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Baby's Day Out More at IMDbPro »

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Away from home alone..., 15 March 2008

Author: Michael DeZubiria (miked32@hotmail.com) from Luoyang, China

This is not at all the kind of movie that I would normally watch. There are children's movies and then there are family movies, and the good family movies are the ones that can really be enjoyed by people of all ages. This movie does not at all strike me as a movie that could be enjoyed by people of all ages, mostly because of that picture on the movie box. Ever since King Kong Lives I have developed an almost frightening aversion to any movie that features grinning gorillas. Nevertheless I gave this one a chance and I'm glad I did.

Amazingly enough, almost immediately I discovered that this movie is funnier than most "adult" comedies that I've seen lately, even the good ones. There are so many laugh-out- loud moments just in the first 30 minutes that I didn't know how they could keep that up. Sadly, they don't, but even the less impressive second half is a fun romp through the city at the expense of some witless crooks. The kids are gonna love this.

The similarities to Home Alone are obvious and expected, being written by John Hughes, who has an astonishing list of writing, producing and directing credits stretching over the last 35 years, including genuine classics like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Breakfast Club, The Great Outdoors and Home Alone. And yes, Home Alone is a classic, I don't care what anyone says!

There is one scene of ridiculous bad taste, when Eddie (Joe Mantegna) is hiding the baby under his coat so the police don't find it, only to suddenly discover that he has to maintain his cool before the men in blue as the baby lights a Zippo lighter and lights his crotch on fire. For a movie that is so obviously meant for a very young audience, this one has a surprising amount of sex jokes.

That is, however, the only major problem with the movie (except at the end when they discover that "Baby" is only acting out his favorite storybook. RIGHT). Yes, the baby manages to walk around crowded city streets without anyone ever noticing except the bad guys, but he also manages to climb onto a steel beam being lifted hundreds of feet off of the ground AND cuddle with a monstrous gorilla, both without showing the least bit of fear. Man, that gorilla was scary, too. Obviously not real, but my question is how they got that kid to sit next to that thing without screaming and crying in fear.

Nevertheless, there are so many funny moments and so many truly hilarious jokes ("I seen him. He's in the big broad's purse….") that it's easy to overlook these things. Like so many other movies, if you apply real world logic to it, of course it falls apart immediately, but for an evening of good clean fun you could certainly do a lot worse!

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