Directed by John Hughes. Starring Jim Belushi, Kelly Lynch, Alisan Porter, John Getz, Fred Dalton Thompson, Viveka Davis, Gail Boggs, Cameron Thor, Barbara Tarbuck. (PG)
Cutesy, cornball, cloying, shamelessly sentimental and manipulative dreck. Belushi and Porter are "father"-daughter scam artists ("Paper Moon," it ain't) who get taken in by uptight, withdrawn lawyer Lynch, who (whaddaya know) grows fond of them. Clearly tried to do for Porter what the filmmaker previously did for Macaulay Culkin (Shirley Temple for the modern age?), but no such luck. Doesn't even have faith in its own sappiness, as it undermines saccharine sentiment with random episodes of violent slapstick (replete with cartoonish sound effects). When Belushi's character performance is the one that comes closest to resembling a grounded and plausible human being, that should be all the warning one needs to go back to the drawing board. Truly, rock bottom for writer/director/producer John Hughes (it's a wonder he didn't take his name off the thing); not surprisingly, he never directed another movie. Ralph Foody, the movie-within-a-movie gangster from the early "Home Alone" pictures, has a bit part; ditto for Steve Carell as a waiter (unclear whether or not he gets nauseated by food, though).
14/100
Cutesy, cornball, cloying, shamelessly sentimental and manipulative dreck. Belushi and Porter are "father"-daughter scam artists ("Paper Moon," it ain't) who get taken in by uptight, withdrawn lawyer Lynch, who (whaddaya know) grows fond of them. Clearly tried to do for Porter what the filmmaker previously did for Macaulay Culkin (Shirley Temple for the modern age?), but no such luck. Doesn't even have faith in its own sappiness, as it undermines saccharine sentiment with random episodes of violent slapstick (replete with cartoonish sound effects). When Belushi's character performance is the one that comes closest to resembling a grounded and plausible human being, that should be all the warning one needs to go back to the drawing board. Truly, rock bottom for writer/director/producer John Hughes (it's a wonder he didn't take his name off the thing); not surprisingly, he never directed another movie. Ralph Foody, the movie-within-a-movie gangster from the early "Home Alone" pictures, has a bit part; ditto for Steve Carell as a waiter (unclear whether or not he gets nauseated by food, though).
14/100