SYNOPSICS
Carpool (1996) is a English movie. Arthur Hiller has directed this movie. Tom Arnold,David Paymer,Rhea Perlman,Rod Steiger are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1996. Carpool (1996) is considered one of the best Comedy movie in India and around the world.
A man with an important business meeting finds himself having to take care of the carpool for the neighborhood school children when his wife gets sick. Stopping to get donuts for them, things go even more awry when he finds himself the victim of a robbery. However, the situation only gets worse as a desperate man who had been contemplating a bank robbery robs the robbers and takes the man and kids hostage in their van as his truck is blocked by an armored car. The thing then proceeds into a comedic chase movie. The father finds his kids don't really respect him and they react better to the robber. The end result is everyone gets a lifestyle change, including the original store owner.
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Carpool (1996) Reviews
Better than you think, which doesn't help much.
This is your common family comedy: a lack of realism, fart jokes, kids and dopey adults taking control, more bad jokes, and a busy parent with a struggling relationship with his/her child. What is with the last item on that list? All these family movies have the boilerplate `'I hate you, Dad/Mom' 'save me, Dad/Mom' 'I love you, Dad/Mom'' subplots, as if they're required by law. I thought such subplots were dumb when I was young enough to appreciate family movies. As an 18-year-old, they look even stupider. I don't think anyone truly gets anything from them. Even the dumbest jokes were a better investment of time. Still, it's not all bad. Silly movies like this can be much worse. The acting was decent, assuming that several actors were still kids. It's sad that they did a career-crushing film like this. Of the five kids, only Rachael Leigh Cook has had a remotely notable role since (`She's All That,' almost three years later). As for the adults, I was impressed with Rod Steiger and David Paymer, but couldn't they find something better? Most would be horrified to think about a sequel, but with so much to improve, I doubt it could be worse. (Maybe Kayla, now in her late teens, fills in for the carpool and Chelsea and Travis are now teens, with new little kids to take their place. The hijacker could be an early-20's guy so he can have a love/hate relationship with Kayla. You groan, but would you rather a cheesy parent/child relationship?) These are just my ravings: even if you could get the actors to return, the reputation of the original would still be there. Then again, maybe the public has forgotten after four years. My overall impression: this movie is as mediocre as it gets; just how so depends on your age group. Kids will enjoy the bad jokes. Adolescent boys will enjoy Kayla's outfit. Everyone else: it won't kill you, but there has to be at least one better tape in the store. Parents: be advised that family movies are not the best way to spend time with your kids; this one is no exception. My rating: 5.
Classic 90s screwball comedy
This movie is definitely reminiscent of the glorious 90s. The clothes, the hairstyles, the scenery, the attitudes...the complete and utter lack of iphones or cell phones at all haha. In fact, if cell phones had been mainstream at this point the movie would have ended rather quickly! This movie is obviously very far-fetched as most screwball comedies are. One of my favorite story lines though are ones that take place in a day's time like this and which start from something simple which escalates ridiculously. Aside from being very funny it is also heartfelt at times. It is interesting how this chaotic and seemingly dangerous experience strengthened the relationship between the main workaholic character and his emotionally neglected children. He was not a bad guy and he was obviously working so hard to keep them in the lap of luxury but it was clear that along the way he forgot what was important. This hectic day reforged the bond he once had with his children or perhaps never had at all. Some elements with the gun violence/comedy are difficult to watch now as the world has become a much more dangerous place since 1996. If you have never seen this movie before, try to keep that in mind that this is 1996. I do not think a family comedy made now would make light of using guns in a funny way. Perfect movie for people who grew up in the 90s, not sure if modern day people who have not seen it already would enjoy it as thoroughly. Check it out and see!
I liked it as a Kid...
As a kid, I had no knowledge of Cinema. I only relied on Cartoons and Comedies like 'Carpool'. I remember enjoying myself while watching 'Carpool' back in the late 1990's. Now when I saw it on TV after all these-years, When I itself started to watch films like 'Ben Hur', 'Casablanca' etc, I consider this 1996 flick to be a weak effort. 'Carpool' is not a terrible film, but it's not good either. However, Kids of my age back then, enjoyed themselves. In terms of 'Screenplay' & 'Direction', this flick offers nothing magnificent and I can confirm you that the Makers didn't intend to make a 'milestone' film anyway. Their intension was to make Kids laugh, and of what I remember, the kids did. Arthur Hiller's direction as well as the screenplay offer nothing great. For some reason, Tom Arnold won a Razzie-Award for Worst Actor for his performance in here, while David Paymer delivered a truly good performance. David Paymer is amongst "the" most under-rated actors of his time. The kids did a fine job. On the whole, A film that never will be talked about, and I guess it never even wanted to be Evergreen.
Couldn't The Studios Come Up With Something Better Than This ?
CARPOOL was produced by Warner Bros , a film studio with a long history of movie making . You'd think the studio heads would know what makes a successful entertaining film so couldn't have come up with something better than this ? What's that old saying " Never work with children or animals " ? The studio broke one of the rules by employing children as main protagonists and while we don't have much in the way of animals we see another golden rule broken , the one that states " Never work with a duff script " . A man drives his children to school only to get kidnapped by a desperate robber . You probably think you've seen this premise a million times before but it's not really a plot that's been filmed all that many times , probably because it's so weak and obvious which leads me to be confused as to how it survived its pitch . I guess the studio must have been really short of good ideas that month . The already weak plot is brought done even more by the way the actors mug for the camera and the really weak situations: " You put the gun down - No you put the gun down " which means it's not really worth your time seeing
Kinda fun, but forgettable
This film was about what I was expecting, although perhaps a little better. I was surprised that things never got TOO stupid, but that's not to say that it wasn't a piece of fluff. There were a few times when I laughed, and I wasn't watching the clock all that much, but that is about as high as my praise can get for this movie. Basically, it's just another forgettable movie that is an adequate time killer, but has fairly little entertainment value.