Jack the Bear (1993)

Danny De Vito is a professional clown, whose wife's death in a car accident has left him to care for his two young boys. Loving, but useless at the daily job of fathering, the onus falls on... See full summary »

Director:

Marshall Herskovitz

Writers:

Dan McCall (novel), Steven Zaillian (screenplay)

Stars:

Danny DeVito, Robert J. Steinmiller Jr., Miko Hughes

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Danny DeVito	...	John Leary
Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.	...	Jack Leary
Miko Hughes	...	Dylan Leary
Gary Sinise	...	Norman Strick
Art LaFleur	...	Mr. Festinger
Stefan Gierasch	...	Father-in-Law
Erica Yohn	...	Mother-in-Law
Andrea Marcovicci	...	Elizabeth Leary
Julia Louis-Dreyfus	...	Peggy Etinger
Reese Witherspoon	...	Karen Morris
Bert Remsen	...	Mitchell
Carl Gabriel Yorke	...	Gordon Layton
Lee Garlington	...	Mrs. Festinger
Lorinne Vozoff	...	Mrs. Mitchell
Justin Mosley Spink	...	Dexter Mitchell

Storyline

Danny De Vito is a professional clown, whose wife's death in a car accident has left him to care for his two young boys. Loving, but useless at the daily job of fathering, the onus falls on plucky Jack the Bear (Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.). De Vito's conscience, and a quantity of alcohol leads him to denounce a neo-fascist candidate on his children's TV programme - and also to the kidnapping of youngest son Dylan (Miko Hughes) by a disturbed neo-nazi supporter.

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Plot Keywords:

kidnapping | neo nazi | child kidnapping | tension | suburb | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for elements of theme, and for some terror

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 April 1993 (USA)

Also Known As:

El pequeño papá

Filming Locations:

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California, USA

Box Office

Gross:

$5,145,462 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, American Filmworks, Lucky Dog Productions Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In 1992, Danny DeVito had played The Penguin in Batman Returns, and Gary Sinise had played George in Of Mice and Men. Both roles were previously played by Burgess Meredith.

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Goofs

The stuffed dog on the living room floor of Karen's house.

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Quotes

John Leary: We're at a crossroads, can you feel it? It's dark down there and there are things, nobody wants to meet in the dark. Whether we'll come out on the other side, hating everything and everybody, I don't know.

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Connections

References King Kong (1933)

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Soundtracks

"(I've Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo"
Written by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon
Performed by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra

User Reviews

Nice family movie, but also a somewhat contrived one

I really was in spell of this movie. I was loving it. It was funny and heartwarming. Characters are believable but then the plot goes downhill. the plot becomes expected and keeps falling into clichés. Everything that you think that movie shouldn't do, it does.

The whole thing really doesn't makes much sense and things just seem to happen to get the required emotions from the viewer. But even with these shortcomings in the plot, I have given it an average rating. Mostly due the interesting first half. It could have been really good if the movie had a better and more believable plot.

In the end, how you perceive it will depend mostly on your own experience. Naive viewers will fall in love with it. More jaded and more astute viewers will be able to see behind the ruse. I however felt in between. I was able to see through the ruse, but I still wanted the movie to redeem itself somehow.