Review of Adventures in Babysitting (1987) by Jesse O — 24 Jul 2018

Looks like Disney needed to ruin one more thing for everyone, didn't they? It wasn't enough for them to ruin fairy tales by deciding to buy the rights to characters that were part of the public domain.

And it's not just that, they also ruined these stories by stripping them of all their juicy and deliciously dark themes to make something more family-friendly and, therefore, also more commercially successful.

It's not enough to have bought LucasArts, therefore giving them the rights to the vast Star Wars universe. Though, in this case, George Lucas himself had ruined the name, so it might as well have gone to Disney.

It's also not enough for Disney to own all of Marvel's properties as well and, eventually, if the deal goes through, to own 20th Century Fox and THEIR Marvel properties as well (20th Century Fox is the only one of the major film studios supporting different forms of telling stories within the superhero genre.

They'll also own, with this same deal, more 60% of Hulu and, of course, they also own Pixar. Pretty soon, they'll buy the moon and make a theme park out of it, for those Futurama fans out there.

No, they need all of this and, on top of that, they need Adventures in Babysitting too??? No. Enough. This is where I draw the line. I will not allow Disney to besmirch Adventure in Babysitting's good name by putting out an inferior TV remake.

What's that? The remake has been out for two years now and it's, apparently, not that bad of a movie considering it's a Disney TV original movie? Seriously, though, it should be obvious that that's all a joke.

I doubt that acquiring the remake rights for this is a major part of Disney's quest to control everything under the sun. Having said that, I'm glad that I chose this movie, because I was on a run of 6 movies that, honestly, weren't very good.

I don't know if I considered this a sure thing to break that streak, but I wanted to watching something a little lighter and, quite frankly, this was the best option that I could come up with with the limited time I had to pick prior to dinner.

And I'm glad I did choose this. Though, it's weird that, even with the fact that this movie is relatively tame and innocent, that Disney had to, I'm certain, tone a lot of the movie down for their TV remake.

This one features gang fights, Daryl is kind of a sex fiend, BLOOD (but really very little), literal ass kicking, UNDERAGE DRINKING (will SOMEBODY think of the children?!?!?!), Brad has a knife dropped on his toe, a Playboy issue is a major plot point, car thievery, being hunted down by criminals for their possession of a Playboy issue with a lot of notes related to their illegal chop shop business, Sara climbs down the side of a building (stupidly enough), among many other things.

And, yet, even with all that, this still ends up being a relatively tame little movie. Perhaps tame isn't really the correct word, but it's a movie that's still very light and breezy to watch.

One of the big issues that I have with films like this, where it's like a series of unfortunate events taking place in a really short time span, is that very thing. All of what happens in this movie, as a result of Chris' best friend (Brenda) running away from home to go downtown, feels like way too much too happen in such a relatively short time span.

And I get the whole thing is to prove that, while Brad and Sara's parents thought they were having a relaxing night home, they were, in fact, doing quite the opposite. Going all over the city and being placed in all sorts of different and, potentially, dangerous situations.

Though, of course, to be fair, that is part of this movie's charm. Just the sheer amount of stuff these kids are put through. And, to the movie's credit, while it's not perfect, it's an entertaining movie to watch from beginning to end.

I think, while they're still thematically different movies, this could definitely be compared to Ferris Bueller's Day Off in how the narrative is structured. Bunch of kids doing a bunch of shit they're not supposed to be doing while their parents think they're home, safe and sound.

Even the climax of Chris trying to beat Brad and Sara's parents home, whom they see on the road on the way there, is similar to Ferris Bueller's iconic climax. Obviously, in this movie, it's not as memorable as Bueller's ending, which is still parodied to this day.

There might be something to this, since this movie was released the year AFTER Bueller came out. And Bueller was one of the most commercially successful movies of 1986. So, again, I'm certain that changes were made so it could be more similar to that in order to attract some of the same crowd.

But, again, even with that, the movie is entertaining on its own merits. It's not a Bueller rip-off by any stretch of the imagination and that's not what I'm trying to say. Like I said, however, it's not perfect and there's some scenes that don't really work.

The one that comes to mind, immediately, is when the kids put on an impromptu performance at this blues club, since they're, somehow, not allowed to leave the stage without singing the blues. Is that law? What if I just leave? Do I get murdered? Anyway, the kids put on an amazing performance, as if they were The Commitments or something.

The out-blues the blues artists themselves and bridge the racial gap between white and black people. It's not a bad scene, but it's just kind of preposterous in execution, just the idea of these kids somehow being better at the blues despite, theoretically, never having even performed before.

Then again, to be fair, a lot of the movie is preposterous and it still works. Maybe I'm just nitpicking, who knows? It's not like the characters are incredibly complex, but the leads are all well-written with their own identifiable personalities.

I did like how Brad's crush towards Chris didn't really go anywhere, as they normally would in these types of movies. It gives it a bit of a bittersweet ending in that Brad is on the outside looking in as it relates to Chris' love life.

It's small, but it's something and I think it's better than wrapping everything up in a neat little bow, which this movie did anyway with the exception of the aforementioned issue. Solid performances, solid script and, overall, just a fun tone.

I can't really complain much about this movie. Wouldn't say it's anything more than just a good movie, but I definitely enjoyed my time with this and this was precisely what the doctor ordered after the past week of below average-to-average movies.

Would definitely recommend it if you're wanting something lighter and more casual.