbors, but also Marcia's likable lesbian best friend.  (And even she does better with the ladies than poor Greg.)

This time Archie Hahn plays Mr. Swanson.  Selma Archerd, who had played a PTA Lady on The Brady Bunch in '73, and had various other minor roles in TV and film, including The Big Bus and Can't Stop the Music, here plays a neighbor.  Reni Santoni, who plays a Police Officer, dubbed the voice of the State Trooper in Groundhog Day.

Bobbie Sunday Starr, who plays Girl who gives Marcia dirty look, would be Passenger in Jeep in Clueless.  David Leisure, who plays Jason here, would be Mr. Chapin in 10 Things I Hate About You.  Alanna Ubach, who's Marcia's lesbian friend Noreen, would be Serena in Legally Blonde.  Yolanda Snowball, who plays Mrs. Yeager, would be a Receptionist in Easy A.  (The man playing her husband is much more recognizable, since James Avery was already established as Uncle Philip on TV's Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.)

Those reprising roles in the sequel, besides the Bradys and Alice of course, include Stephen Gilborn (whom I best know as Ellen's father on Ellen) as Mike's boss Mr. Phillips and RuPaul as scene-stealing guidance counselor Mrs./Ms. Cummings.