Review of Dennis the Menace (1993) by Kim G — 18 Apr 2010

This 1993 version of Dennis the Menace is worth watching due to the late great Walter Mathau playing the cranky neighbor Mr. Wilson. He brings some charm to the role and the movie. You can tell that deep down his Mr. Wilson looks forward to Dennis' visits.

While Mason Gamble is probably the best film feature version of Dennis. In the cartoon series I grew up with, Dennis was a bit obnoxious and a little annoying. Here though, Gamble's Dennis is a cute kid that doesn't realize how much of a Menace he is. He means well but he winds up doing something bad anyway.

Christopher Lloyd is wasted though as an ugly thief that Dennis meets when he runs away from home. Next to Lloyd's great work in movies like Back to the Future, The Addams Family and Who Framed Roger Rabbit he has a pretty lousy role. After Home Alone, the 90's had many films where kids beat up grown-ups. In Dennis' scenes Lloyd, he hurts Lloyd on accident which is some of the funnier scenes in the movie. It's more clever than kids beating up grown-ups on purpose like in bad movies like 3 Ninjas. Still, like I said Lloyd had better roles and doesn't even have many lines.