MOVIE REVIEWS: ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE…" (ETC)

Next month Steve Carell will return to the screen in Foxcatcher, in the role of his career. In the meantime, there’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, a slight family comedy that is getting mostly decent reviews. Claudia Puig in USA Today describes the movie as "A pleasant, entertaining way to spend just under 90 minutes, particularly if accompanied by children." To Kyle Smith in the New York Post, however, the movie is simply "irritating." The habitually irascible Smith writes, "Would small children react differently? Maybe: Kids have no taste." But even they, he comments, "have been trained to expect spectacle and maybe even some wit. Getting half a dozen actors to run around being flustered for an hour isn’t exactly as comically engaging as Dr. Seuss." And A.O. Scott in the New York Times calls it "the latest example of a wonderful children’s book turned into a mediocre movie." Not a single critic has much to say about the performance of Steve Carell as the bumbling father in the movie. They’ll have a lot to say about his performance in Foxcatcher.