HEFE'S REVIEW OF:
ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING (1987)

OPENING THOUGHTS

    Some movies really capture a time and a place well, and this is one of those movies. That doesn't necessarily mean that it is a good movie by any means, it just means that there is no question about when the movie was made. It's kind of like when you watch porn from the eighties, the mustaches and enormous pubis regions are a dead give away... I have heard.

ACTING

    ELIZABETH SHUE was perfect in her part as Chris the babysitter. She was very eighties, in fact she kind of reminded me of my cousin Nicole who used to babysit me when I was little. For some reason I have a very vivid memory of asking Nicole, probably about the time this movie was released, what her favorite band was, and her telling me that it was Miami Sound Machine, can you imagine a worse response? It's like asking someone what kind of movies they like and them responding with kiddie porn. Anyway Shue brought a lot more vim and vigor to the part than most people would have, and I think that is because you could tell she took the part seriously, even if the movie itself was kind of silly.
    ANTHONY RAPP got his acting career started with this movie playing the dorky Daryl. Who would have thought this goofy kid would grow up to get AIDS over and over again as an original cast member of the play Rent. I actually thought he did a good job, he played his part exactly the way it should have been played. He acted just like every red haired kid I have ever met, over-excitable and at times, kind of a dick. Is that racist?
    THE SUPPORTING CAST had a few gems in it as well. I absolutely loved Vincent D'Onofrio as Dawson in this movie. He looked totally bad ass in his little blonde wig. It's hard to believe this is the same guy from Law & Order: Criminal Intent. I also enjoyed John Ford Noonan as Handsome John Pruitt, the crazy tow truck driver with a hook for a hand. I enjoyed watching him go from friendly grandpa to psychotic crazy fucker whenever his cheating wife was brought up. Awesome stuff.

DIRECTION AND SCRIPT

    CHRIS COLUMBUS directed this Adventure In Babysitting, and I learned while looking at his filmography that this was actually his first try and directing. I thought overall he did a decent job, everything looked just a tad over-the-top, which I actually thought was good thing, because it made the movie feel like more of a fantasy rather than a full on stab at reality. By making it feel like a fantasy I was able to be more on bored with what was happening, instead of constantly rolling my eyes as the kids got in one jam after another.
    DAVID SIMKINS wrote a really light-hearted script with characters that actually worked pretty well with each other. The story was not amazingly innovative and the dialogue may not be a shining example of how to write a good screenplay, but somehow it worked. Maybe it's because I watched this movie at just the right time in my life for me to enjoy it, maybe it's because I am a kid of the eighties and watching this movie takes me back to my childhood. Who knows, but despite it's obvious flaws, I still find enjoyment in this movie.

THE VERDICT

    It's not a surprise that this movie didn't win any Oscars, but I still feel that this is a solid movie, even after all of these years. I fully admit that some of that may be nostalgia, and if you have never seen this movie before and tried to watch it now for the first time, your experience might be different than mine. After all like I said before this movie sums up a time and a place, and if you missed watching it in it's proper time and place, then you might have a hard time connecting to it twenty plus years later.
 
 

RATING: C +

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