Panique chez les Crandell

I remember watching this film when I was about ten and I loved it. I remember being motivated to see it in the first place because Married with children reigned supreme in our house and I loved Christina Applegate. In this movie she didn't disappoint either, as she was not only good in it, but played a character wildly different from mean, dim witted Kelly Bundy. Instead she played Sue Ellen Krandle a decent ,level headed, but restless young woman who is uncertain about her future. Sue Ellen has a contentious relationship with her siblings and mother,but she also is willing to strive for their approval and respect. In other words she is a regular seventeen year old. More mature than her siblings but not quite ready to take up the mantle of an adult. When her mother goes to Austraila, Sue Ellen thinks that she is going to have a care free summer of fun in the sun, when a woman comes to the door and her mother introduces... the babysitter. When mom leaves the seemingly sweet grandma like gem, reveals a nastily terrifying tyrant underneath, and Sue Ellen and her siblings try and keep cool heads. The old be careful what you wish for scenario surfaces when the baby sitter sees Sue Ellens punk brother's bedroom and is literally shocked to death. Sue Ellen finds the woman's corpse and to make a long story short her and her siblings are left for two months with out money or adult supervision. This movie is not perfect from a technical standpoint. It a predicable cheesy fantasy full of scenarios that in real life would be incrediblbly dark. However, for some reason, the acting, the engrossing action pact scenes and the love you have for the respectful a, fresh and resourceful sue Ellen and hate you have for the bad characters emotionally engross you. This movie couldn't hold up today, but for its time, and because the memories it brings I will always love it.

OK the premise is dumb--A mom is going on vacation to Australia for two months. She has five children and leaves them with a tyrannical babysitter. The babysitter dies (of natural causes) within the first 15 minutes and the kids basically have to live alone all summer...but need money for food. The oldest one is 17 year old Sue Ellen (Christina Applegate)and she easily gets an executive position (just like real life, right?) at a fashion agency and, naturally, is incredible at her job. And her brothers and sisters learn values from her example...

Sounds horrible, but it's well-acted (especially Applegate and a drop dead gorgeous Joanna Cassidy), it moves quickly, is very funny, has a great soundtrack of new AND old songs and I enjoyed every minute of it! Not a great movie by any means, but if you can turn off your brain for 2 hours, you'll really enjoy it!

Just saw it again; the cast carries a silly plot, in much the same way as a '40s screwball comedy but with an 80s/90s sensibility and awareness. Applegate and Coogan are really outstanding here, and the supporting cast is smart enough to either support or stay out of the way, as necessary. It's pure humor with no big message, which apparently was a virtue 60 years ago but is unforgivable now. I'd best describe the humor as, "Hilarity ensues as fish out of water learn to breathe air."

I'd give it a very solid 6.8 out of 10, worth a rental or a Netflix hit, but not a $20 purchase.

Tom

What is a great film? Something that is truly timeless, or something which is a classic of its genre? Obviously, no-one's pretending "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead" is a great film (no great film has a title of more than three words. Think about it) but nonetheless, one does get to see how a film handles its composition of several genres rather than one. It's the best strategy towards greatness, and I hope to see this attempted more frequently.

"Don't Tell Mom..." is at an interesting cultural crossroads. It's basically the last of the Eighties high-concept comedies: the same broad category as films like Big and Crocodile Dundee, where the whole film comes from the pitch. However, we get to see shades of Wayne's World-esquire Generation X teen movie, especially in the character of Rob, and unfortunately the short-lived genre of 'kids acting in grown-up situations and delivering ever-so-amusing grownup lines.' John Hughes was the master of this style of film-making, and there's definitely shades of his work in here, most noticeably the setting of a film largely within a family house.

First of all - the pitch. Kids left at home for summer with babysitter. Babysitter dies and kids must fend for themselves with as few people let in on the secret as possible. From this moment on, the film was always going to go about the format of throwing its naive, brattish teenagers in the real world at the deep end and extracting as much amusement as possible from their sinking-or-swimming.

The screenplay starts to thin at this point. Of the five kids in the house, only two are feasibly old enough to work, or indeed to learn any sort of life lesson throughout this experience. The plot then follows Sue Ellen as she stumbles her way into a job and up the corporate ladder (the script is devoid of jokes at this point, but I kept watching because Christina Applegate is a surprisingly good actress.) Everything from this point is a misjudgment - it's virtually scrawled across the screen that Sue Ellen is getting some life lessons and becoming a young adult. The film could have done without the 'boyfriend' storyline though - it's without doubt the saggiest part of the film.

More interesting is the Kenny storyline. Younger brother Kenny goes from being a hopeless layabout stoner with no inkling to as what he wants to do in life to a man with a plan. Lack of screen time prohibits us from truly understanding why, but we do get an insight into the film's message - the real world is about sacrifice. Kenny must throw away his carefree existence if he wants to become a man.

Sure, this film has faults like pearls on a string - the annoying smaller children who eat up screen time and contribute nothing but an unbearable cuteness (and they're not even that cute: they steal money from their mom's purse - twice.) Sue Ellen's corporate life is shown as patronizingly simple, but that's a fault of all movies in general, you can't have clever successful people as the heroes because the audience feels intimidated. The other major fault I'm going to point out is the chronic lack of laughs. About the biggest giggle was David Duchovny's horrendous yellow shirt. But "Don't Tell Mom," much like its characters, has an innocent, naive charm about it, and if you can put aside your critical mauling instinct, it won't be the worst two hours of your celluloid life.

Keep your eyes peeled for a throwaway reference to Big.

How could you NOT like this movie! I am watching it right now, and it has inspired me to write a review, and hopefully give it more recognition and more importantly, a higher rating!!!! Kids home alone with no parents, free to do whatever, but also trying to maintain living! Each character has their own stereotype- Walter the youngest: a handful, Melissa: the disobedient tomboy, Kenny: the headbanging rocker drop-out, Zachary: the calm, but sneaky love struck teen and Sue-Ellen: the responsible, yet hip mother of her siblings. This movie is full of much excitement and a great plot. You cannot go past this underrated classic!