ironhorse_iv Review of Problem Child

Problem Child (1990)

True to its title. The film is indeed problematic. I'll give the movie that.

[5/10 · 13 October 2012]

Calling this family comedy directed by Dennis Dugan a little rambunctious is an understatement. It has a lot of notorious edgier things that wouldn't fly pass with today's mostly tame political correctness family audiences. Yet back then, seeing Ben Healy (John Ritter) and his social climbing wife Flo (Amy Yasbeck) go through hell when they adopted a trouble maker seven years old kid, Junior (Michael Oliver) who turns a camping trip, birthday party and even a baseball game into comedic nightmares was somewhat entertaining to watch. While there were some protestors naming a group called 'In Defense of Animals' that had a problem with the film poster showing a cat in a tumble dryer, implicating the child put it there. The film still mostly got away with PG rating in theaters despite a lot of mean spirited and raunchy humor to the point that it gross $72.2 million worldwide against a production budget of $10 million at the box office. As for television released, the content was cut apart by network censors due to its insensitive for adoption. The only good thing to come out of that was the fact that deleted scenes were used to pad up the running time, creating new versions of the movie that as of this writing has not yet been released on DVD. Nevertheless, it wasn't until the film came to home video that the flick finally received somewhat of a cult status. That's where I manage to go see it. As a kid, I love this movie. Nevertheless, after rewatching the film as an adult. I have to agree with some of the PC friendly audience members. Certain jokes have not really aged well. Call it subjective, but the animal abuse and some of the sex humor does worry me a little bit. However, the disturbing subplot of Junior admiring the bow tie serial killer Martin Beck played by Michael Richards bugs me the most. If this movie was a little more serious. I wouldn't really mind this father figure conflict, as it could be compelling to see if Junior follows Martin into a life of crime or does Ben save Junior from the wrong path similar in the way 1993 film 'A Bronx Tale' played out. However, since the conflict is portrayed as over the top comedy. The results of the third act weren't as impactful as it could had been, especially when Big Ben (Jack Warden)'s campaign for mayorship was not intermixed well. Regardless, I still found humor in the film like certain juvenile music montage sequences such as the rock band George Thorogood and the Destroyers' 'Bad to the Bone' opening riffs and 1960s singer Lesley Gore 'It's my birthday cry if I want to' scene even with me getting up in mature years. Yet I do understand those don't like the film as a whole. The kid is indeed annoying, but if you watch the movie closely, you can clearly see that he's not doing all these heinous acts because he's evil. Instead he doing it to get back to those that mistreated him when he's trying to be good. The film leads heavily on the nurture vs natural side which I kinda like. Another thing that I love is John Ritter. That actor truly is a treasure. He can play any humble pleasant fictional person in the world and make the individual seen believable real unlike the loud mouth cameo of Gilbert Gottfried as Mr. Peabody from the adoption agency that seem really fake. Ben is the only person worth rooting. Ritter doesn't get enough credit for being the glue that held all the pieces of this film together. Without him this movie would had fallen apart. Regardless, the flick was followed by two sequels: 1991 'Problem Child 2' and 'Problem Child 3: Junior in Love' which aired on NBC television in 1995. Along with an animated TV series that aired in 1993. Overall: While this movie received overwhelmingly negative reviews during its theatrical release. It's nowhere near the worst Dennis Dugan's movie. That honor goes to 2011 awful trashy comedy 'Jack and Jill'. In the end, this motion picture is not so bad. It's just misunderstood. This is one problem worth solving.