I first watched this film (Directed by Nick Castle) on VHS many moons ago, and today it's one of those films you can find on Netflix like Space Jam. As an adult; two or three things in this film really make no sense. First, I should explain the premise.
The film is about a 5 year old named Dennis Mitchell and an oldster named George Wilson. Dennis is out of school for the summer, and Wilson knows this is no good, as he is always the butt-end of these jokes that are essentially similar to Home Alone traps (John Hughes worked on both films). Wilson is to become the host of a garden party during the summer, but when a homeless man starts a string of burglaries, it tests Dennis and Wilson's bond.
There are two things in this motion picture that I have ISSUES with:
The plant that George Wilson has at his garden party and the nonsensical biological logic behind it. According to him, this plant (identified as a Night blooming mock orchid) takes FORTY YEARS to grow; the blooming part itself not withstanding. That in itself lasts FIFTEEN SECONDS, and after that, the plant just wilts and dies quickly. There exists NO plant whatsoever that would evolve a trait that takes that window of time to grow. It provides no benefits toward survival, as flowers are a plant's sex organs that form into fruit and subsequently drops seeds. It's highly unlikely, especially when you consider the fact that nobody would be able to time the blooming of the flower down to the exact minute in four decades. The more I think about this, the less it makes sense. *It gets even dumber. George Wilson spends forty years growing a plant that he is fully aware will bloom for a quarter of a minute knowing that he won't live long enough after it blooms to grow another one if something goes awry. He was only able to grow JUST ONE of these plants, so it's not like he has a backup plan whatsoever, and on the night of the garden party he hosts, his house is robbed by the burglar. Dennis is the only one who witnesses the robbery, as Mr. Wilson made him stay in the house after he accidentally knocked over a table of refreshments. Dennis tells Mr. Wilson that his house has been robbed just as the plant is about to bloom. They all miss the blooming (and because they're old people, it's not like they know how to record things with a camera) and the third act sets in motion.
The second act and the chicken George cooks. Dennis wants to help his friends paint a treehouse, and Dennis spills some pain in his garage, which he cleans up with a shop vacuum and accidentally shoots into Wilson's grill with the chicken on it. He doesn't notice this even after he puts the lid on the grill and he walks away, where it sets ABLAZE, the next we see if the chicken, it looks PERFECTLY FINE. It actually looks edible, when realistically it should be charred. If that were the case, he'd be like GODDAMMIT DENNIS!-
During the scene where he subsequently investigates the Mitchell garage, and the golf ball is in the vacuum tube. It's sitting on an elevated platform (some kind of grate?) protruding out of the tube as opposed to being within it. This one is minor, but still.
This deleted scene that takes place between the kids finishing the treehouse and Dennis arriving back at the Wilson house before the garden party. From what I read, in this scene, the burglar (Switchblade Sam) visits the kids, and offers them candy (and in Margret's case her doll that the burglar previously stole) in exchange for information regarding their parent's valuables. Dennis then proceeds to tell him about Wilson's stash of coins hidden in the book safe. THIS SCENE ALONE EXPLAINS 3 THINGS: *How Margret inexplicably has her doll back in possession during the search for Dennis in the third act. *How the burglar knows where Dennis and Wilson live. *How said burglar found the coins in the house so easily. Why did this scene get taken out? It would've made Dennis look like a straight dumbass, while also implying that his parents didn't teach him much about talking to strangers. Seriously, this scene proves Dennis caused the problem with the coins initially. It's almost like they took it out because it would've made the rest of the film so predictable.
In conclusion, I enjoyed Dennis The Menace a lot as a kid, but I'll always think about what I just explained above.
The film is about a 5 year old named Dennis Mitchell and an oldster named George Wilson. Dennis is out of school for the summer, and Wilson knows this is no good, as he is always the butt-end of these jokes that are essentially similar to Home Alone traps (John Hughes worked on both films). Wilson is to become the host of a garden party during the summer, but when a homeless man starts a string of burglaries, it tests Dennis and Wilson's bond.
There are two things in this motion picture that I have ISSUES with:
The plant that George Wilson has at his garden party and the nonsensical biological logic behind it. According to him, this plant (identified as a Night blooming mock orchid) takes FORTY YEARS to grow; the blooming part itself not withstanding. That in itself lasts FIFTEEN SECONDS, and after that, the plant just wilts and dies quickly. There exists NO plant whatsoever that would evolve a trait that takes that window of time to grow. It provides no benefits toward survival, as flowers are a plant's sex organs that form into fruit and subsequently drops seeds. It's highly unlikely, especially when you consider the fact that nobody would be able to time the blooming of the flower down to the exact minute in four decades. The more I think about this, the less it makes sense. *It gets even dumber. George Wilson spends forty years growing a plant that he is fully aware will bloom for a quarter of a minute knowing that he won't live long enough after it blooms to grow another one if something goes awry. He was only able to grow JUST ONE of these plants, so it's not like he has a backup plan whatsoever, and on the night of the garden party he hosts, his house is robbed by the burglar. Dennis is the only one who witnesses the robbery, as Mr. Wilson made him stay in the house after he accidentally knocked over a table of refreshments. Dennis tells Mr. Wilson that his house has been robbed just as the plant is about to bloom. They all miss the blooming (and because they're old people, it's not like they know how to record things with a camera) and the third act sets in motion.
The second act and the chicken George cooks. Dennis wants to help his friends paint a treehouse, and Dennis spills some pain in his garage, which he cleans up with a shop vacuum and accidentally shoots into Wilson's grill with the chicken on it. He doesn't notice this even after he puts the lid on the grill and he walks away, where it sets ABLAZE, the next we see if the chicken, it looks PERFECTLY FINE. It actually looks edible, when realistically it should be charred. If that were the case, he'd be like GODDAMMIT DENNIS!-
During the scene where he subsequently investigates the Mitchell garage, and the golf ball is in the vacuum tube. It's sitting on an elevated platform (some kind of grate?) protruding out of the tube as opposed to being within it. This one is minor, but still.
This deleted scene that takes place between the kids finishing the treehouse and Dennis arriving back at the Wilson house before the garden party. From what I read, in this scene, the burglar (Switchblade Sam) visits the kids, and offers them candy (and in Margret's case her doll that the burglar previously stole) in exchange for information regarding their parent's valuables. Dennis then proceeds to tell him about Wilson's stash of coins hidden in the book safe. THIS SCENE ALONE EXPLAINS 3 THINGS: *How Margret inexplicably has her doll back in possession during the search for Dennis in the third act. *How the burglar knows where Dennis and Wilson live. *How said burglar found the coins in the house so easily. Why did this scene get taken out? It would've made Dennis look like a straight dumbass, while also implying that his parents didn't teach him much about talking to strangers. Seriously, this scene proves Dennis caused the problem with the coins initially. It's almost like they took it out because it would've made the rest of the film so predictable.
In conclusion, I enjoyed Dennis The Menace a lot as a kid, but I'll always think about what I just explained above.