Junior is the 8-year-old star of "Problem Child," an attempted black comedy that doesn't quite succeed. He sets things on fire, throws cats and causes havoc wherever he goes. The film tries to find it's humour from Junior's chaos, but none of it is funny. Everything he does is criminal, and it is implausible to laugh at it. Add an unmemorable cast of dummies, a strange subplot involving a serial killer wearing a bow tie and you have a comedy that is supposed to be for kids?
It's about Ben Healey (John Ritter) and his self-centred wife (Flo) who discover that they can't have kids. Deciding to adopt, they get conned into adopting Junior (Michael Oliver), who is the devil incarnate. Civil Servant, Igor Peabody (Gilbert Gottfried) tricks them because the nuns at the orphanage where Junior lives, threaten to leave if he does not get the boot. Junior begins to turn Ben's world upside with one disaster after another, and when he discovers he can't take him back to the orphanage, he must deal with the little bundle of joy.
Michael Oliver doesn't leave much of an impression as Junior. He's destructive, and we never learn why, but he is not the worst in the movie. It's the razor-thin story that feels stitched together through a series of dumb and unfunny misadventures. It tries to balance the dark and gritty themes, which would have made it a black comedy, but due to the PG rating, it doesn't do so successfully. Junior whizzes on a campfire to add crude content to the mix and leads a bear to a campsite, but every attempt at humour gets thwarted by someone stupid. In the case of the bear, it's Ben's neighbour Roy the "Superdad" who laughs like Krusty, the Clown and is an ignorant jackass.
The movie would have to open with a baby whizzing in someone's face before the opening credits roll, which has Junior going from foster home to foster home in a wicker basket due to his behaviour as he gets older. He throws a rattle through a window, terrorizes a cat and bulldozes a trailer after he gets his toy trucks stepped on. Shortly after, he gets put into the orphanage where he drives the head nun crazy. Does any of this sound funny? Junior comes off as more of a sociopath than anything. Some of his pranks are harmless like him throwing a meat log on the ceiling and the nun looking up, and it drops on her face. Other's are either violent or menacing. There is a scene later in the film where he beats the hell out of a little league team with a baseball bat simply because they make fun of him. Another sequence has him causing chaos at a snobby and nasty little girl's birthday party, where he wrecks everything.
Most of Junior's torment is towards the nuns at the orphanage. The head nun seems to get it the worst. He says a sarcastic comment to her, and she storms down the hallway after him, and he kicks over a bucket of water that launches her down the hall and into a garbage bin. Eventually, the nuns have had enough, and they demand Igor Peabody to remove him. Yes, it's the guy with the annoying laugh. He easily manipulates subordinates Ben and Flo, who is equally annoying as Ben's shallow wife. The whole reason Flo wants a kid is so she can attend the neighbourhood kid's birthday parties and act as like a superficial idiot to the parents.
When they adopt Junior and bring him home, his room gets set on fire, and he launches the family cat at Ben's dad, Big Ben Healey, played by Jack Warden. Big Ben is a jackass and ignorant sportings good store owner who doesn't think much of his son. Big Ben getting a cat thrown on him and falling down the stairs is supposed to be funny? The jokes are lame and could have been better. Eventually, Ben wants to get rid of Junior but has a change of heart when he discovers the history behind the kid at the orphanage much to his shock. He decides to keep him only for Junior to drive his car, with Ben on the hood, right into Big Ben's Sporting goods store. Okay, maybe this was a bit of a giggle. I will say the only good thing with this movie is John Ritter. He is a great actor, and Michael Oliver has potential, but I wouldn't count on it.
Where the film falls off the rails is the strangest aspect of the story. It's a major subplot involving a notorious serial killer who wears a bow tie. When Junior sees him on the T.V., he takes a cabbage patch doll with a bow tie and puts it on himself to emulate the "Bow Tie Killer." Are the filmmakers saying something here? Michael Richards plays the serial killer and is terrible as he tries to make the character more dangerous by being expressionless. Junior becomes pen pals with him, and he mistakes the letters from J.R. as a deranged convict who is crazy and getting paroled. Funny how the serial killer has never met J.R. and says, "he is crazier than I am." It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Even more so, he breaks out of prison to go and find Junior, thus leading to a subplot that attempts to make the film gritty.
I'm not surprised this movie is marketed towards kids when it is far from a kid's movie. The adult themes make this a borderline R rated comedy and somehow, it has a PG rating. Even when Big Ben moons a television camera, it's not pleasant. The fact that it stars an eight-year-old kid, I'm sure, is the reason it got a PG rating. The story is lame, the characters are forgettable, and the laughs are a misfire. You can bet there is going to be a "Problem Child 2" but don't hold your breath about it being better.
It's about Ben Healey (John Ritter) and his self-centred wife (Flo) who discover that they can't have kids. Deciding to adopt, they get conned into adopting Junior (Michael Oliver), who is the devil incarnate. Civil Servant, Igor Peabody (Gilbert Gottfried) tricks them because the nuns at the orphanage where Junior lives, threaten to leave if he does not get the boot. Junior begins to turn Ben's world upside with one disaster after another, and when he discovers he can't take him back to the orphanage, he must deal with the little bundle of joy.
Michael Oliver doesn't leave much of an impression as Junior. He's destructive, and we never learn why, but he is not the worst in the movie. It's the razor-thin story that feels stitched together through a series of dumb and unfunny misadventures. It tries to balance the dark and gritty themes, which would have made it a black comedy, but due to the PG rating, it doesn't do so successfully. Junior whizzes on a campfire to add crude content to the mix and leads a bear to a campsite, but every attempt at humour gets thwarted by someone stupid. In the case of the bear, it's Ben's neighbour Roy the "Superdad" who laughs like Krusty, the Clown and is an ignorant jackass.
The movie would have to open with a baby whizzing in someone's face before the opening credits roll, which has Junior going from foster home to foster home in a wicker basket due to his behaviour as he gets older. He throws a rattle through a window, terrorizes a cat and bulldozes a trailer after he gets his toy trucks stepped on. Shortly after, he gets put into the orphanage where he drives the head nun crazy. Does any of this sound funny? Junior comes off as more of a sociopath than anything. Some of his pranks are harmless like him throwing a meat log on the ceiling and the nun looking up, and it drops on her face. Other's are either violent or menacing. There is a scene later in the film where he beats the hell out of a little league team with a baseball bat simply because they make fun of him. Another sequence has him causing chaos at a snobby and nasty little girl's birthday party, where he wrecks everything.
Most of Junior's torment is towards the nuns at the orphanage. The head nun seems to get it the worst. He says a sarcastic comment to her, and she storms down the hallway after him, and he kicks over a bucket of water that launches her down the hall and into a garbage bin. Eventually, the nuns have had enough, and they demand Igor Peabody to remove him. Yes, it's the guy with the annoying laugh. He easily manipulates subordinates Ben and Flo, who is equally annoying as Ben's shallow wife. The whole reason Flo wants a kid is so she can attend the neighbourhood kid's birthday parties and act as like a superficial idiot to the parents.
When they adopt Junior and bring him home, his room gets set on fire, and he launches the family cat at Ben's dad, Big Ben Healey, played by Jack Warden. Big Ben is a jackass and ignorant sportings good store owner who doesn't think much of his son. Big Ben getting a cat thrown on him and falling down the stairs is supposed to be funny? The jokes are lame and could have been better. Eventually, Ben wants to get rid of Junior but has a change of heart when he discovers the history behind the kid at the orphanage much to his shock. He decides to keep him only for Junior to drive his car, with Ben on the hood, right into Big Ben's Sporting goods store. Okay, maybe this was a bit of a giggle. I will say the only good thing with this movie is John Ritter. He is a great actor, and Michael Oliver has potential, but I wouldn't count on it.
Where the film falls off the rails is the strangest aspect of the story. It's a major subplot involving a notorious serial killer who wears a bow tie. When Junior sees him on the T.V., he takes a cabbage patch doll with a bow tie and puts it on himself to emulate the "Bow Tie Killer." Are the filmmakers saying something here? Michael Richards plays the serial killer and is terrible as he tries to make the character more dangerous by being expressionless. Junior becomes pen pals with him, and he mistakes the letters from J.R. as a deranged convict who is crazy and getting paroled. Funny how the serial killer has never met J.R. and says, "he is crazier than I am." It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Even more so, he breaks out of prison to go and find Junior, thus leading to a subplot that attempts to make the film gritty.
I'm not surprised this movie is marketed towards kids when it is far from a kid's movie. The adult themes make this a borderline R rated comedy and somehow, it has a PG rating. Even when Big Ben moons a television camera, it's not pleasant. The fact that it stars an eight-year-old kid, I'm sure, is the reason it got a PG rating. The story is lame, the characters are forgettable, and the laughs are a misfire. You can bet there is going to be a "Problem Child 2" but don't hold your breath about it being better.