I Do, They Don't (2005 TV Movie) User Reviews

On Average, Nothing Gets Done

[boblipton · 5/10 · 20 March 2005]

This so-so family movie is a fairly innocuous effort in a fairly standard mode -- a couple gets married on drunken impulse in Las Vegas, and their kids don't like it. Will love -- or a soundtrack of an Elvis impersonator singing "Viva Las Vegas" -- rule the day, or will family pressure ruin everything?

The hook for this movie is that the leads -- Josie Bissett and Rob Estes are married, and they are a cute-looking couple. Most of the worthwhile jokes are in the camera work by Michael Storey and editing by Drake Silliman. This being 2005, we have modern liberation: she is a minor celebrity, a cookie magnate. He likes to wear hats and sing karaoke versions of "Fever" -- Peggy Lee needn't worry.

If you never see this episodic movie, you probably won't have to explain why you missed it, but there's a lot worse crud out there.

Could have been worse

[dunneman-1 · 21 March 2005]

While nobody will ever confuse this movie with Citizen Kane, it is not a total waste of two hours. This is a typical "his kids vs. her kids" movie, except unlike the Brady Bunch, it tries to deal with some modern issues facing blended families, like when the father's second-oldest son and the mother's oldest daughter are discovered kissing on the patio. At least, being on the ABC Family Channel, this situation is not handled as crudely as it might have been on a different channel. The closest this movie comes to being risqué is at the beginning of the movie, when the mom wakes up to find her youngest daughter sleeping on the pillow next to her and asks "Where did you come from?" "Your uterus," replies the tot.

Pretty bad

[MSusimetsa · 2/10 · 29 April 2010]

The plot premise is pretty standard fare - a couple get married in Vegas and then have to tell their kids what's happened. Where it goes sour is scripting and acting. The adult actors cannot even act drunk in the Vegas scene, nor is their hangover believable in the morning after. The lines they deliver are unbelievable and forced. Some of the kid actors are actually far better than the adults.

The plot turns are all predictable and are basically taken from the Handbook of Average Made-for-TV Movies. It is a movie that makes you sit it through, frowning at the badness of the script, but holding promise of it getting better. But it never does.

'Step By Step... on some really bad drugs.'

[friend_of_a_friend · 7/10 · 23 May 2005]

Rob Estes, Josie Bisset and a crap load of kids that look nothing like either of them.

Basically, Rob and Josie have a shotgun wedding on a drunken night during a Vegas vacation. They each come home to find that their respective children already know of the nuptials due to tabloid-like not-so-fodder. They, Rob and Josie, move both of them and their eight kids into one or the other's house.

Rob builds furniture, I think, which is close enough to Frank Lambert's (Patrick Duffy) construction job on the much similar Step by Step to warrant eternal mockage.

Josie is some sort of cookie-making queen, though it doesn't look like she makes any of the cookies. Not close enough to Carol Foster's (Suzanne Somers)hairdressing job to warrant likeness mockage, but hilariously preposterous enough to warrant atrocity mockage.

Unlike Step by Step, they were a couple before the vacation and actually knew one another's last names, or so one assumes if their serious enough about a relationship to take a trip together.

Anyhow, there are eight kids; Moira, Sandy, Jeff, Lily, Daisy, Nathan, Andrew L. and Andrew B. I, personally, think they should've just called the younger Andrew 'Andy'.

There's a lot of product placement, particularly for Soup at Hand (Which is disgusting) and Listerine Pocket Packs. There are also some stupid, senseless moments. It's also not a great film to promote happy families.

But, hey! Rob Estes! This concludes my review of 'Step By Step... on some really bad drugs.' Watch it for Rob Estes and his pretty!eyes. There are some great pretty!eyes shots.

I guess it's okay, but some things are unnecessary

[theguys1 · 3/10 · 23 July 2005]

This movie does not really promote kids to be nicer and have better attitudes, as a family movie should, and this wouldn't be considered family anyway because it has some things in it that children shouldn't be seeing. Not the best ABC Family film if you ask me. If there were less sexual themes in the movie, then maybe it would be better. Hollywood isn't doing anything to make a movie better by adding in sexual situations. There's really no reason for them. At least this is a TV movie. I wouldn't want to waste my money on this garbage by renting it. If you have other things to do other than watch this movie, please proceed to them.

A really bad message to parents and kids.

[shneur · 1/10 · 21 March 2005]

I usually comment only on movies that I like, figuring "everyone to his/her own taste," but here I want to make an exception. The premise of this movie, which somehow seems to get lost in the shuffle, is that these two self-centered adults have a perfect right to go off to Las Vegas, get drunk, get married, and inflict incalculable suffering upon their respective broods of children. Even allowing for the culturally sanctioned inebriation, they have neither the courage nor the sense of responsibility to wake up the next morning and undo what they have set in motion. After all, "love" is all that's important, isn't it? To hell with everybody else. Whether or not things "work out in the end" is really not the point; in fact it's quite irrelevant. The point is that disrespect for others, especially if they are young persons, and especially if they are in a position of dependency, is made light of and thereby reinforced by this movie. There are far more innocuous behaviors these "parents" could have performed that would have brought down an army of social workers on their heads in a heartbeat.

corny family movie

[take_a_breathx53 · 3/10 · 23 November 2005]

with this ABC family attempt of the hit blockbuster "cheaper by the dozen" comes an obnoxious amount of corny dialogue, shallow plot lines, and cheesy comebacks. With about two good actors among many wanna-be's, this movie was a major disappointment. Its a Hollywood-wannabe ditto of an already bad plot. Then, because they needed a lot of actors, that meant that they'd probably be more lenient. So the acting wasn't five-star. The plot moved fairly fast, and the twists were bad and had horrible timing. The junction of characters and the "end relationships" were also too mushy and clichéd for me. Spare yourself and rent something better.

Very enjoyable

[beachreader · 8/10 · 20 March 2005]

How nice to have a movie the entire family can watch together. Josie Bissett and Rob Estes (who are married in real life) play a couple who marry in Las Vegas on a whim and then not only have to break the news to their kids but then have to try to meld their respective households (each has two boys and two girls)into a cohesive family unit. What transpires when the group, which includes four teenagers, two preteens and two younger children, makes one wonder at first if there can ever be true happiness for Carrie and Jim. The fights between the kids (and one little love affair between two of them) make one wonder if everyone will ever be able to get along. More interesting than the Brady Bunch, what this is a totally enjoyable way to spend a couple hours. Recommended as a feel good movie for all ages.

Tell ABC Family they have the start of a new series here!

[nickysmom1999 · 10/10 · 18 April 2005]

I thought the movie "I Do They Don't" was fantastic. In the past I've watched Rob Estes on "Suddenly Susan" & "Melrose Place" and also Josie Bissett on "Melrose Place" and loved seeing them together again in "I Do They Don't". They have great chemistry together (I guess being married in real life helps that!) - in the movie they are both widowed with children and careers and they fall in love and try blend their already busy chaotic families together without dropping the ball. Of course they stumble, but they keep it together which is what working and raising a family is all about. So many people have been talking about this movie - all good! - and the movie left us wanting more. This would make a great series - appealing to many ages! - it would be so nice to see a real life, down to earth, family show like this that portrays the reality of so many of our lives today - instead of the so called "Reality TV" that all the stations are overwhelming us with these days. Someone tell the people at ABC Family they have the start of a new series here!