NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Sabah Hensley This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

disdressed12 to me,this sequel to Father of the Bride is not as good.for one thing,there's less humour involved.it's more like a lite drama.also,i don't feel it has the same flow as "Bride".i didn't hate it,but i wouldn't call it a good movie either.maybe average at best.it's basically a rehash of "Bride" though instead of a marriage,its the impending birth of a baby,and Grandfatherhood.also,the particular DVD i viewed the movie on,had poor sound quality and no subtitle or caption options,so it was hard to hear everything.as far as i know,it's the only edition available.i would just warn anyone that this movie may only be available in poor quality.anyway,for me,Father's Little Dividend is a 5/10

cindyjosch I loved this movie and have watched it a bazillion times. I enjoyed the old-fashioned values. I would like to know if anyone can tell me the name of the actor who portrayed the baby. Does anyone know the name of the actor who played the baby?? I can't find the baby's name in the credits anywhere?? Did you know that Don Taylor directed the original "Omen" movie? And now in the year 2006 the newest version of this movie has been made. I wonder what Don Taylor would think of this one?? Tom Irish who plays Ben Banks shows up in the remake called, "Father of the Bride". He is shown at the wedding and later at the reception. It's too bad they couldn't have gotten Russ Tamblyn to come back for the remake, too. No doubt, it would be too expensive to get Elizabeth Taylor to star in it??

laika-lives I'll admit up front that I have serious reservations about some of Minelli's films, beautifully shot though they are. 'Meet Me In St. Louis', possibly the dreariest movie musical ever made and drowning in contrivance and sentiment, is a case in point. I saw 'Father's Little Dividend' without realising he was the director, and although there are obvious parallels - both family comedies set over a number of months -'Father's Little Dividend' lacks Minelli's great strength - the extraordinary beauty of his cinematography. Perhaps colour makes the difference. It also lacks the real saving grace of 'Meet Me In St. Louis', which was an extraordinarily potent central performance from Judy Garland - the scene in which she sings 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas', the one truly worthy song in the film (Don't talk to me about the Trolly Song...), justifies the entire film. Nobody in 'Father's Little Dividend' is really firing on all cylinders in that way.What the film does have is Spencer Tracy's nicely dry performance as Stanley, a man having to adjust to the fact that both he and his daughter are getting older. Joan Bennett, a long way from 'Scarlet Street', is likable in the underwritten role of his wife, and a young Elizabeth Taylor is serviceable as his daughter. No one really shines, although Billie Burke, as the paternal grandmother, keeps threatening to burst out with a real comic performance. Her curtailed screen time prevents her.None of the comic sequences really work, because they never build into anything. Bennett terrifying Tracy with a desperate drive across the city to the hospital (for the birth of their grandchild) comes closest to actually being funny, but there's no capper, no punchline, and Bennett's calmness doesn't seem comically incongruent, but merely inappropriate, as though she doesn't know what sequence they're filming. Only Tracy gets any laughs, and those are few enough (his frozen reaction to learning that he's going to be a grandfather is particularly good).Funnily enough, the most effective sequence springs from the most tedious dramatic device - the apparent break up of Taylor and her husband. When he comes to get her from Stanley's house, she refuses and insists on staying in a room her father will make up for her. Accepting this, he proceeds to reel off to Stanley all the things she needs, both of them growing more and more tearful, until by the end he is helping her to remove her shoes whilst Stanley simply looks on. It's the best played scene in the film, tipping from comedy to genuinely heartfelt emotion (as opposed to Hollywood sentiment), although it's almost spoilt by the reconciliation, when they fall into a typical movie clinch.Nothing else in the film really stays with you - it's pure filler, particularly the last minute he's-lost-the-baby gambit. It's a nice attempt to reflect on common experiences - just as 'Father of the Bride' was - and certainly some of the observations are accurate enough, but ultimately it's just a little bit too nice, too safe, too soft, and it isn't executed well enough to be memorable.

Snow Leopard This solid sequel to "Father of the Bride" has some good moments, and with the same cast on hand plus a similar story line, it feels very much like a direct continuation of the original. "Father's Little Dividend" is a cut below its predecessor, but it works all right in itself.Spencer Tracy once again plays the rather hapless Stanley Banks, and again he shows how good he could be in a rather thankless role. It's almost unfortunate that he seems so natural as a flustered or put-upon husband or father, since he often played such roles although he could do so many other things as well or better. But as far as this pair of movies went, he was certainly a fine choice, since he makes the character believable and sympathetic.Tracy's character is the focal point for the common kinds of changes and adjustments that families must make as the younger generation grows up. Although his reactions are often exaggerated, in general it is fairly easy to understand Stanley's constant feeling of apprehension about any and all changes.As with the first movie, Elizabeth Taylor works very well as Kay, giving her an appealing presence and a simple believability.The pace and the material of this one are not as consistent as they were in the first movie, and some of the comedy ideas come across rather awkwardly. But at other times the characters and cast make things work quite well, and in fact the simplest moments are some of the best ones in the movie.