Cheap Leave It to Beaver (DVD) (Christopher McDonald, Janine Turner) (Andy Cadiff) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Leave It to Beaver

The movie is the exact same way; don't expect something COMPLETELY lifelike... but DO expect something a bit different from the original show. The Cleavers have been updated... and I think my favorite part was when Mrs. Cleaver told Eddie Haskill off... that was great.

The characters have a great performance, too... Adam Zolotin was a great Eddie Haskill, and Christopher McDonald was the perfect Ward.

And watch out for cameo appearances from a couple of the original stars of the series. Those were great to see.

All in all, if you want to see a movie that makes you think, don't get it. It isn't that kind of a thing... but for a family movie, I don't think that there's a better one.

If you enjoy clean family entertainment, you will love it.
I enjoyed this movie more than I expected to. There were two reasons I wanted to see this film: 1. Leave it to Beaver has always been one of the best shows on television. 2. (I must confess) I have never seen a more beautiful lady in TV or movies than Janine Turner (who also played Maggie O'Connell on TV's Northern Exposure). On neither count was I disappointed. I thought it was a very good adaptation of the TV series, and I especially enjoyed the cameo appearances by Barbara Billingsly and Ken Osmond (June Cleaver and Eddie Haskell in the original series). Do you want a break from the rapid-fire sensationalism in most modern movies? Do you enjoy clean family entertainment? Then you will love this movie.

Meta-Beav?
It's interesting to compare this film with "The Brady Bunch Movie", another big-screen adaptation of a ubiquitous old TV sitcom that appeared in theaters a year or two earlier.

Both movies take a postmodern approach, self-consciously referencing the period origins of the source material. But whereas "Brady" used this to a comically dichotomous effect (placing the literally-stuck-in-the-'70s clan inside a dysfunctional '90s Los Angeles), "Beaver" attempts a synthesis in which '50s cultural mores and aesthetic values still hold sway in the present day. Thus, we're treated on the one hand to such contemporary accoutrements as home PCs, cell phones, and flat-screen televisions--at one point Ward and a miniskirted(?!) June are seen watching a "Home Improvement" episode--and on the other hand to such iconic '50s paraphernalia as white picket fences, soda shops, pigtailed little girls, teenage guys in letterman sweaters, and women in ever-present pearls and high heels.

While the overall tone of this film is sweetly nostalgic rather than abrasively ironic a la the "Brady" movie, one can't help feeling that at some level we're being winked at; viewed in a certain light, this "Beaver" could almost be taken as a sly satire of Republican family values posturing and '50s fetishism. There's a decidedly Stepfordian quality to much of the film, particularly in Janine Turner's portrayal of June. On the other hand, it's difficult to imagine a "straight" update of the show that wouldn't in some way have sacrificed either plausibility or the spirit of the original.

Nonetheless, on a less critical level this movie works as serviceable family entertainment. Parents, especially those put off by the aforementioned "Brady Bunch" film, will be relieved at "Beaver"'s gentle, kid-friendly quality; and fans of the original will delight in some well-placed cameo appearances.