L'Héritier de Beverly Hills

Peter Billingsly in trademark appearance and Burt Young were shamefully cast in this mess about a kid who decides to pretend to be kidnapped in order to get his snobby family to pay attention to him. This, unfortunately, produces little humor when compared to other kidnapping comedies like "Rutless People," "The Crazy Sitter," or "The Ref," for example. And worse, gets far more sentimental than it ought to be at the end.

This movie has been forgotten over the years for a good reason. It fails to offer little more than the story of a whiny kid and his obnoxious parents and an idiotic plot to help them all sort out their problems. I don't think its worth the time, even for a dumb 80s movie.

From what I remember this was a fairly bad movie... but it had one redeeming feature. The best part was the plastic surgeon's office, which was decorated nicely with autographed photos displaying of each of his female patients (unclad chests only). I find this scene particularly entertaining, because my brother went to college with the son of a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, and in this doctor's office, almost the exact same thing was on exhibition.... So that was cool. Otherwise, the movie pretty much blows. Don't see it unless you're really desperate to view one scene showcasing several faceless boob jobs

Scooter's father, Dr. Jeffrey Miller, is a successful plastic surgeon. Sterling is his son from his first marriage. Dr. Miller married Veronica, who had a daughter Tiffany, and they moved into the Beverly Hills mansion of Veronica's mother Lillian. Dr. Miller and Veronica had Scooter, who is treated like a second-class citizen by his brother and sister (both spoiled brats), and pretty much ignored by his parents. Dr. Miller is cheating with one of his patients, and Veronica is fooling around with Roberto, who is in charge of the family's cars.

Clive and Elmo like to bet on the horses, but they aren't having much luck. Clive decides to turn to crime, and that's where Scooter gets the idea that Clive should kidnap him and demand a ransom. THEN maybe his parents will care.

Scooter could have gotten his wish earlier if a couple of other bad guys hadn't missed a golden opportunity at the beginning of the movie. These guys continue to make trouble, and even though they tend to be comical, they are quite scary in a couple of scenes.

There are plenty of laughs here, many of them physical. That's not to say this is great. But Peter Billingsley and Burt Young are both quite good. Clive really isn't a bad guy, and he has a tender side.

One standout moment is a church service. It's never made clear if Elmo regularly attends, but everyone there is black except a couple of the movie's characters. The pastor of the church gives a fiery performance. And a gospel singer does quite well too. As they often say with secular music: The joint is jumping!

Natalie Schaefer was just about as good as when she was Mrs. Howell on "Gilligan's Island".

I liked the big, likable and dumb Asian butler, played by Richard Lee Sung with the stereotypical accent. He made numerous appearances in "M*A*S*H", and one I remember in particular was the episode where he was asked for identification and all he could do was smile and say, "This is me!" Same type of guy.

Now on to the negatives. Considering the fact that the day after I saw this, Martin Sheen appeared on NBC in the "West Wing" finale, I have to say this was not one of Sheen's better moments. And Sheen's son wasn't even as good as his father.

One joke fell flat here, though it might have worked if this were a movie in the style of "Airplane!" When the search for Scooter begins, someone points to a large painting of him and asks if that is Scooter. The answer is: no, that's a picture of him.

It's not great, but it's good for laughs if you like formula.

Peter Billingsly plays a young man who arranges his own kipnapping only to realise that his parents don't miss him. This is a dreary, laughless satire that completely misses its target.