Adventures In Babysitting
Elisabeth Shue had literally burst onto the scene and into the consciousness of nearly every American male with her role in the vastly overrated âguy filmâ The Karate Kid, her nearly overwhelming presence of sweet, feminine, nice girl aurora successfully cancelling out Ralph Macchioâs overearnest bad acting in the lead role (and whose career subsequently went nowhere) and Pat Moritaâs fortune cookie clichĂ© filled trainer role (although he still maintained a nice character acting career) and in the role of the love interest, successfully caused viewers to keep watching in spite of the ridiculous Rocky In A Karate Tournament storyline. Rather than continue on in the equally ridiculous sequels, Shue was deluged with offers of various kinds before settling on this 1987 release to be her first actual starring vehicle, a family comedy with a rather dark metaphor to it directed by one Chris Columbus, a guy who was soon to hitch his wagon to such big time money making franchises as Home Alone and Harry Potter, using a story concept that actually was first developed in the 1960s as a starring role for Hanoi Jane Fonda (!) before twisting and churning through various stages of production development until the 80s came around. Shue was certainly up to the challenge here and the opening scene which shows her exuberant teenage girl dancing around her bedroom while preparing for the biggest date of her life with her beloved boyfriend shows just what an incredible star quality she possessed with an energy, charisma and confidence that was second to none (the whole movie could have been just her dancing around her bedroom and nobody would have complained). But alas the storyline must get underway, beginning when Shueâs boyfriend cancels the date claiming to be sick which leads to her accepting a last minute babysitting job with your typical upper class suburban brats. But things get screwy when Shueâs best friend (Penelope Ann Miller, whoâs annoying here and when she started taking on romantic leading lady roles, was still annoying) calls from the bus station, having apparently run away from home but who is now having second thoughts as the selfish girl tells Shue that sheâs the only one who can save her by coming down there into the metro area of Chicago and picking her up. Shue foolishly agrees (although if she didnât, there wouldnât be any movie) to go get her parasite friend and when she realizes the consequences of leaving her charges behind, decides to bring them along too. They include the little girl (Maia Brewton, who in real life grew up to be a happily married lesbian) with an unhealthily obsessive interest in the comic book character Thor, her older brother (Keith Coogan, one of the more unappealing entities in Hollywood back in the 80s), with a very obsessive interest in Shue whom he is madly in love with and the brotherâs best friend (Anthony Rapp, trying oh so hard to be funny enough to steal the movie away from Shue and utterly failing) who has found a way to tag along with the others even though he has no reason to be there at all. The plan is to just be gone for only an hour to pick up Millerâs idiot character from the bus station (where she is being harassed by homeless people and a random guy flashing a gun at her for no apparent reason whatsoever) and then quickly head back home before anyone figures out what has happened, but those ideas are soon derailed by a flat tire followed by Shue being dismayed to find out that she has forgotten her purse (which contains her checkbook she was planning to use) and leaving her and the kids up shit creek over such a stupid mistake which sheâs made (although if she had remembered her purse, there would be no movie â see the pattern?). The movie then turns into a series of fast paced encounters which also mostly suffer from the distinction of being overly contrived, but the enjoyment comes from the sight of watching the increasingly flustered Shue handle everything as it comes along (not a problem for most viewers, especially males) with ongoing running gags including several people mistaking her for a recent Playboy Playmate whose (clothed) pictures we do see and might very well be of Shue although itâs clearly not her babysitter character. Their encounters range from dealing with a scary tow truck driver with a hook hand (who then flips out when he finds out that his wife is cheating on him), to a slick car thief who obviously takes a liking to Shue even as he works for even nastier bad guys who run an illegal car chop shop (and who pursue the kids for finding out where their headquarters are) to an Indian doctor at an all night ER who looks as if heâs ready to drop dead himself and even Shueâs duplitious boyfriend himself who obviously lied when he cancelled the date because Shue just wonât put out. The inherent ongoing dynamic here is that when these kids (including Shue herself) venture out into the world from their sheltered, privileged suburban lives, they wind up getting a lot more than they bargained for in the big bad city of Chicago especially when it comes to dealing with ârealâ people (or at least, people who live miserable day to day lives with seemingly no real way out) who might not act quite as polite or civilized as the types which theyâve gotten used to. And really it is Shue and her quick wits along with her ability to sweetly improvise her way out of trouble (her confrontation with two street gangs about to go to war on a subway is definitely a highlight) which is the source for much of the humor watching her survival instincts kick in even as she doesnât really have either a mean or aggressive bone in her body. As a result, these adventures take both her and the kids through a series of setpieces which (despite the little girl with her obnoxious remarks and Coogan with his whining and Rapp with his stand up comedian personality which doesnât win him many points with either Shue or the viewer) as dumb as many of them would seem to be, doesnât ever sink the movie solely on the basis of Shueâs personality alone, providing her with such opportunities as having her walk into a blues bar and finding Albert Collins playing there who implores her that âno one leave this place without singing the bluesâ for which she does just that, giving a spoken word / singing performance about her hellish night of babysitting complete with guitar accompaniment. There is also the sight of them crashing a fraternity party where Rapp actually gets to make out with a young Lolita Davidovich and a VERY contrived situation that sees the little girl get chased all the way onto the roof of a 40 story high rise by the bad guys, one of whom feels compelled to climb out there and risk his own life as well much to his regret. But the best scene is when Shue and the kids go to pick up their now fixed vehicle and encounter the muscle bound mechanic whom the little girl mistakes as her hero, Thor (she even wears a steel hat with wings because she is so devoted to him). The even more amazing fact is that the mechanic in question is played by none other than Vincent DâOnofrio, fresh off losing all the weight that he had gained playing Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket and sporting a pretty nice looking build to him with the sceneâs charm coming from the idea that the little girl (who truly thinks that itâs Thor under a secret identity) believes it so much to really be him that the writing leaves the door only slightly ajar as to the possibility that it could very well be (or maybe DâOnofrioâs mechanic was just tickled pink by the thought). By the time that Shue finally retrieves her friend Miller (who is such a spoiled, clueless type that she probably was better off being left for dead), gets the kids home and does a quick cleanup before the parents get home is when one realizes that if any of the plethora of other hot young actresses who had also auditioned for this part (including Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Jodie Foster, Michelle Pfeiffer, Valerie Bertinelli and Justine Bateman) had wound up getting it, then it would just be a completely forgotten B (or C) level comedy that would have lacked Shueâs soft spoken sweetness or her uncanny ability to realistically play an All American teenager who really could be the girl next door, one who is just as easy on the eyes as she is easy to root for. More importantly, she proved here that she can carry the day even if given the most ridiculous situations from scene to scene, a quality that a lot of her fellow A listers do not even remotely possessâŠ
8/10