A film that's kind of reflective of Malcolm In The Middle, young Ed Oxenbould the middle child seems to be having one of those days. Compared to the stars among the rest of the family including his baby brother he can't convince everyone that this is some kind of curse on him. He wishes at midnight that the rest of the family should go through one day of his experience. The next day they do.

Alexander et al is a pleasing family type film that those of all ages should enjoy. Young Mr. Oxenbould comes off like a real kid and not a Hollywood kid. The rest of his family is played by parents Steve Carrell and Jennifer Garner and siblings Dylan Minette and Kerris Dorsey. Garner's bad day has to do with Dick Van Dyke playing himself and doing quite well at it.

The Cooper family beats the odds of every member of the household having a Murphy type day. They do it with style and laughs.

Alexander Cooper is turning 12 and nobody is showing up at his birthday party. The few friends that he has are going to popular kid Philip Parker's party. None of his family gets it since they all have great lives. His mom (Jennifer Garner) is getting a promotion to VP of the publishing company. His dad Ben (Steve Carell) stays at home with baby Trevor and has an exciting job interview coming up. His brother Anthony (Dylan Minnette) has hot girlfriend Celia (Bella Thorne) and is getting his driving license. His sister Emily (Kerris Dorsey) is the star of the school play. So at the midnight start of his birthday, Alexander wishes his family knew what it felt like to have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

This is fine family entertainment but not much more. The kids are likely to find the comedy fun. The adults are probably going to tolerate the cute but limited comedy especially with Carell and Garner leading the way. The kids are perfectly fine too. There is nothing close to being edgy and there is no offensive material. There aren't any big laughs either.

The movie is an adaptation of a book from the 1970s. It takes place 24 hours before Alexander's 12th birthday.

Alexander is one of four children. His eldest brother has an upcoming school prom, a driving test to take and his girlfriend.

His older sister is more interested in the school production of Peter Pan. His baby brother loves his bumble fee soother and his parents Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner are more interested in their careers and the other children. Alexander feels left out, he's having a bad time (no one at school has shown an interest in attending his birthday party because someone else is having a better one) and wishes a bad day on everyone else.

Indeed almost by magic things go rather catastrophic for everyone. A typographical error in a new book puts her mum's job in jeopardy. His sister has a bad cough and becomes hyper after taking some cough mixture resulting in an exuberant school performance. His brother breaks up with his girlfriend and then fails his driving test and crashes the car. His baby brother's favourite soother is destroyed and his father's job interview seems to be heading for disaster.

There is plenty of cloying slapstick, accident prone disasters befalling on the family a lot of it bought about by the family themselves because they appear to be so disorganised.

I watched it with my son who rather enjoyed the slapstick and some of the risqué humour was right up his street as he is near Alexander's age. However I felt that it was rather light on plot and felt more like a Disney television film rather than a cinema film.

The siblings did not feel like a family to me. More like a group of strangers in the same room. Although the parents actually looked like people trying to do their best for the kids and realise they might have ignored Alexander and took him for granted.

It is not a bad film, nor its a good one. It is a film to watch as a family which will keep you sporadically amused.