3 Men and a Baby was the No 1 box-office smash hit of 1987. Although why that is is anyone's guess. It may have been because of an urban legend that surrounds the film. A ghost boy appears in the background of one particular shot. You need only browse this site's trivia section to find the details behind that. Its only a cardboard cutout of Ted Danson. There does seem something rather ludicrous about a myth fabricated by the public proving to be the selling-point of a film. And yet it worked. In ways beyond the filmmakers wildest dreams.
Lucky for them. Because there's nothing particularly brilliant about the rest of the film. In fact you can almost sense the filmmakers cold feet with the whole baby angle, since they include a clumsy and completely ham-fisted drugs subplot. Almost as if they sensed the baby wasn't a strong enough story to sustain the film on its own. Which says all there is to say about 3 Men and a Baby.
If it weren't for that whole marketing ploy about the so-called ghost boy, something tells me 3 Men and a Baby would not have been the box-office winner that it was. The film is made up of two disjointed plots that never gel together, no matter how hard it tries. And the film follows the dictates of formula right to the letter. You can almost imagine the screen writing sessions, pitching they're ideas:
"One of three guys fathers a baby he never knew about. The mother dumps her on they're doorstep. Wouldn't it be great if daddy's out of town at the time, leaving the other two hapless schmucks minding the baby. Cue lots of diaper changes. Crying. Goo-gooing. And what about this, a drugs angle to make things even more exciting than they already are? Once that's dealt with, the three guys realise they do love this little bundle of joy after all! And then Mommy comes back to really shake things up. I think we've got a genuine classic on our hands here. Let's get this baby into production."
Its times like this I fear for the future of film-making if this is the best they can churn out. 3 Men and a Baby is one of the most overrated comedies ever to hit cinemas. The fact it filled out so many theatre seats is beyond belief. A much better baby film of 1987 was the superb Coen comedy Raising Arizona. Now that was a comedy classic!
I'm hard-pressed to think of a single thing about the film that does work. The Blair twins who play Baby Mary are certainly adorable enough, but the film surrounding her is so routine and eminently predictable. There are all the usual hallmarks. Director Leonard Nimoy (Mr Spock!) ticks them all off like he were filling out a check-list. The sleepless nights. The nappy changes. And poop jokes. Lots and lots of poop jokes. Or doodling as its called here for some strange, bizarre reason.
After Nimoy demonstrated such a deft hand for comedy in the previous year's Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, its surprising he fumbles it so badly here. Even the title is a bit misleading. For half the film, Ted Danson is completely absent. Leaving it to Tom Selleck and Steve Guttenberg to carry the load in his absence.
Tom Selleck can certainly be a charismatic and likable leading man. Any episode of Magnum will tell you that. But he often looks a bit uncomfortable in the role of a care-free bachelor forced to develop a softer side through a baby. I think everyone (including Selleck) was expecting 3 Men and a Baby to be the film that would launch his movie career. Except it didn't happen. Despite numerous TV appearances and the occasional film role, Tom Selleck has almost completely vanished from the Hollywood circuit.
The same goes for Steve Guttenberg, even more so. I was never really much of a fan of Guttenberg. Although he carved out a modest career for himself in the 80s, he is hardly what you would call a truly gifted comic actor. He coasted for far too long on the Police Academy series. Had a couple of outside hits with the likable Short Circuit and the endearing Cocoon, but his career didn't survive the transition to the 90s. The decline of his career has been steeper than Selleck's. He's now reduced to appearing in TV movies. Usually of the Christmas kind.
Ted Danson is the only one to have had any kind of career beyond 3 Men and a Baby. Showing his natural talent for comedy in Cheers and Becker, Danson is one of Hollywood's greatly underrated comedians. But the film doesn't give him much of a chance to show off his considerable talent for comedy since it sidelines him for most of it.
3 Men and a Baby is miscalculated on all counts. A lot of the comedy falls flat. The dramatic scenes come out mawkish, e.g. violin music plays when Mary's mum Sylvia (Nancy Travis with a very convincing British accent) comes to take her away. And the film is an odd blend of a light plot and a dark one. You can tell Leonard Nimoy backed himself into a corner with that drugs subplot, as he goes out of his way to wrap it up in the quickest way possible in a hurried and utterly unconvincing showdown at a construction site. All the actors look itchy and restless. As if they're as eager as Nimoy to wrap this thing up.
Things end predictably with Mary being accepted, Sylvia joining the family, and all live happily ever after. 3 Men and a Baby is not quite as dire as its sequel, but it still falls far short of classic status. Funny that an unfounded rumour would have such a positive effect on a movie!
Lucky for them. Because there's nothing particularly brilliant about the rest of the film. In fact you can almost sense the filmmakers cold feet with the whole baby angle, since they include a clumsy and completely ham-fisted drugs subplot. Almost as if they sensed the baby wasn't a strong enough story to sustain the film on its own. Which says all there is to say about 3 Men and a Baby.
If it weren't for that whole marketing ploy about the so-called ghost boy, something tells me 3 Men and a Baby would not have been the box-office winner that it was. The film is made up of two disjointed plots that never gel together, no matter how hard it tries. And the film follows the dictates of formula right to the letter. You can almost imagine the screen writing sessions, pitching they're ideas:
"One of three guys fathers a baby he never knew about. The mother dumps her on they're doorstep. Wouldn't it be great if daddy's out of town at the time, leaving the other two hapless schmucks minding the baby. Cue lots of diaper changes. Crying. Goo-gooing. And what about this, a drugs angle to make things even more exciting than they already are? Once that's dealt with, the three guys realise they do love this little bundle of joy after all! And then Mommy comes back to really shake things up. I think we've got a genuine classic on our hands here. Let's get this baby into production."
Its times like this I fear for the future of film-making if this is the best they can churn out. 3 Men and a Baby is one of the most overrated comedies ever to hit cinemas. The fact it filled out so many theatre seats is beyond belief. A much better baby film of 1987 was the superb Coen comedy Raising Arizona. Now that was a comedy classic!
I'm hard-pressed to think of a single thing about the film that does work. The Blair twins who play Baby Mary are certainly adorable enough, but the film surrounding her is so routine and eminently predictable. There are all the usual hallmarks. Director Leonard Nimoy (Mr Spock!) ticks them all off like he were filling out a check-list. The sleepless nights. The nappy changes. And poop jokes. Lots and lots of poop jokes. Or doodling as its called here for some strange, bizarre reason.
After Nimoy demonstrated such a deft hand for comedy in the previous year's Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, its surprising he fumbles it so badly here. Even the title is a bit misleading. For half the film, Ted Danson is completely absent. Leaving it to Tom Selleck and Steve Guttenberg to carry the load in his absence.
Tom Selleck can certainly be a charismatic and likable leading man. Any episode of Magnum will tell you that. But he often looks a bit uncomfortable in the role of a care-free bachelor forced to develop a softer side through a baby. I think everyone (including Selleck) was expecting 3 Men and a Baby to be the film that would launch his movie career. Except it didn't happen. Despite numerous TV appearances and the occasional film role, Tom Selleck has almost completely vanished from the Hollywood circuit.
The same goes for Steve Guttenberg, even more so. I was never really much of a fan of Guttenberg. Although he carved out a modest career for himself in the 80s, he is hardly what you would call a truly gifted comic actor. He coasted for far too long on the Police Academy series. Had a couple of outside hits with the likable Short Circuit and the endearing Cocoon, but his career didn't survive the transition to the 90s. The decline of his career has been steeper than Selleck's. He's now reduced to appearing in TV movies. Usually of the Christmas kind.
Ted Danson is the only one to have had any kind of career beyond 3 Men and a Baby. Showing his natural talent for comedy in Cheers and Becker, Danson is one of Hollywood's greatly underrated comedians. But the film doesn't give him much of a chance to show off his considerable talent for comedy since it sidelines him for most of it.
3 Men and a Baby is miscalculated on all counts. A lot of the comedy falls flat. The dramatic scenes come out mawkish, e.g. violin music plays when Mary's mum Sylvia (Nancy Travis with a very convincing British accent) comes to take her away. And the film is an odd blend of a light plot and a dark one. You can tell Leonard Nimoy backed himself into a corner with that drugs subplot, as he goes out of his way to wrap it up in the quickest way possible in a hurried and utterly unconvincing showdown at a construction site. All the actors look itchy and restless. As if they're as eager as Nimoy to wrap this thing up.
Things end predictably with Mary being accepted, Sylvia joining the family, and all live happily ever after. 3 Men and a Baby is not quite as dire as its sequel, but it still falls far short of classic status. Funny that an unfounded rumour would have such a positive effect on a movie!