As fun as when I was a kid
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Nostalgia can be a very tricky thing. On one hand it can be like welcoming back an old friend that you haven’t seen in a long time. Suddenly you are flooded with images and memories that take you back to simpler and perhaps happier times. Unfortunately there is also a less pleasant possibility to nostalgia, one that can remind you how much more mature you are compared to when you were younger. Long story short: It can make you feel old. Thankfully upon a recent viewing of Adventures in Babysitting I learned that perhaps I’m still not quite too old to enjoy this fun little film. While not high art, this is a movie that still gets a few good laughs out me to this day.
The story is simple: An unwilling high school senior Chris Parker (Elizabeth Shue) is asked to sit for a group of kids. After the kids’ parents leave she gets a collect call from her friend who has runaway from home. So on a trip to the bus station in “the city” comedy ensues for our cast of characters. Also noteworthy are scenes Chris’ her runaway friend, Brenda, who must have the worst luck in the world or is just really dumb. One thing that really stood out for me on my recent viewing is that for a PG-13 movie, this movie has some language in it. While not R-worthy by any means, but for a family film it is fairly profane.
My only really complain is that it is plagued by a precocious little girl. And she has a superhero fetish but particularly idolizes Thor. Why Thor? Why not Captain America or some other character that is remotely more popular. But I digress, she isn’t annoying just too cute in a give you cavities sort of way. Elizabeth Shue is good as the babysitter, but she does not look like she’s 17 perhaps 20 or so, but definitely not a high school student. Humorously enough, she played a young adult in Cocktail as her next film and then went back to being another high school aged youth in the two Back to the Future sequels. Good thing I wasn’t young enough to notice such things back when I first saw these because I find this really strange and probably couldn’t suspend my belief that much.
This is a very fun movie. It offers a pretty entertaining film with several stand-out scenes including “The Babysitting Blues,” which is as ridiculous as it is funny. One thing I never quite got though is what is so horrible about the city? Presumably taking place in and around Chicago is it really so scary that people from the suburbs stay away if they have to. Not really anything I want to dwell on but watch this movie and see how many times they use the term “the city” with a sense of foreboding. Nonetheless this was a fun flick to return to after all this time and will probably put it into a normal rotation of guilty pleasure childhood favorites.