IslandGuru
Who payed the critics
Exoticalot
People are voting emotionally.
Tayloriona
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Claudio Carvalho
The seven-year-old orphan Junior (Michael Oliver) has been rejected thirty times by his foster parents since he was a baby because he is wicked. He worships the criminal Martin Beck (Michael Richards) and wears a a bow tie just like his idol. Ben (John Ritter) is a good affectionate man that dreams on being a father. However his flashy wife Flo (Amy Yasbeck) is infertile and he convinces her to adopt a child. The couple is lured by Mr. Peabody (Gilbert Gottfried) that manages an orphanage and they adopt the little devil Junior. When Ben's father Big Ben (Jack Warden) meets the boy, he immediately tells that Junior is evil. Soon Ben learns that his father is correct; will he call off the adoption? "Problem Child" is a brainless film with unpleasant characters. Ben and the psychologist are dorks; Junior and Martin Beck are mean; Big Ben is selfish and Flo is ambitious and unfaithful. The situations are politically incorrect bu also very funny. If the viewer shutdown his or her brain, he or she will find a hilarious movie and laugh a lot. The best scene is the interview of the psychologist with the psychopath criminal. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "O Pestinha" ("The Little Devil")
retroguy02
Even though I also spent the better part of my childhood in the 90s (having been born in 1993), somehow I missed the re-runs of this one (or its sequel) on TV - not like I missed out on anything because of it (on the contrary, in fact, having seen it now), but it also means that I'm not familiar with the "I know it's bad but it holds a special memory for me" feelings that many others have for this movie. I just found it to be a plain bad, annoying film about a very, very annoying character. Judging from its all-too-obvious title and production (it looks like a low-budget late 80s/early 90s family comedy, which is what it basically is), I was expecting a cheap knockoff of Home Alone - and it's not like I liked that series either, maybe because I don't find anything cute about hell-raising little spawns of Satan, they're little devils who just tick me off and need to be disciplined.The problem is that – unlike, say, Matilda or even Kevin from Home Alone – this kid's just not likable or even particularly cute. Instead, he comes off as the movie's other characters describe him – a vile little spawn of Satan (the ginger hair, dead eyes, freckles and bad teeth only add to it) who delights in inflicting misery on others until way too late in the movie - it almost feels like the filmmakers decided that they needed to find a way to make the audience not woo for the little devil's death.The film unsuccessfully tries to walk a fine line between a violent naughty-child family comedy (a la Home Alone) or a semi-serious commentary on sensitive issues like abandoned children, adoption and parenthood. Instead, it awkwardly dips in and out of both territories. Adding to the stilted tone is the fact that in some parts it's actually quite dark if one bothers to give a below-surface thought to it – there's one particular scene where the defeated, blanked-out dad contemplates killing his adopted little devil while his wife fornicates with an escaped serial killer in the next room - in a PG-rated family comedy!Virtually every character in the film is paper-thin, overacted to the point of bad unintentional comedy and just plain disengaging or annoying. And my apologies to--let's see--Michael Oliver, who I'm assuming has now vanished in the dustbin of Hollywood's child actor has-beens (like most stars of such movies do), but here he's probably the most annoying kid I've probably seen in any movie with a child protagonist.Unless you've had a childhood with crappy basic cable channels that used to rerun movies like this one back in the 90s - even I caught this movie as a rerun on my crappy local cable (as they say, old habits die hard) - and as a result you have some kind of perverse sentimental value for it, there's no reason anyone should watch this, especially considering that that today (the Modern Golden Age of TV) there are so many great shows on TV to kill your time with.
rbn_lrk-1
The Hub channel just had a promo for this movie.This channel airs many 1990's family movies including this.I would give everything to have a channel like this in our country.Anyway, let's see at the movie.A boy full of trouble is ending up in a suburb with a new family.But then it all breaks loose.The boy crashes a mean girls Birthday party.It all ends with a hilarious chase.This is a typical 1990's suburban comedy with a boy and a criminal.Don't come to see any Cannes Awards performances.Just enjoy the silly things in this movie, and this movie are worth a rent on a weekend.On top it's only nearly an hour long.7/10
noimosyni
I don't really understand why this movie only got a 4 something review, or was it three? I'm not really sure, but really this movie? Gosh, I remember this when I was small. Every time it would be previewed in the TV, I would sit down and wait for a laugh fest. I remember laughs, wheezes and me holding my stomach while watching this movie. I don't care if it's real or not but then again, exaggerations are okay if they give you a good time. Right? Or am I right?Also, the other thing that I really liked was that this child Jr. was a genius (or not because it's purely fictitious). I love the schemes and the fact that he handled all of it with a maniacal and evil grin was even better. Gosh!I love this kid! And he looks like a little angel with those freckles on his nose! Awwww... Who wouldn't love that kid?