Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

The movie starts out with a nice animation sequence that looks as good now as it did 13 years ago. The live action starts as a typical Saturday morning in suburbia at the Szalinski's house, except that Wayne (Rick Moranis) is a bumbling inventor who built a shrinking ray in his attic that he can't get to work, his son (Robert Oliveri) is a mirror-image. And the daughter (Amy O'Neill) is pretty much your typical Blond teenager [a good looking one at that ;)] who hopes she gets asked to the dance. The mother, Diane Szalinski, played by Marcia Strassman (of Welcome Back, Kotter fame) does a good job as well. Cork, the family dog also deserves mentioning.

Next door are the All-American Thompsons, who have big plans for a weekend fishing trip. Their oldest son Russ Jr. (Thomas Wilson Brown) is less than enthusiastic about those plans. He's a bit scrawny for his age and Big Russ has expectations to see him excel at High School football, which isn't Little Russ's Niche. Meanwhile younger son Ron Thompson (Jared Rushton) is the apple of Big Russ's eye, and can be quite mischievous at times, setting up a booby trap that his dad walks into.

The underrated Matt Frewer steals the show as Big Russ Thompson, Brash and Sarcastic (in a good way of course). And providing the perfect compliment is his wife, the calmer Mae Thompson (played by Kristine Sutherland).

The backstory is this:Ron Thompson hits a baseball into the Szalinskis attic, in turn setting off the shrinking machine (which hadn't worked until that point) and in their effort to retrieve the ball, Ron and Nick get zapped and are 1/4 inch tall, Amy and Russ Jr., who walk up to the attic wondering what happened to them, meet a similar fate. Wayne returns home from a dismal day at work, having been made a laughing stock because of his lack of proof for the shrinking machine. He takes his frustration out on the machine itself, severely damaging it in the process, he sweeps the broken parts (and the four kids) off the floor and into the trash bag. He then takes it out across the yard, and the kids are, as Nick eloquently says "We're now a quarter of an inch tall, and sixty four feet from the house. That's an equivalent of three-point-two miles. That's a long way. Even for a man of science." Even more of a trek considering the extra thick grass they must walk through.

En route the gang faces Swarms of bees and scorpions [among other obstacles that I won't give away;)]. There's decent use of special effects and, even if they may look a bit fake, it's still entertaining nonetheless. I'll end my description here, as anything more would spoil the film.

If this review doesn't entice you to check out "Honey, I shrunk the kids", I don't know what will. It's a classic in my opinion.