Plot
Teenager Chris Parker (Elisabeth Shue) would rather party with her boyfriend, but when her beau breaks their date she reluctantly accepts a babysitting job. It isn't all TV and icebox-raiding when Chris' best friend Brenda (Penelope Ann Miller) calls her to announce that she's stranded at the bus station. With her youthful charges in tow (one of whom, 15-year-old Brad (Keith Coogan), has a hopeless crush on the babysitter), Chris heads into downtown Chicago to go to Brenda's rescue. Thus begins a roller coaster ride of comic mishaps, unexpected perils and hairbreadth escapes. IN one bit, blues singer Albert Collins refuses to allow Chris and company to leave the nightclub they've wandered into until they agree to sing along with a song borrowed from, of all things the 1939 B-picture Nancy Drew, Reporter! . Screenwriter and Steven Spielberg protégé Chris Columbus made his directorial debut with Adventures in Babysitting. ~ Hal Erickson, RoviReview
The surprise hit Adventures in Babysitting was what catapulted Elisabeth Shue from throwaway roles, like Ralph Macchio's girlfriend in The Karate Kid, to the status of legitimate teenybopper star with a fitness for light comedy. In fact, until her Oscar-nominated turn in Leaving Las Vegas, this breezy adventure constituted Shue's most recognizable accomplishment, which may say more about her subsequent choices than the cinematic durability of her babysitter extraordinaire. Still, a good escapist potboiler like this tends to stick in the memory, especially when it's spiced up by preteen crushes and an infectious candy-coated sensibility. Like many other formulaic comedies that exceed the modest goal of supplying inoffensive family entertainment, Adventures cruises along on a combination of smart writing, energetic directing, and, perhaps most important, performances that are effortlessly familiar. As co-screenwriter and director, Chris Columbus bears a hefty responsibility for whatever lingering charms the film has, as it builds pleasingly on the child-themed adventures he penned in Gremlins and The Goonies, as well as previewing his Home Alone movies. In the capable hands of Columbus and Shue, babysitting has never been less mundane. ~ Derek Armstrong, RoviCast
- Elisabeth Shue - Chris Parker
- Maia Brewton - Sara Anderson
- Keith Coogan - Brad Anderson
- Anthony Rapp - Daryl Coopersmith
- Vincent D'Onofrio - Dawson
- Calvin Levels - Joe Gibb
Credit
Gregory Keen - Art Director, Steven Saxton - Associate Producer, Jane Jenkins - Casting, Janet Hirshenson - Casting, Judith R. Gellman - Costume Designer, Chris Columbus - Director, Raja Gosnell - Editor, Frederic Steinkamp - Editor, Michael Kamen - Composer (Music Score), Todd Hallowell - Production Designer, Barbara Dunphy - Production Designer, Ric Waite - Cinematographer, Debra Hill - Producer, Lynda Obst - Producer, David Lee - Sound/Sound Designer, Chris Columbus - Screenwriter, David Simkins - Screenwriter
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