Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991)

Sick Product of a Sick System

Just perfect...

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Christina Applegate, Keith Coogan, Josh Charles, John Getz and Joanna Cassidy star in this 1991 comedy. Applegate (Married with Children) plays teen, Sue Ellen who wants to enjoy her last summer vacation. Things change, when her mother hires a babysitter for her and her siblings while going away on vacation. After the babysitter dies of a heart attack, Sue Ellen tries to support them by getting a job as a fashion exec. Coogan (Hiding Out) plays her brother, Kenny, Charles plays her new boyfriend, Brian, Getz (The Fly) plays sleazy, co-worker, Gus and Cassidy (Blade Runner) plays her boss, Rose. This is a pretty good 90's flick, Applegate and Cassidy are good together and David Newman's score is great as usual. I recommend this.

"Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead" is an all-time comedy great. It shows that when you work hard and work together how you can get something done. When Sue Ellen, Walter, Kenny, and Melissa's mother goes to Australia for the summer they are left home with a babysitter. She's not any ordinary babysitter, she's and old lady that is rule oriented and is very, very strict. The kids decide that they have had enough and when Sue Ellen, the oldest of the kids, goes down to talk to her, she is found dead. They have no money and Sue Ellen is working for a clothing company for the summer. Thus starts a funny and often touching comedy. What first looks like a straight forward comedy manages to be a lot more. The fish-out-of-water scenario at work rapidly transforms into a realization of how restricting an adult life can be.Despite plot holes and a too rapid chain of events (this film will never join any good "classic videos" collection) that make everything too convent, this is a good movie for generation X. Younger audiences especially accustomed to extensive background checks (ala social media... etc.) are going to have a very hard time swallowing the pre-internet resume, where people actually just turned in a hard copy resume and their background was not actually given a careful look-over. Featuring a great cast of actors such as Joanna Cassidy and Keith Coogan ("Adventures in Babysitting"), "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter is Dead" is a grown-up version of "Home Alone" for teens. Amusing, funny, and entertaining, it was Applegate's only feature-film hit. While she made other low-cost films such as "Streets", this film happens to be her best work outside from her work on "Married... With Children.." If you are looking for a great flick for the family this is it.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

From the being of the movie, I had a hard time of following this movie. But, as the first five minutes went by and we got to the babysitter 's death. Which I thought it was going to be committed by the kids and was thankful that they didn't. I love how shocked the women got freaked out by all the stuff in the house. I love all the typical 90's kid flicks clichés like the tomboy girl refusing to dress more like a girl or the funny little montage. I didn't enjoy the teen-aged brother using drugs and felt the movie should have gotten a PG-13 rating. But,I love how he changed from that to nice,cleaned-up, young man and taking responsibility. Anyways, I thought fashion show was funny for the idea for uniforms even though I can't imagine any school taking them up. But, however, I loved it for how the kids pulled it and grew up. It was nice to see mature teen film that doesn't deal with the search for sex. And the I will leave off on one note about the music, I would have to say the music was decent but, forgettable.

While "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead" is no masterpiece, it's 5.5 rating is a bit harsh for this early 90s movie that I remember watching during High School. Caught it at a Hotel with HBO recently and I thought I'd be cringing a lot, but it has it's entertaining moments and quite a few chuckles. It's almost a homage to John Hughes type movies. There's a lot of adult vs. teenagers vs kids humor, and some of the witty dialog that mimmicks Hughes scripts in movies like "Uncle Buck". Here Christina Applegate who never really launched in the movie-world, holds her own pretty well, although she doesn't quite cut-it believable as a 17 year old. I liked the romance and subterfuge she threw at her crush and all the office antics and characters. You can see some of Office Space like goof-balls and behavior in this movie a good 8 years before the Mike Judge Masterpiece came out. Anyway, this deserves a higher rating - it still clings to some 80'ness in a fond way.