Billboard Dad

It's the Olsen twins to the rescue once again in their straight-to-video release, Billboard Dad. With Venice, California, serving as a Bohemian backdrop, the preteen queens of the dead-mom genre scheme to find their widowed father a girlfriend by turning a Hollywood billboard into a personal ad. Breezy predictability ensues: Dad gets thousands of letters and dates a series of progressively weirder women before bumping into Ms. Right. Since Dad's a successful sculptor, true love destroys the angst behind his profitable art. As his agent tries to drive a wedge between the lovebirds, the twins become unwitting accomplices. All of this just sets the stage, really, for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen to do their thing--they are way cool, fashionable, and mature beyond their preteen years--with their equally hip friends, who have a drama of their own unfolding on the diving team. Nothing truly unexpected happens, but it doesn't matter. In other words, parents, don't watch this alone. --Valerie J. Nelson