Raising Helen review

Pesky kids, eh? Always arriving slap-bang in the middle of your comfy adult life, turning it upside down with their `amusing' toilet habits. Or at least that's how Hollywood sees it if Three Men And A Baby, Baby Boom, Big Daddy and now Raising Helen are to be believed.

Helen (Kate Hudson) is a high-flying PA who likes nothing more than drinking and dancing - - until she's lumbered with her late sister's three kids, forcing her to grow up sharpish. Cue frantic attempts to swap her cocktails and coke for cups of milk and plates of cookies...

Hudson acts sweet, wrinkling her nose and giggling lots, while Joan Cusack is good value as her mommyhood-gone-mad sister. Plus, Helen Mirren's suitably evil as Helen's boss (played like Cruella De Vil without the spots). But in the end, helmer Gary Marshall makes the brushstrokes too broad, the caricatures too familiar, meaning Raising Helen's a cartoon you never need watch again.