Baby’s Day Out (1994)

Baby’s Day Out (1994)

7/10

Starring

Adam Robert Worton and Jacob Joseph Worton

Joe Mantegna

Brian Haley

Joe Pantoliano

Directed by Patrick Read Johnson

This was the good old 90s, when we were not expecting to be blown away by explosions and too much CGI scenes to get us to laugh. The characters were real and relatable, but the adventures were unbelievable.

That was the style of the late John Hughes and through the 80s and 90s he gave us numerous films (Home Alone is one of them) that will forever be memorable in our hearts.

Baby’s Day Out was one of Hughes best movies, hone to his style. I watched it enough times growing up and I didn’t believe watching it again twenty-three years after its release I will still be laughing my head off at the unrealistic and unbelievable adventure the baby took us on.

Our adventure in this movie starts with a mother craving the attention other babies get from having their pictures in the local newspaper. She decided to hire a popular and expensive picture taking crew with the hope that their portfolio of getting pictures in the local paper will work for her baby.

A crew of bandits decided to use the same opportunity to kidnap a wealthy baby and our mother and her husband are more than wealthy plus popular to wet their appetite.

They first hijacked the picture taking crew then went to the rich home and using the mother’s obsession for perfection to distract her and her helps, they kidnapped baby Bink.

Now they have the baby, but here was a three men crew where only one was intelligent enough to plot and the other two were not that bright.

The baby managed to crawl away from them while one who was supposed to read to the baby to fall asleep, fell asleep instead and now the crew are chasing a crawling baby as he gets into malls, bus, taxi, zoo and other places.

What I love about the bandits was their character, they were not so bright that it was unbelievable that they manage to survive this long. They were the right amount of dull and smart that you can swear you have met someone like them either in your work place or in your group of friends.

The events and the adventure were set in such a way that you must put away the old-think-tank and just enjoy.

Don’t bother yourself on how the baby found the old people’s home or how the lady from the bus didn’t notice the weight change in her bag or the adults that allow a baby crawl away from them in a filming and cared not. Just watch the movie and be entertained.

Upon its release, it was a critical and commercial failure for the late John Hughes who had been behind great movies like Home Alone, Miracle on 34^th Street, Curly Sue, 101 Dalmatians, Flubber, Maid in Manhattan to mention but a few.

The movie however was a hit in Asia and as the late Robert Egret commented it was even more popular than Star Wars in Asia during its release. The movie had numerous remakes in different Asian countries.

In Nigeria where I’m from, the movie is seen among my pairs as a great comedy. It made us laugh and we all had our turn watching the movie over again, just to make sure we did not miss a scene of laughter.