Just for Fun

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2015)

My response to this movie is strictly prejudiced. For all it violence and lack of verisimilitude, I get a kick out it ever time I see it. If one can't get past the fact that the Wile E. Coyote element is in here (where no one ever seems to get hurt, no matter what), you aren't going to have much fun. With that caveat, the movie is a bit of a hoot. McCauley Culkin came to stardom in this (it's too bad his life became unsettled after this). Watching Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, the ever optimistic though doomed villains, continue to fight a losing cause against an eight year old is the stuff cartoons are made of. Their mugging as they try one thing after another, only to be thwarted, is great fun. The subplot of the mother hooking up with a polka band, led by the inimitable John Candy, adds an element of joy. There is also the relationship that grows with a frightening man next door who has been tabbed a murderer by the insensitivity of the neighborhood kids. This man is estranged from his son and has lapsed into a sad existence. This raises this up from just a kid movie to one with a bit more substance. Anyway, don't take it to seriously and one may have a bit of fun at the holidays.