It seems like DENNIS THE MENACE was meant to appeal to fans of the HOME ALONE movies (it was even produced and written by John Hughes). Look, when it comes to cartoonish violence, there's a big difference between seeing it happen to 2 adult robbers trying to hurt a child and seeing it happen to an old man who hasn't really done anything wrong. It's not fun. There is a robber who tries to hurt the title character and is therefore punished by becoming the target of said violence, but this happens in the last part of the movie. By that point, I had endured so much slapstick that I didn't care anymore. Even with a more appropriate target, I doubt I would've laughed much. The gags aren't creative. A lot of them are so forced that they wouldn't happen if certain people and objects weren't in the right spot. The worst one is when Dennis makes a canoe fall in front of his neighbor George Wilson (almost hitting him in the balls) and then a bunch of lights fall on top of him. The speed in which they roll combined with the lack of music... It's just not properly staged. Dennis grabs the one on George's face, tells him that it's better for him to play outside, and puts it back. Wait, that contradicts the idea that Dennis cares about George's well-being more than anything else. That being said, the performances aren't bad and I liked seeing George insisting that he's not a grump who hates children. It counts as character development and it makes him look more relatable. And I was relieved that it happened at the 10-minute mark. Unfortunately, his characterization in most scenes is that of a grump who hates children. There's a scene where his wife Martha tells him how she feels about not having children and he pretty much ignores her. When he notices she's upset, she says that it's not because of the subject but rather because she feels she can't share her thoughts with him. Geez, I wonder where he learned to be so insensitive. Oh, I know... From you! You always dismiss his anger towards Dennis, even when there's evidence that what he's saying is true! Hell, even when you see him in pain, you act like it's not big deal! At one point, you even laugh at his face! You got what you deserve, you bitch!
1/10
DENNIS THE MENACE STRIKES AGAIN! continues with the contradictory characterization of the title character. Is he supposed to be a trouble-maker or a little angel who doesn't know any better? You can't have it both ways! In retrospective, I appreciate Walter Matthau's performance more than before, because of how Don Rickles is constantly being directed to overact. In fact, Carrot Top is technically the best actor in the movie. No, really. He plays a con artist who uses different disguises and he manages to hide his voice well enough. Brian Doyle-Murray plays his partner and, while he has more experience and overall more talent, he's not able to sound differently. It's hard to buy that George doesn't recognize him. The camera quality and lighting indicate that the budget was pretty high (for a direct-to-video movie), so there's no excuse for the awkward angles and Jeffrey Reiner's terrible editing. As a sequel, is it better or worse? It's hard to say. On one hand, there are more witnesses (other than Dennis) who see George get hurt and they don't really react the way they should, which is infuriating. On the other hand, it's satisfying to see Dennis' parents being a little more stern than usual. In fact, when they ground him, they tell him he can't visit George anymore.
Dennis gives various examples on what could happen and his dad (fed up) says "Fine, if he's hanging from the roof with 1 finger and no one is around to help him, you can go." Naturally, this is exactly what happens in the climax. Dennis even waits until each of his fingers let go. However, Dennis' friends are near enough to try to save George. I know I shouldn't focus that much on how a child rationalizes things, but I'm only doing it because the movie focuses on it.
Right after the ending, we see brief clips of the main characters, one at a time. I kept expecting the actors to be listed, but no. The credits roll
after that. What was the point? To stretch the running time? That's gotta be it, since the movie is 75 minutes long, despite technically having more subplots than its predecessor.
1/10
I guess someone said "Hey! Both of the DENNIS THE MENACE movies reach a point before the climax where George tells Dennis that he doesn't want to see him again but then feels bad. Those are great! We should make another sequel where we re-use that concept and stretch it as much as possible!" and the result is A DENNIS THE MENACE CHRISTMAS. While this whole idea has always been total bullshit (the title character does deserve being yelled at! Adults shouldn't "play by children's rules"!), I'm saddened to say that this is technically the highlight of the movie, because that's when it feels like a story is actually being told. The previous 50 minutes are just a bunch of scenes placed together.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL is used as the basis for the plot minus the balls to make the Ebenezer Scrooge counterpart think that he has died before finishing his spiritual journey! Pathetic! Speaking of, the scene that takes place in the future looks awful! Yes, the budget is noticeable lower than its predecessor's, but that only excuses the other scenes. I can't imagine even fans of the previous 2 installments liking this one since there are almost no slapstick gags. Not to mention that Dennis doesn't wear his classic clothes and he doesn't use his slingshot. At the beginning, Dennis is in a school play. His classmates start throwing food at one point and none of the adults do anything about it. What the Hell?! The Mitchells aren't automatically bad parents just for having a child like Dennis, but how on Earth do they let him ride a bike on the street after it has snowed?!
0/10
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