Review of Adventures in Babysitting (1987) by Jerome H — 16 Sep 2017

A legitimately good film. Not only that, but Adventures In Babysitting is an undetected classic of its genre. Somehow, this movie flew under the radar of every single critic in the nation to disappear between the tiny, tiny cracks in our nation's pop culture.

Actually, that's a lie. Nothing escapes the eye of pop culture, which is why we all know who The Lone Ranger is despite his being a persona non grata for the last forty-odd years (And we do know who The Lone Ranger is, right kids?).

And that's probably also the reason why you remember Adventures In Babysitting (AIB). Perhaps fuzzily, perhaps warmly, perhaps even fondly. Or maybe you saw it last week and hated it, I don't know.

But I'm here to tell you that AIB is one well-oiled machine of a movie. And when I say machine I'm not talking about a heartless, soulless abomination like a Terminator or a Michael Bay movie. What I mean is that AIB meticulously crafted, well cast, and a perfectly paced thrill ride of a movie.

Once our principal cast is introduced, the film simply does not let up, providing laughs and shocks in equal number and pausing only briefly to let us (and the actors) take a breath before moving along to whatever calamity in next in line for our youthful heroes.

And I'd be hard-pressed to think of a more ingenious and flat-out fun MacGuffin than the copy of Playboy that keeps the mafioso baddies hot on our heroes' trail and provides many opportunities for babysitter Shue (bringing an 'A' game from the opening credits to the very end) to be compared to the centerfold.

The cinematography is slick, whether depicting a smoky nightclub or a swanky cocktail party, thanks to DoP Ric Waite. Everything's cut together well, the geography of each scene is clear and easily understood. Watching this, it's easy to see how director Columbus landed the directing gigs on the first two Harry Potter movies: He makes everything so simple to follow that even a child can understand what's going on, even if they don't understand the gags that are aimed more at the parents who've been dragged to the theater.

My only substantial complaint is that Columbus is quite obviously a protege of John Hughes, and some scenes and choices are just too blatantly derived from his films. The aforementioned nightclub scene is a setup right our of Weird Science (tho it plays out much differently), and the mad dash to beat the parents home is a straight-up copy of the climax of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Columbus' choice and placement of pop songs is a little too reminiscent of Hughes as well. But it was his first movie, so maybe I should cut him a little slack.

All in all, AIB is a phenomenal kids' adventure film-well put-together, well acted, and hey, it's got freakin' Thor in it. Not even The Goonies can make that claim. 4/5 Stars.