La baby-sitter

The Babysitter stars Alicia Silverstone as Jennifer, object of lust for her ineffectual bookworm boyfriend Jack (Jeremy London), colossal teenage jerk Mark (Nicky Katt), married man Harry Tucker (J.T. Walsh), and even Harry's randy pre-teen son Jimmy (Ryan Slater). As Jennifer innocently goes about her duties as a babysitter, the males fantasise about the young woman and desire eventually turns to obsession with fatal consequences.

There was a time when teenage temptress Silverstone was shaping up to be a major player in Hollywood, her role in hit teen comedy Clueless seriously boosting her bankability as an actress. But then she appeared in the abysmal Batman and Robin (as Batgirl) and pointless drivel like The Babysitter, an erotic thriller that is neither thrilling nor erotic (largely thanks to a no nudity clause in Silverstone's contract). Her star rapidly faded.

To be fair, Silverstone is perfectly adequate in her role, but the film's script goes nowhere slowly, its study of the male libido being neither enlightening (everybody knows how horny we men can be) nor all that interesting. Unappealing characters (Jennifer aside) also serve to make this film hard to endure, with wet-blanket Jack making unlikely boyfriend material for a hottie like Jennifer, Mark being a total tool, and Harry a slimy perv. Director Guy Ferland ends the film with a downer of a finale that sees one family losing a son, and another losing a father, making this not just boring but rather depressing too.

"The Babysitter" is a bizarre, repetitive and often campy turkey. Most of the film consists of endless fantasy sequences that are never as steamy as they are supposed to be. A fine cast is totally wasted, especially George Segal, whose role couldn't be more pointless. This movie was misconceived all along and is worth watching only if you're curious.... (*1/2)

Yes, this movie is quite out of the ordinary, but worth a look anyway. As usual, Alicia Silverstone is in top form, this time playing an object of desire, and a feature of many fantasies to various men. Unfortunately, there is one off-putting scene where Alicia's character kisses the putrid J.T Walsh.

Alicia Silverstone is so pretty, so good, I hope she gets some decent material someday. This film wasn't very good. Miss Silverstone was good, but the film could have really used some more exposure (wink, nod). At least she did spend a fair part of the movie in a bubble bath, but she seemed to have a flesh-colored towel in there when she was moving very much. I will have to give some credit to J. T. Walsh and Lee Garlington as the Tuckers. It was fairly fun to watch them get more and more hammered at the party. I've heard that drunkenness is difficult for an actor, but these two made it quite believable. Overall, this film is of interest only to Silverstone fans, (real ones, because she does NO nude scenes here) Grade: D

I caught this on a boring summer afternoon on, surprise!, Lifetime. The story itself COULD be promising- an innocent teen babysitter is unwittingly the object of obsession for virtually every man she encounters in one night- but the filmmakers try to turn it into a masterpiece of surrealism that it obviously is not. The acting is pretty shallow and most of the 'fantasies' are just downright creepy, not thought provoking. The movie will leave you feeling like you just dropped a massive amount of acid. Don't waste your time.