SnoopyStyle Brash working-class Dutch Dooley (Ed O'Neill) attends a high-class party with girlfriend Natalie Standish (JoBeth Williams). She doesn't get along with her rich ex-husband Reed (Christopher McDonald). He's abandoning Thanksgiving with their son Doyle (Ethan Embry) to go to London. Dutch volunteers to drive him home to Chicago from his boarding school in Georgia. He's looking to befriend Doyle who turns out to be an entitled brat disliked by the other kids and a spoiled snob just like his dad. It's a crazy road trip with hookers Brock (Ari Meyers) and Hailey (Elizabeth Daily).John Hughes is trying to write an odd couple road trip. The problem is that neither of these characters are that appealing. Ed O'Neill needs to dial back his brash working stiff mantra and his gruff mannerisms. Somebody should play the straight man and Dutch should probably be that guy. He doesn't have to be a nice guy but he should be some sort of mentor. Once the hookers show up especially with a very young one, the movie's family creds are put in doubt. The comedy suffers from its lack of likability.

gavin6942 To get to know his girlfriend's son (Ethan Embry), a working-class good guy (Ed O'Neill) volunteers to pick him up from a prep school -- only to learn that her son is not the nicest kid.This film has an impressive pedigree. The director, Peter Faiman, is not well known, but he was the director of "Crocodile Dundee", which makes him a small legend. And the writer was John Hughes, a giant in the industry."Dutch" received extremely poor reviews from critics, where it has a 14% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 3.7 out of 10 from 21 reviews. It was also a flop at the box office, grossing less than $5 million compared to its $17 million budget. Despite poor reception from critics, the film has garnered a cult following (as is common for Hughes films).

slightlymad22 This is one of my favourite movies to watch at Christmas. Plot In A Paragraph: Dutch Dooley (The brilliant Ed O'Neill) goes on a cross country road trip to pick up his girl friends obnoxious twelve year old son Doyle (who is refusing to come home for Thanksgiving) from boarding school. I don't understand why this movie flopped as bad as it did, I for one love it, as do both of my kids 16 and 9. Ed O'Neill is as brilliant as he always is (this was released at the height of his TV show "Married With Children" popularity) to some he'll always be Al Bundy, but there is more to O'Neill than that. He is an absolute delight here. Ethan Embry is excellent as both sides to Doyle, it's always nice to see the lovely JoBeth Williams and Christopher McDonald is at his sleazy best whilst an attractive Ari Meyers leaves a lasting impression as Brock. Beautiful shot showing some great scenic shots of America this has a lot of laughs, I still laugh out loud at certain parts of this movie over twenty years later.

Pepper Anne Dutch is fantastic because Ed O'Neill, the star of the movie, is a fantastic comedian, and an underrated one at that (but then again, Hollywood does recycle the same cast over and over, so it's no surprised you never see him in too many major motion pictures). And though Christopher MacDonald, who play's Doyle's father is a real creep, he is a great comedian as well, and you just can't help to laugh whenever this guy is around (uh...that's a good thing).This is the early part of John Hughes's transition into strictly doing family films. He passed the teenage films (the brat pack series), then films with slightly younger supporting and main casts (Uncle Buck, Curly Sue, Dutch), and then went straight for the youngest-aged family film series (Home Alone, Baby's Day Out, etc). The early part of the John Hughes family film series, which started somewhere around 1989/1990 and continued into the early 90s, are comedies that I still enjoy watching (I haven't cared to watch many of his later movies because Baby's Day Out and Beethoven, etc. just doesn't interest me). They had two great elements: the social commentary (though it tends to be repeated in many of his films/screenplays), and the comedy element. Disappointed that his father (Christopher MacDonald) is in London (on a supposed "business trip", which translates into a holiday with a woman instead of his son) and won't be spending time with him on Thanskgiving, spoiled-brat Doyle (Ethan Embry) decides that he doesn't want to spend the holiday with his mother, either. They don't get along well, especially considering he is more like a mirror of his incredibly obnoxious father, while his mother (Jo Beth Williams) is a sensitive, kinder woman who just wants to get along with her son. Don't worry, 'Dutch' is on the case! Dutch (Ed O'Neill) is sort of a bafoon character (as we see from the introduction at the party where he engages in something like a mini version of Peter Sellers in 'The Party'). But, he's a good-natured fellow with a heart of gold. He'd have to be to make a promise to Doyle's mom that he'd bring the boy home for the holidays (Doyle goes to private school). It proves to be no easy task. Not at all. Since Doyle doesn't want to come home at all, let alone with his mother's goofy boyfriend. Doyle despises Dutch because Doyle comes from major money (Dutch works in construction) and sees himself as a much classier person than Dutch (who can get pretty gross when he wants...if only to annoy Doyle). But, Dutch is going to do whatever it takes (and it takes a lot) not only to keep his promise to Doyle's mother, but to try and get the tense little boy to lighten up and see that the world is not entirely against him. So there, you have the typical elements of Hughest: 1) social commentary via class divisions; and 2) unecessary youth angst. With a guy like Ed O'Neill, who even offers some great slapstick comedy, you can be sure that you'll be in for a lot of laughs. This guy truly is one underrated actor.