Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad

Sometimes life just gives you a wad of gum in your hair. In director Miguel Arteta’s adaptation of Judith Viorst’s classic 1972 kids’ book, not only do things go badly for 11-year-old Alexander (newcomer Ed Oxenbould), but his family gets a rotten day all their own. The shoot was similarly chaotic. ”There was fire, things falling off of cars, fake vomit, crocodiles, and pee,” says Steve Carell, who stars as Alexander’s job-seeking dad. But on-set mayhem proved necessary for the cast. Says Jennifer Garner, who plays the harried bread winning mom, ”It wasn’t till we had our first day together in the hot, hot sun doing the same scene over and over that we felt like a family.”