Hiding Out

"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.

Being a child of the 80's, I enjoyed Hiding Out on several levels. I think that Annabeth Gish is a beautiful woman and love the way she smiles during this movie. She is lucky in the characters she played while a younger actress. She was a good actress then and she is a great one now. Jon Cryer is a good actor but he doesn't seem totally comfortable in this role. Perhaps that is a good thing, since he is a fish out of water character here. The high school kids were pretty believable, especially Keith Coogan. His is pretty much the same character from Adventures in Babysitting, just grown up now. This is pretty amazing since both movies came out in 1987.

The ending is bit contrived but entertaining just the same. Hiding Out is a really good movie and worth the rental fee if you want some 80's nostalgia or too see something safe for the whole family. I have watched it numerous times and still look forward to seeing it again.

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.

This movie falls into the "high school comedy" genre (like Better Off Dead and others). If you're not looking for a serious movie and are willing to suspend your disbelief, it is a lighthearted comedy and one of my personal favorites. Possibly not for the "serious critic" movie watcher, but for those looking for fun, check this one out.

Wall Street stock broker (Jon Cryer), set to testify against a mob boss, is nearly killed by a hit-man. He escapes and runs off to hide with relatives, where he changes his appearance and passes himself off as a high school student.

Silly but enjoyable comedy. One of Cryer's better starring roles. Supporting cast is good. Pretty Annabeth Gish is the jailbait love interest. Nice soundtrack, too. My favorite part is the bit character Shawn, a troublesome high school student who tells the principal "Go ahead and call my parents, dude. I didn't do sh*t." I laughed hard at this guy because he reminded me of so many losers I went to school with.