This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Network: Fox; Genre: Single-camera comedy; Content Rating: TV-PG (some crude humor); Classification: contemporary (star range: 1 - 4)Season Reviewed: Complete Series (2 seasons) I've never agreed with anything with the names of executive producer Steven Levitan or creator Howard Gerwitz on it. Their works, such as the unbearable 'Just Shoot Me!' (complete with unbearable exclamation point) are constructed more to please the network quota than to please an audience. Unlike 'Shoot', which siphoned itself from the tidal wave of the abstractly constructed "New York Single Girl Works at a Magazine" sitcoms or 'Jenny' (a senseless star vehicle for Jenny McCarthy), 'Oliver Beene' is more specific in the material it's stealing from. This time, a hired gun for the Fox network, Gerwitz surfs in and attempts to capitalize on the success of Fox's hit 'Malcolm in the Middle' with some very obvious digs from 'The Wonder Years' mixed in for insurance. Complete with flashbacks and a slamming door sound effect that takes us to commercial. It's kind of an oddity to see so much effort put into just another cookie-cutter comedy.Gerwitz has, without much leg work at all , taken the cookie cutout from Linwood Boomer's 'Malcolm' characters and re-cast them, transported them to the '60s and, 'Wonder Years'-style, given it's young lead an elder narrator in the form of an uncredited David Cross. Gerwitz could have easily taken this formula and done something with it, 'Malcolm in the Middle' and 'The Wonder Years' are far from untouchable works of greatness. Instead, he has these characters played straight for camp, going back to the 60s nostalgia well over and over. Grant Shaud works feverishly to shed his 'Murphy Brown' Miles Silverburg image and still falls on a peg just below the over-the-top man-child father that Bryan Cranston has cornered the market on. If there's anything more embarrassing than the cartoonish excesses of Cranston on 'Malcolm' it's that other people are now inspired to copy it. Else ware it's a mixed bag as Andrew Lawrence ('Recess') noticeably does his best Justin Berfield and Wendy Makkena is quite cute as the classic 60s mom. The biggest impression made out of this cast is Grant Rosenmeyer as the lead. His Oliver makes troubled Malcolm Wilkerson look like a standard cute sitcom kid. Rosenmeyer has a gift for the deadpan and may have a real future.What Gerwitz has working for his bold-faced theft are, for once, solid scripts. Some of the stories, are downright cute (such as when Oliver seeks to propel himself off a swing and over a schoolyard wall) and its observations on middle school life are fairly on the mark (such as when Oliver desperately tries to avoid being saddled with a nickname the rest of his life). Although, there isn't any middle school kid as flamboyantly gay as the offensive stereotype on this show (played horribly by Taylor Emmerson). Some of the 1-liners are quite clever and if you're in the right frame of mind might even elicit a laugh. Something embarrassingly rare on TV. Plus, any show that is cynical and real enough to let our hero not get the girl or have a happy ending gets a point in my book. In that sense, 'Oliver Beene' just might be Gerwitz's 'Fight Club'. You could say that had this show come along a few years ago it might have really been something. Of course, it wouldn't have come along a few years ago. The show doesn't have an original idea or the slightest bit of imagination and that's hard for me to get out of my head. Now so many sitcoms are jazzed up with cinematic visual handstands that just being another single-camera series with no laugh track and a cynical outlook on life isn't enough anymore. We've seen this all before, even if it was only slightly better. * *

Ok, it DOES seem like 'Oliver Beene' is 'Malcolm' meets 'The Wonder Years', but so what? In a world of scarily crappy reality shows, and 50+ years of TV history, isn't better to venture 2 GOOD TV shows, rather than extend ideas from bad ones?I agree that this show will probably be canned shortly, only because producers don't give shows enough of a chance to improve ratings anymore. I loved Family Guy, and wish it was still on, but it is like the original Star Trek was 35 years ago: a mass cult following formed, but not enough of an overall appeal, like American Idol (joy).Comedies are a dying breed outside of FOX. CBS focuses on dramas, ABC invokes reality shows and 'family comedies' (which is producer slang for targeted middle-aged audience). WB wants the teenagers, and NBC rounds up the 'intellectual 18-29 who live in New York' (Is Fraiser even funny anymore, or was it REALLY EVER? I mean if you're gonna spin-off Cheers, get George Wendt or John Ratzenberger, not Fraiser Crane). Friends is still funny, but not fresh. And their 'target' audience is not ethnic, so we don't see any NBC leading roles filled by etnicity, only supporting. What happened to Cosby, Fresh Prince, Different World?Is UPN still even a prime-time station??But at least FOX, albeit focusing on the dyfunctional slice-of-life, has funny comedies. The Simpsons. Malcolm. That 70's Show. Bernie Mac. King Of The Hill. Family Guy (defunct). Futurama (soon-to-be defunct). Oliver Beene.And hey, we'd be able to give all these new shows half a fighting chance if they weren't being filled with reality shows (which producers LOVE because they're short, and by now, a guaranteed lock in viewership) like Married By America (the most degrading yet) or until Mr. Personality airs. One day, reality shows will be so ugly, we'll see a televised version of Russian Roulette. I swear we will.And while Grant Rosenmeyer is no Frankie Muniz, he tries to be real. After all, we all can't be scary bullsh*t like V.I.C.I. in Small Wonder can we?So to sum up, Oliver Beene is cool. Cherish it now, because you might miss it when it's gone, kinda like Family Guy. And for whoever earlier said Family Guy is much better than The Simpsons, he obviously haven't seen more than 2 episodes. Simpsons still rule.

Andy was so cute in the the show i wish he would be in more part but i am just glad he is in it. Oh and the show was really funny i almost feel out of my seat when the dads caught them kissing each other because i was laughing so hard and when the dads were screaming at each other

Unfortunately I was pretty disappointed with this show. The comedy was mediocre, the characters were not very likeable, and the acting seemed pretty forced and OVERLY exaggerated. Who knows though, since it's only the first episode maybe the show will improve--but I don't think I'll watch again to find out. . .