Thank God it didn't win best picture!

Rating: Null/10 (26 February 2007)

There is some sanity after all: LMS didn't win best picture.
I have read a lot of the negative comments here and agree with most: gags ripped-off from "National Lampoon's Vacation"; the sickening, cynical, hypocritical final act; and of course, the fact that it's Just Not Funny. All shameless, glaring flaws.
I could add a few more: the clumsy plotting, for one. Did you think for one second that the Dad's book deal was going to go through? The outcome of that story was telegraphed five minutes into the film. Did you really believe that no one in the family besides Grandpa had any idea what Olive's big act consisted of before piling into the van to drive to the competition? Did you buy for a moment that the object of Steve Carell's affection just happened to walk into the same mini-mart in the middle of noweheresville, Arizona? Or that the traffic cop would react the way he did to the porn magazines? Or that the entire family would stand like stumps on the roadside as the teenage son had his screaming fit about not getting into the air force? Or that a kid like that would even WANT to get into the air force?? (By the way, why would you cast Toni Collette, the most talented actress in the business, and then give her absolutely nothing to do??)
All of which leads to the movie's biggest sin... It's one thing to create a family of dysfunctional misfits and then lead them through trial and redemption, but it only works if the writer and director(s) treat those characters with affection and respect. But there was none of that in LMS; both the writer and directors treated the characters with utter contempt from the first frame to the last. They created a family of dysfunctional nit-wit stereotypes, and then threw crap at them for 90 minutes and expected us to laugh.
I know I'll get endless crap for this, but I don't really care. I don't see how anyone could watch the last act of LMS and not feel like they've just been barfed on.