Hiding Out

Big shock this didn't strike when the teen iron was hot in the 80s, cuz it turned out to be a big favorite of mine. Others have pointed out its implausibility, but aren't all films? This just moves swiftly from start to finish, and I dare compare it to my all time fave, "Back to the Future", in terms of its pacing. It all begins when stockbroker Cryer goes on the run. He's due to testify against some pre-requisite mob guys who were dealing with bogus bonds (or something). So he looks up his cousin and aunt in Jersey for help. But for reasons only known to himself, decides not to tell his aunt who he is after altering his appearance. He elects to hold up in his cousin's loft for a bit and then finds refuge underneath the school in some sort of abandoned basement. All the while, dealing with an annoying teacher, an unwanted popularity that prompts the kids to nominate him for student council and falling for the sweet Gish. Coogan is good as the dorky cohort to all of Cryer's happenings, which there are plenty of that keep the film rolling. But all this talk about near 30 Cryer and teenage Gish dating in the film is blown way out. Though her age is never mentioned, she's obviously 18, just having been accepted to college. And at the end of film, graduating high school. So, Roger Ebert's comment about her being 15 is waaaaayyy off. Sure it would be an odd romance, but not stat. rape. Anywho, the whole thing is a lot of fun, exploring perfectly what could happen if...

"Hiding Out" is a decent lightweight feature for Jon Cryer and Keith Coogan fans alike. Cryer plays a financial investor who is witness to a mobster's inside trading. But, instead of expediting his testimony and sending him to the witness protection program, he plays dress up and poses as a high school student, a task which is he too uptight for at first, but eventually gets into the swing of things.

The story is pretty stupid, and the ending, in that eager attempt for a happy ending by letting all of the characters fall in love while impecably saving the day, is even more stupid. But, if you don't mind dumb 80s comedies like these, so long as they're about the teen life, then you should enjoy this. One thing's for sure, Jon Cryer, no matter how old he gets, still looks like a teenager.

Jon Cryer might seem a bit too young to be playing a 30-something, but thanks to his charm, he pulls it off in this pretty decent 80's comedy about a stock broker who hides out in his hometown under a new identity and has to pretend to be a high schooler in order to escape the mob.

It's a goofy, far fetched story, but with the trademark 80's charm, it kinda works. Annabeth Gish and Keith Coogan offer Cryer nice support and the finale gets pretty exciting. Also, look out for a young Joy Behar as a sassy waitress.

Andrew Morenski is successful stock broker who is called to court to testify against a mob boss who was into some rather dubious dealings. When one of his co-workers, who is also due to give evidence, is murdered, Andrew is called to be guarded by the police. But all thoughts of safety are blown away when an attempt on Andrew's life quickly follows. On the run, Andrew finds a safety haven in the form of his cousin's High School. Posing as a student, Andrew finds that High School has a whole different type of peril waiting to engulf him....again.

Released just a year after Jon Cryer had become popular due to his turn as Duckie in John Hughes' Pretty In Pink-Hiding Out finds Cryer attempting to be leading man potential. That he isn't, is of no major harm to this charming and overlooked picture in the American teen comedy genre. When we first meet Cryer's Andrew Morenski, he's a successful business man with a beard you could lose a badger in. But we know it's a youthful Jon Cryer (he was 21 at the time of making the film but looking every inch like a teenager), so it's kind of a murky start from which to hopefully entice the viewer fully into the premise. Yet it all quickly turns around as Morenski hits High School. Hair dyed two colours and dressed like some rockabilly rebel, this is where Cryer steps into his element.

From here on in, save for the inevitable gun buffoonery show down at the end, the film is a delightful comedy about the perils of school. Love, rivals, school politics and witch like teachers all come in for a shiny going over in Bob Giraldi's film. Some of it's twee, and some of it is even morally questionable, but it wears its comedy and romantic heart on its sleeves. Hell the film even has something to say about the truth and how it's taught in schools (look out for a great sequence as Andrew/Max calls into question the teachers teaching of President Nixon). So it's not all fluff for sure. But it's the fluff that drives the film to its conclusion, and if that fluff chiefly is decent enough to have met the viewers expectations?

For me it most certainly did, I only asked one thing from this film, and that was for it to give me some chuckles and to leave me smiling come the end. It did both, so maybe, just maybe, you missed this in the late 80s and are now stuck for some 80s veneer comedy with a zippy 80s soundtrack. If so? This might just be the ticket for you. 7/10

In spite of its faults, this movie was just fun to watch. I love the scene where Max gets in an argument with the history teacher and she sends him off to the principal's office...in high school, I had a teacher threaten to do that to me during a class discussion, so that scene really hit home! One thing that does bother me whenever I watch this movie is how bad the makeup is in the beginning when Jon Cryer was "bearded". The beard prevented him from doing much in the way of facial expressions, and it even hindered his speaking...kinda came off like a ventriloquist because he could hardly move his lips.

Fun movie though, just don't take it too seriously.