Adventures in Babysitting
by Chris Columbus
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DVD details
Actor: Anthony Rapp, Calvin Levels, Elisabeth Shue, Keith Coogan, Maia BrewtonDirector: Chris Columbus
Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
Cinematographer: Ric Waite
Editor: Fredric Steinkamp
Editor: William Steinkamp
Producer: Debra Hill
Producer: Lynda Obst
Writer: David Simkins
Writer: Elizabeth Faucher
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 102 minutes
Published: 2000-01-01
DVD Release Date: 2000-01-18
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Buena Vista Pictures
Product features:
- Chris Parker (Elisabeth Shue of Cousin Bette, Leaving Las Vegas) agrees to babysit after her dread date stands her up. Expecting a dull evening, Chris settles down with three kids for a night of TV.and boredom. But when her frantic friend Brenda calls and pleads to be rescued from the bus station in downtown Chicago, the evening soon explodes into an endless whirl of hair-raising adventures! Baby
DVD Reviews of Adventures in Babysitting
DVD Review: "You kids must be from the suburbs."
Summary: 4 Stars
Elizabeth Shue has been hanging out on my pedestal ever since this movie rocked the theaters way back in 1987. And with mad respect to her Oscar-nominated part in LEAVING LAS VEGAS, it's Chris Parker, the Chicagoan babysitter, who leaves me with the indelible impression. Dunno how many times I paid (*cough*snucked in) to see ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING in the theaters, but, just like Brad, that acne-harried Anderson kid, my high school crush on Elizabeth Shue was fierce and strong and kinda pathetic.
Things begin to veer towards suckville for suburban high school senior Chris Parker when her boyfriend cancels their anniversary date and then she gets saddled with a last-minute babysitting gig. Off she drives to the Andersons, where awaits a routine evening of minding smitten 15-year-old Brad and his younger Thor-worshipping sister Sara. But a frantic phone call from Chris's friend Brenda - stranded at a downtown bus station and in desperate need of a pick-up - has Chris reluctantly packing her charges in her mom's station wagon and, joined by Brad's randy, gate-crashing best bud Daryl, heading out to the City. But the weirdness doesn't really start until the car blows out a tire on the expressway, leaving Chris and the kids braving the seamy 'hoods of downtown Chicago, penniless and very worried. Especially when the creepy, hook-for-a-hand tow truck driver rolls up...
Admittedly, I'm biased. I hold ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING in rose-colored regard, having been weaned on this sort of teen cinema in the '80s. But I get that this is a dated movie nowadays. Thing is, when you park yourself somewheres to peep this flick, don't look too much for hard-hitting realism. ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING, more than anything else, is a comedy fable, and a gentle comedy fable at that, despite the inner-city escapades the kids stumble into. Although I'd like to think that some of the shady characters the kids encounter really would lend a helping hand (or hook) in real life.
There's a lot of zany popping up, but the ever appealing Elizabeth Shue is like the serene eye of the storm. She infuses her character with a certain calm and composure, as well as resourcefulness and cheek. Not to say that she doesn't get shaken up in spots, because she does faint in one scene. But girl isn't quite your shrinking violet. In fact, she unveils unexpected reserves. So, no, it's not only Shue's terrific looks which hooked me in back in the day. Chris earns her babysitting wages as she faces off against a car boosting ring, rival gangs on the El train, and *gulp* a mean-faced bluesman who insists that "Nobody leaves this place without singing the blues." Along the way, she gets a measure of getback at her weasely boyfriend and then lives out the title to the film's opening song.
There are several cute running gags here. One such has folks mistaking Chris for a nekkid magazine centerfold, and this actually ties into the film's McGuffin, a certain adult magazine containing incriminating notes for which the chop shop mobsters are chasing the children. Actually, one of the best lines happens when the head thug can't find the magazine, in which he'd jotted down details of a business deal, and a henchman shamefacedly owns up: "I... uh... took the Playboy upstairs. There was this... article." Another ongoing joke has a very cool payoff and deals with Sara's obsession with Thor. And, lest we forget the reason the kids are in the City, the camera finds time to occasionally cut back to Bus Station Brenda as she experiences her own misadventures, the lowlight of which features a kitten-petting scene. Heh. Poor Brenda.
But, hands down, the best and warmest moment of the film - and actually one of my favorite moments in all of cinema - has Chris and the children performing the "Babysittin' Blues" in that tough blues joint. It's hard to top that act.
Several well-known actors have cameos: Bradley Whitford as Mike, the scuzzball boyfriend; Vincent D'Onofrio as the garage mechanic who resembles a certain Thunder God; and a pre-sexy Penelope Ann Miller as Bus Station Brenda. But the standout supporting actor is this guy, Calvin Levels, who shines as Joe Gipp, the car thief who turns out to be a good dude.
This film is more fluff than grit, I get that. The two teens, Brad and Daryl, are borderline annoying, yes, and the film is soaked in that dated 1980s sensibility. But it's also got more feel-good moments than not, when you can't help but root for the babysitter as she goes above and beyond. And the film is funny. ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING is a must-see for two things. The quite awesome, high-spirited "Babysittin' Blues" number. And Elizabeth Shue. By the way, if you're wondering why Elizabeth Shue hasn't done more films in her career, it's because it's not often that I let her off my pedestal.
Dammit, Elizabeth Shue, you get back on that pedestal!
Description of Adventures in Babysitting
Chris Parker (Elisabeth Shue) agrees to babysit after her "dream" date stands her up. Expecting a dull evening, Chris settles down with three kids for a night of TV ... and boredom. But when her frantic friend Brenda calls and pleads to be rescued from the bus station in downtown Chicago, the evening soon explodes into an endless whirl of hair-raising adventures! Babysitter and kids leave their safe suburban surroundings and head for the heart of the big city, never imagining how terrifyingly funny their expedition will become.Way before she grabbed an Oscar nomination for her searing performance as a world-weary prostitute in Leaving Las Vegas, Elisabeth Shue was known as one of the squeaky-clean actresses of the '80s. Having made a splash in The Karate Kid and the '60s-nostalgia TV series Call to Glory, Shue cemented her good-girl reputation with the charming but badly titled Adventures in Babysitting. Set in the John Hughes-style suburbs of Chicago, the titular adventures follow babysitter Chris (Shue), who agrees to watch the Anderson kids (Keith Coogan and Maia Brewton) when her boyfriend cancels their anniversary date. All is quiet on the home front until Chris is called upon to rescue her best friend (Penelope Ann Miller, also doing good-girl duty) from the seedy downtown bus station. She can't leave the kids, and she can't leave her friend alone in the big bad city, so she packs everyone in the station wagon and heads into Chicago. Screwball craziness begins as they encounter car thieves, knife-wielding gangs, gun-toting truck drivers, and, worst of all, Chris's duplicitous boyfriend. It's hardly mature entertainment, but Shue makes it work; when she wins over the audience at a blues club with her improv singing, you'll be won over, too. In his directorial debut, Chris Columbus (who later went on to helm the sap-fests Mrs. Doubtfire and Home Alone) gently skewers the suburbia white-bread mindset of the main characters, and plays up the comedy over the schmaltz with a subtlety of which he now seems incapable; the near romance between Shue and Coogan is played lightly and adorably. Look for brief appearances by art-house faves Lolita Davidovich as a college party girl and Vincent D'Onofrio as an unlikely savior. --Mark Englehart
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