Martin Scorsese made the definitive statement about late night adventures in a big city with his magnificent black comedy After Hours. Two years later, Chris Columbus offered his PG-13 take on similar material in the far more juvenile and far less fresh Adventures in Babysitting. As an action comedy, the film expects a great deal of suspension of disbelief on the part of its audience, and while the actors give it a good shot, the movie never manages to rise far above its derivative roots.
Adventures in Babysitting (Blu-ray)
Directed by Chris Columbuis
Studio: Touchstone
Year: 1987
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 102 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English; Dolby Digital 2.0 Spanish, French
Subtitles: SDH, French, Spanish
Region: A-B-C
MSRP: $ 20.00
Release Date: August 7, 2012
Review Date: August 2, 2012
The Film
2.5/5
Forced to baby sit Sara (Maia Brewton) and Brad (Keith Coogan) Anderson after her boy friend (Bradley Whitford) cancels their date, Chris (Elisabeth Shue) gets an emergency call from her stranded best friend Brenda (Penelope Ann Miller) to pick her up at the Chicago bus terminal. With the kids in tow (and with Brad’s horny friend Daryl (Anthony Rapp) along for the ride), Chris starts out to help her friend. A flat tire, however, begins a series of misadventures as the quartet of young people get mixed up with a group of car thieves and are chased all over Chicago indulging in both the highs (a funky blues club) and the lows (getting caught in the middle of a turf war between street gangs) in an endless night of unforgettable encounters.
With clueless adults the order of the day (night) (no one sees a child or an adult hanging outside a 42nd story window) and the group of teens finding the life-threatening events of the evening more of a lark than anything remotely dangerous (so why should we?), the script by David Simkins piles incident upon incident and coincidence upon coincidence until one either gives in to the inanity of the piece or resists it utterly. The blues club sequence is meant to be fun (they improv “The Baby Sitter Blues” on the spot), but it again is as believable as the tooth fairy, and Sara happening to bump into her soul mate (George Newbern) at a frat party is just eye-rollingly predictable. The evening’s frenzied events could have been avoided with the gangsters’ asking for one thing from the kids (Daryl had swiped a Playboy from a desk that contained important information) instead of chasing them all through the Chicago streets, through a hospital, and into an office building. As his debut to feature directing, Chris Columbus does keep things moving reasonably well, but he squanders potentially great scenes like Vincent D'Onofrio’s mechanic sequence or the climactic chase outside the office building’s high rise windows dealing with them only in perfunctory fashion.
Elisabeth Shue’s first starring role offers her some good opportunities to shine, and she’s the best thing in the movie. Keith Coogan’s puppy love crush and Anthony Rapp’s hedonistic leer wear out their welcomes early (Rapp’s incessant laugh is also a major turn off). Calvin Levels as the carjacker with a good heart makes an appealling supporting character while Vincent D'Onofrio and George Newbern do what they can with substandard material. Penelope Ann Miller overacts pretty succinctly as the friend at the mercy of her farsightedness and the various weirdos who people the bus station. Ron Canada makes a conventional, one-dimensional villain.
Video Quality
3.5/5
The film’s 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio is delivered in a faithful 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. Sharpness is rather pleasing but is not always consistent, and the film’s color timing errs a bit on the blue side especially early in the movie. Color saturation is all right but nothing special. Black levels are likewise rather average and crush details in low lighting (with an obvious increase in grain as well). Flesh tones are consistent and look right. The film has been divided into 22 chapters.
Audio Quality
3.5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix is typically for a comedy of this era frontcentric in design and execution. The surrounds are almost silent despite the many action scenes sprinkled throughout the movie and the heavy use of pop music. Dialogue is mostly centered with only an occasional stretch into the front surrounds.
Special Features
0/5
Apart from promo trailers for Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Frankenweenie, there are no bonus features on this release.
In Conclusion
2.5/5 (not an average)
Adventures in Babysitting offers an attractive cast playing some predictable action sequences that aren’t very believable or especially thrilling. The Blu-ray may offer a minor step-up in quality to the DVD for fans of the picture, but it otherwise suggests for itself a more frequent life as an evening rental.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
