Customer Reviews

Adv in Babysitting

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a great movie!! Just loved it, lots of funny scenes, good acting & a cute plot with a romantic ending. A big 5 Star rating!

everytime the babysitter came over we would watch this movie when i was growing up. now in my 20's i can still watch it and laugh. darrell (stray dog) was fricken hilarious!!!

ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING is a wonderfully entertaining film from the late eighties that still resonates almost 20 years later. Chris Columbus (the future director of the first two Harry Potter films) brings us a series of vignettes resulting in Elizabeth Shue's Chris Parker babysitting for the precious Maia Brewton and the mooneyed Keith Coogan. Shue is marvelous; Coogan and Anthony Rapp are delightful; and little Maia is appropriately cute and loveable. Penelope Ann Miller as the nearsighted Brenda is a riot...especially when she picks up a stray "cat" at the bus station.
Of course, the primo scene is the "nobody leaves till you sing the blues" with Albert Collins. Shue's transformation as she gets into the "Babysitter Blues" is priceless.
This is one feel good movie, and in spite of some of its profanity, a film everyone should enjoy.
It's a minor classic to me!!!

if i've said it once, i've said it a million times: keith coogan, where are you? this 1987 flick is hysterical! ya think?

The scene where Elizabeth Shue sang the Babysitting Blues will remain in enfamy. Well-executed cute film ! nothing deep here... no earth shattering social mores discussed; society's ills are not cured. It;s just a feel-good, sit back and enjoy it kind of movie.

In the tradition of Uncle Buck, Home Alone, and Trains Planes and Automobiles, Adventures in Babysitting is another screwball comedy that has become a "Chicago Classic."

Chris Parker is in for one hell of a night!

A babysitter, Chris Parker (Elisabeth Shue) was looking forward to a date with her boyfriend, but he decides to cancel, and she's left feeling disappointed, of course. But, more importantly, she decides to keep an eye on kids Brad (Keith Coogan) and Sara (Maia Brewton) while their parents attend a gathering. However, Chris is suddenly faced with a challenge when her friend Brenda (Penelope Ann Miller) is scared to death, as she lands in a seedy downtown Chicago bus station, during her attempt to runaway from home. Chris has to make a choice: stay home with the kiddies, or go downtown to rescue her friend. Of course, she chooses the latter option, and takes the kids with her. Meanwhile, Brad's sex-obsessed best friend, Daryl (Anthony Rapp) happens to blackmail the gang into letting him come along for the ride. And from there, the action begins.

The kids bump into one misadventure after another in the mean streets of urban Chicago. From flat tire accidents, to auto theft, to gang fights, to secret criminal operation headquarter drop-ins, and then some -- somehow, no matter where they turn, these kids find themselves caught up in one catastrophe after another, so to speak. And, of course, their biggest challenge - other than making it through all the chaos in one piece - is to rescue Brenda, and make it back home before the parents arrive.

While the attributes of the film that were mentioned above sound pretty disturbing -- at least for a film aimed at the younger audience, there's very little that's dangerous in this film -- all of these elements are made to be kid - or rather - pre-adolescent-friendly. It's quite interesting and compelling how Chris Columbus made so many gritty elements appear fun and lighthearted, without sinking into sheer parody and silliness.

You can find guest appearances from many who would go onto more acclaimed projects. All in all, a lighthearted, fun, adventurous (pun excusable), charming and utterly poignant film. A guilty pleasure? Absolutely not - just a pleasure, as I have no shame in enjoying this film.

Chris Parker (Elizabeth Shue) is so excited about her boyfreind'd date tonight. It's their one-year aniversary and Chris is all dressed up. When her boyfriend arives he tells her his little sister is sick with something and his parents are out of town, there for he has to stay at home and watch her.
Chris is upstairs pouting in her room with one of her friends when the phone rings. Her mother says it's the Andersons and that they need a babysitter. So, Chris is off.
Just after Mr. And Mrs. Anderson leave the phone rings and Chris's freind says she is stuck downtown at the bus stop with no money to get home. (She ran away). So, Chris packs up Daryl, Brad, and Sara and heads to downtown Chicago to rescue her friend. When the tire goes flat on the freeway, the trouble begins.

Chris Parker (Elisabeth Shue) is all set for an anniversary date with her boyfriend, when he cancels on her, citing a sick little sister. With nothing better to do for the evening, she accepts an offer to babysit for the Andersons. She settles in with Brad (Keith Coogan) and Sara (Maia Brewton), her charges, for a night of boredom, when her friend Brenda (Penelope Ann Miller) calls from a downtown bus station, saying that she ran away from home and then chickened out. Bundling the kids and Brad's friend Daryl (Anthony Rapp) into the car, she goes to get Brenda. The mishaps start with a flat tire, and go downhill from there.
Subplots include a chop-shop, a Playmate who looks like Chris in the current issue of Playboy, and Brenda's waiting at the bus station; where she loses her glasses, mistakes a sewer rat for a kitty, and finds out that snack bars don't take checks when she tries to get a hot dog, with the classic line "But I don't have cash!" "Then I don't have a wiener!"

The movie was a smash hit, and launched many a career. The main actors are great, with the secondary actors doing a fine job as well. The story seems like "Vacation" in the city, but that's its charm. Chris Columbus' directorial debut, and would later direct Home Alone, "Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone" and "Mrs. Doubtfire". The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen, and has some grain, but is good. The audio is a clear Dolby Surround 2.0. The extras are a huge disappointment, with the only extra being Touchstone's Film Reccomendations (One of those stupid screens where you get movies the distributor thinks you will like). Nice DVD, but it warrants a special edition.

ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING
(1987, PG-13)

Chris Parker: Elisabeth Shue
Sara Anderson: Maia Brewton
Brad Anderson: Keith Coogan
Daryl Coopersmith: Anthony Rapp
Joe Gipp: Calvin Levels
Dawson/"Thor": Vincent D'Onofrio

Director: Chris Columbus
Writer: David Simkins

MOVIE: 5
VIDEO: 4
AUDIO: 5
EXTRAS: 0.5
MENUS: 3
OVERALL: 4

Elisabeth plays a cute high school girl waiting for her boyfriend to take her out for the evening. He comes to tell her a cooked-up story that his little sister is sick with something contageous and he has to stay with her. So she ends up babysitting instead. Goofy incident after goofy incident will keep you in tears of laughter. I especially loved the scene in the "blues" club where they are forced to create their own little song before they can leave. It keeps you on the edge of your seat as the little girl dangles perilously on the outside of a Chicago skyscraper while their parents party inside. Ya gotta have a copy of it, DVD preferred.