Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star
76
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The
45
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Keeping Up with the Steins
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 22 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 10 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Written by: Mark Zakarin
Directed by: Scott Marshall
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 12, 2006
DVD: October 31, 2006
Running Time: 99 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for some crude language, nudity and brief drug references
Starring Jami Gertz, Daryl Hannah, Garry Marshall, Jeremy Piven, Doris Roberts, Daryl Sabara, Cheryl Hines, and Larry Miller
Like the young Indian braves of long ago, Benjamin Fiedler (Sabara) is about to undergo an initiation rite that will take him from boy to man. But rather than face the perils of the hunt, he must endure something far worse -- a Bar Mitzvah in Brentwood, California. (Miramax Films)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
What begins as a scathing but loving satire of materialism loses its way once it turns into a warmhearted after-school special about a nice young Jewish boy discovering the true meaning of the bar mitzvah.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A fresh and lovable comedy about a dysfunctional Jewish family planning their son's bar mitzvah.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Mazel tov to Scott Marshall for creating an endearing portrayal of familial lunacy that ought to charm as many Smiths as it will Steins.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
To paraphrase the old ad for Levy's rye bread, you don't have to be Jewish to love "Keeping Up With the Steins," but it helps.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The tribute to an aging parent is moving and gives this routine comedy an extra something.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Chuck Wilson
As director, Scott Marshall displays an unsurprising flair for selling a joke, but also a fine sense of dramatic pacing and, even better, a gift for brevity, neither of which, it could be argued, are innate skills of his famous filmmaking family.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
What could have made for particularly potent satire in the hands of an Albert Brooks or a Christopher Guest arrives in the form of a politely benign family comedy by first-time director Scott Marshall.
Read Full Review >Variety Ronnie Scheib
A sure-fire audience-pleaser, Scott (son of Garry) Marshall's winning comedy bow could have been titled "My Big Fat Jewish Bar Mitzvah."
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Maybe because director Scott Marshall is Garry's son, he allows his affable father to steal the movie from everyone else, and his performance proves to be a small gift worth having.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
A sitcom with enough big laughs and emotional truth to get audiences past awkward pacing and some slow spots.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Blends humor with heart for a satisfying, if predictable, experience.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Despite problems of tone and tempo, Steins is appealingly cast.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Staff (Not credited)
Zakarin's semiautobiographical screenplay hits all the sitcom beats.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Keeping Up With the Steins would have been a much better film if it had waited twice as long before retracting its fangs.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Garry Marshall, old pro that he is, couldn't be more endearing as the grandfather, struggling gamely to make things right.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
The biggest disappointment in the film, however, is Piven's Adam. This film idealizes his character too much and thereby jettisons any case for serious respect.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Director Scott Marshall and screenwriter Mark Zakarin pander to Jewish viewers the way Andy Garcia's "The Lost City" panders to Cuban Americans.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Garry Marshall takes over the movie (no mystery: his son, Scott, directed it), and Keeping Up With the Steins turns into a recipe to forget: chopped liver with ''heart.''
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
It just devolves into the limp sort of schmaltzy conclusion you keep hoping it will avoid.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White
There is potential for laughs in a satire of rich people spending big money on religious galas, but that is not even the real subject of the picture.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.3 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Nancy S. gave it a7:
I think my opinion runs to the first review listed here from "The Onion". It does lose its way from a satire to a family story but, since I really didn't have any expectations, I was okay with that. A satire about people who lack any sense of self-awareness in their amoral race to be on top? Watch "Thank You for Smoking" (which was well done but somewhat unsettling for me). The loss of direction here left Piven (and I am a fan of his intensity) with not a lot to work with but, overall, the actors were enjoyable to watch and the life lessons just this side of Hallmark Heartwarming. I think if they had stuck to the vision from the satiric first part of the film all the way through. it would have been more of what the viewers posting here would have enjoyed. On the other hand, if they had taken the time to develop some of the themes and issues that were brought up in the family story, they could have had something quite thoughtful and satisfying. The truncated scenes and TV-wrap-up did not provide any real depth. But, this is still something you could watch with your kids and talk about later...
Ken G. gave it a7:
This can occasionally get patronizing with "life lessons" on what's really important, but fortunately it doesn't do this too often, and otherwise there is a good bit of warmth, charm, and (mostly) well written and well-played characters here. I was suprised, based on the reviews I read, I wasn't expecting much.
Peter H. gave it a10:
Having seen the trailer several times, I thought I had this movie figured out. I was wrong. But not disappointed. It was funny and fun.
Jeremy P. gave it a0:
I finally have revealed how unfunny I am by acting in this film. You might have been deluded by my comic potential in "Old School," but at last I show my true colors. Whether or not you like this film has nothing to do with whether or not you are Jewish—just simply whether you have a sense of humor. Some of the most embarrassing writing in some time. An embarrassment to a legend Gary Marshall.
Ben F. gave it a1:
Appalling. Heeb magazine ran a profile of this film a few months ago and we presume it would have the same edgey humor of "Jesus is Magic" or "The Hebrew Hammer." Wrong! Smarmy family fare, no edge whatsoever; even the old couples in the audience could barely muster a chucle. We walked out, and couldn't even get a refund.
Amy R. gave it a0:
I was Jewish before I saw this movie, but now I am reconsidering everything. I wasn't offended as a Jew, I was offended as someone who likes to not be subjected to awful writing for what felt like hours and hours. Thanks for nothing.
Ira A. gave it a9:
Nice to have a warm family comedy. The plot is thin but the individual performances by Gary Marshall, Daryl Hannah, Larry Miller, Doris Roberts and Jeremy Piven alone make it worth seeing. It's almost satire, almost sitcom and pretty much fun.
