bensonmum2
When Mom Crandell decides to take the Summer off for an Australian vacation without her children, she hires a babysitter to oversee things. Mom is barely out of the country when the babysitter turns up dead. The kids, led by 17 year old Sue Ellen or "Swell" (Christina Applegate), decide they can take care of themselves. Using a copied resume, Swell is soon on her way up the career ladder in the fashion industry. With little help at home from her siblings, a new boyfriend, a failing company, and co-workers out to get her, Swell's got her hands full if she's to successfully navigate her Summer.I don't think I've seen Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead in something like 20 years. I was happy to discover that, for the most part, the film holds up well. The comedy still works. Swell's interactions with her co-workers are often very funny. I got a real kick out of seeing a young David Duchovny working to thwart Swell. Or the way Swell pulls the wool over her boss's eyes time after time. Good stuff! The exception is Gus (John Getz) repeatedly hitting on Swell. Really cringey. I've always enjoyed Christina Applegate and here she's as good as ever. I wish she would have done more of this kind of film in the 90s. It suits her. I'm guessing that her role in Married with Children negatively typecast her. Other big pluses in this movie are some child actors who can actually act, life lessons that aren't driven home with a heavy hand, and some nice musical selections. The ending is something of a head scratcher. Even after being discovered as a fake, Swell is offered, but turns down, the chance to continue her career. Why? It's never made sense to me. Still, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead is a solid movie. Another thing I really enjoyed while watching Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead were all the late 80s / early 90s trappings. Shoulder pads, bright colors, big hair - the nostalgia just flowed over me. But the thing that really stood out was all the smoking. I forgot how much people used to smoke in movies. Seeing "17" year old Swell smoking non-stop really brought that home. You wouldn't see that today. It's definitely a product of its time.
gridoon2018
It is tempting to state that the title of this movie is the funniest thing about it, but that would be inaccurate: it is the ONLY funny thing about it. It is also a very misleading title: after the first 10 minutes, the dead babysitter is forgotten about until the very last scene. It has a drab look (it looks made for TV, it's surprising that it got theatrical distribution), an amazingly aimless script, and dismal direction. There is nothing remotely believable, witty, and most importantly funny, about any of it. The character "Kenny" deserves to be shot. Ed O' Neill (as Al Bundy) joked about how terrible "Dutch" (which I haven't seen) was a couple of times on "Married With Children", I wonder why Christina Applegate (who tones down her attractiveness considerably here) never mentioned this movie on that show. Maybe she would rather forget it ever happened. 0.5 out of 4 stars.
policy134
This is a very average movie with a very, even for that time, tired old plot. Not unbelievable, mind you, but you have seen this story in sooo many mid-80s comedies, the worst being "The Secret of My Success" with Michael J. Fox. That movie was insanely farcical, though.Here, the farce is toned down. There is an extremely off sequence at the start which involves the title of the movie. It doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the story. It is more of the Marx Bros. screwball comedy variety, where the rest belongs more in the vein of family comedy.Christina Applegate, who is a smart woman, played a very dumb blonde on the hit sitcom "Married with Children" as most everybody knows. She finally got a part where she was serviced well. Not that her character here is a genius, but she gets to play all tangents: Surly, upbeat, successful and finally brought down. Sorry to say that the movie isn't that compelling as she is. There is an abundance of stock characters, like the one played by John Getz and even the one played by the mostly appealing, Joanna Cassidy. I loved her in Who Framed Roger Rabbitt and she had a great recurring character on Boston Legal as Denny Crane's scheming fianceé. The reason I find her a stock character is that she appears to be a smart woman but is brought down by her inability to see through Sue Ellen (Applegate) at the very beginning. Then again, if she did, the movie would be over.There are some good characters, like the one played by Keith Coogan. He definitely shows range as he is playing two characters with equal aplomb, the loser and the reformed. I did find his transformation believable. Applegate's transformation is a little forced. Yes, we know that she has to make amends to all the people she did wrong, including her mother. It sounds like a John Hughes coming of age tale, and you know what? It is. But just because something worked for him, doesn't necessarily mean that it is any better the second, third, fourth time.
jfgibson73
This movie was nothing like what I expected it to be. It looked to me like a movie where the kids get the run of the house and go crazy, throwing parties and doing outrageous, irresponsible things. It ended up being closer to Working Girl: the oldest teen has to get a job and falls backwards into an upwardly mobile fashion career. The responsibilities of maintaining the house eventually turn each of the children into productive citizens.What bothered me wasn't so much the story as the fact that almost nothing was funny. It ended up being closer to a drama. There performances were cartoonish, but at the same time, weren't into so-bad-they're-funny territory (except for the guy who played Gus. Someone should have seen this movie and realized the potential this actor had as a physical comedian).So there was almost nothing to like. Once in a while, we get a good line or two, like when the brother and sister were arguing like a married couple. But as soon as one of these good exchanges got going, the movie cuts right away to something else, killing the comedy momentum. My opinion was that it was an idea with good potential that was completely mishandled.
AD
