My Date with the President's Daughter

We saw this on the Disney channel, one of a whole host of movies which get laughs at the difficulty of being a teen daughter of the president. I wonder why there are no movies about the difficulty of being a teen son of the president? It is all silly fluff, but Dabney Coleman (as the President) is always fun to watch and a cute teenager (Elisabeth Harnois) plays Hallie, his daughter.

Set in and around Washington, DC, it is election time again and the president is having a re-election rally. Meanwhile his daughter has a date with Duncan, the son of a car salesman. Things do not go smoothly, and much of the movie is slapstick situations. Including Duncan's dad's car getting stolen by a couple of kookie, harmless kids.

SPOILERS. The car is eventually recovered intact, in the process of chasing it the President ends up in jail because the officer doesn't believe he is the real President. Hallie ends up at a party without Duncan, but he shows up in time to save her from a cad. The President gains a newfound respect for his daughter, the car salesman for his son, and the two kids become boyfriend and girlfriend.

This movie gets up and running quickly and will take you along for a very fun ride. Witty and well thought out humor, quite different from typical movies. Adults will be entertained and treated with plenty of catchy comedy while children of all ages will be amused by the likeable characters and charismatic predicaments. A big thumbs up, and if it's feel good (and clean) comedy you want, I really tag this as a 10.

A great movie. The cast was great and all turned in outstanding performances Dabney Coleman was good and Will Freddle gave his usual hysterical performance, but the real star was Elizabeth Harnois. I remember her as Alice in Adventure in Wonderland, you knew she had talent then but she really showcased it now. She is a very beautiful girl and I'm predicting she will be one to watch.

Normally I'd avoid any movie with a title like this, in fact any movie with 'president' in it. However, it only took the sight of Jay Thomas (memorable from Cheers and many other appearances) to hook me and eventually keep my attention until the final rap.

Overall I thought this was an extremely fine movie both in content and performances. It was well-directed and good to watch and in fact offered a pretty believable portrait of life in the white house, unlike most bigger budget movies which tend to gloss over the chinks in the armor.

Unusually, this is a movie from the 1990s which can actually be recommended as solid family viewing.

Bad but strangely watchable remake about a teenager (Will Friedle) who goes on a date with the U.S. President's (Dabney Coleman) daughter. The plot is of course ludicrous - they meet in a mall and set a date because she escaped from her secret service bodyguards - and the direction and writing is terrible, but it is watchable enough.

2.5/5 stars -

John Ulmer