Adventures in Babysitting (2016) Reviews

• Don't mess with the babysitters

  bkoganbing2016-06-24

  For its 100 made for TV movie the Disney Channel launched its publicity machine for about six weeks. I'm not sure there wasn't one person within the range of a Disney affiliate in the world that did not know that this remake of the 1987 brat pack comedy Adventures In Babysitting. Nothing beats the Disney publicity machine when they want to push one of their products. Having said that this was an easy to take teen comedy with Sabrina Carpenter and Sofia Carson as rival babysitters who lose one of their charges when she runs off to the big city alone, the big city here being where the film was shot Vancouver. Carpenter and Carson have to team up though they are poles apart in personality. Carpenter is most uptight, especially where heartthrob Kevin Quinn is concerned. Carson is a free spirit who seems to drift not knowing what she wants out of life. Carpenter, Carson, and Quinn are Disney Channel regulars and young Max Lloyd-Jones who plays a most hunky police officer shows every signs of becoming a Magic Kingdom mainstay. The film borrows quite liberally from the Home Alone franchise where a bunch of McCauley Culkins outwit a pair of singularly inept crooks who want Carson's camera. Nothing special here, but Adventures In Babysitting Redux is entertaining enough.

• There's only one Adventures in Babysitting....

  MinistryofDoom2018-04-12

  ....and this is not it. Where have all the Hollywood writers gone? Is everything now just a remake? Are studios just lazily taking short-cuts to profit earnings? I don't know who decided that one of the most quintessential 80s movies needed a remake for the pre/early-teen Disney generation. Somethings should not be touched. Elizabeth Shue's version of Adventures in Babysitting is absolutely one of those things. The writers took the script of the 1987 version and tweaked it jusssst enough so that kids today could find enjoyment and in doing so, they created a poorly acted cheap thrills forgettable TV movie that fails to capitalize on the legendary status of it's namesake. For what it's worth, I'm a parent and I watched the original version.....and this version......with my kids. They enjoyed the original version more than this one (bonus points for the Thor lookalike). There's no reason anyone should have ever made this film and there's no reason you should ever feel the need to waste an hour or so watching this version as long as the original version still exists.

• Predictable Pandering, Pandering, Pandering to the 4 and 5 year olds

  Kukui-Seed-Butter2017-02-10

  First off, this remake was completely unnecessary, but EVERYTHING has a remake/sequel now, so yeah. The Disney Channel has been playing a heavily censored version the original 1987 film for years now, so I guess it was time to make their own G-rated "updated" version with cell phones and all that. They throw in quotes ("I'll guard her with my life") and scenes (like singing rap instead of blues on stage) from the original. Whether comparing it to the original or as a stand-alone TV flick, it is still lackluster in every way. The characters are such clichéd, forgettable cookie cutters that you can see everything coming from lightyears away. The two babysitters are total opposites, but oh no, will they have to learn to get along for the kids, then end up becoming buds and taking selfies together at the end? Will they each get a BF with zero development and personality? Will the emo girl also get a generic BF and stop being an emo because she has a "deep" 20 second talk with him? Will the JonBenet Ramsey wanna-be have to do the babysitter's hair at the end to impress a guy? Of course. I rolled my eyes so many times I lost count. Sure, the plot of the original was far-fetched, but this one is so unbelievable it's almost Spongebob. I know it's intended for kids, but that doesn't mean we should treat them like idiots and spoon feed them pandering, predictable crap. The original balanced both dark and lighthearted scenes, so it's entertaining for a wider audience. This one, however, caters to only the youngest viewers, making it intolerable for anyone over the age of 7. As if the characters and plot aren't bad enough, there are a lot of loud obnoxious scenes filled with childish humor that will make it that much more grating for parents to have to listen to. I gave it 2 stars because the only use this movie has is to babysit your 4 year old for 90 minutes while you do house chores. Aside from that, the only people I see enjoying this are tweens who are fans of the two lead actresses and their previous Disney Channel roles. They do try, but they're not given good material to work with. For everyone else: stay far away from this one, ESPECIALLY fans of the original. It will do nothing but annoy you.

• One night, two babysitters, five kids and various adventures!

  Reno-Rangan2016-06-24

  Now its Maya's (Sabrina Carpenter) turn after Riley's (Rowan Blanchard) 'Invisible Sister'. I'm referring the two best friends from 'Girl Meets World'. This film saw a delayed release and initially it was said to be a sequel to the 80s film of the same name, but now it stated as an official remake. The basic theme was retained and the rest was modified to the present trend. They aimed for G and/or PG, not anything above that, so they had to give up those risky stuffs from the original, hence became a simple one night adventure. The 100th film under the Disney channel's belt. I neither liked nor disliked it. It's a mixed feeling to me, but if you had loved the original film, which was for all ages, most certainly you won't enjoy this. This film is for those who had not seen the old version and it specially targeted for the little kids and tween audience. The main issue was the film characters doubled with the two babysitters and their two sets of children to be taken care, which means the adventures drastically shrunk. There's no innovation and those altered scenes didn't do anything to lift the spirit of the narration. Especially the rap song was a disappointment compared to the 'Babysitting Blues' and also weak negative characters let the film down. But the display from the cast was amazing, if only they had refined story upto 60-70% new ideas, it had a good chance to impress the viewers. Overall, as a television film it did fared decently, but only when compared with the original, it goes stumbling. 5/10

• Almost on par with the original version

  Ddey652016-09-05

  Some might find it shocking to believe that it's possible to like both the original movie, and the remake. As the days approaching the release of this DCOM were fading away, I read posts by people who thought this was an attack on their childhood memories of the original, as well as those who were against all remakes no matter what. My childhood was long over when this came out, so that didn't bother me, and even if it wasn't I wouldn't have taken any offense to the remake's existence. Sabrina Carpenter plays the new version of Chris Parker, named Jenny. She and Lola Perez (Sofia Carson), are artistic photographers competing for an apparently exclusive internship. During this interview both girls bump into each other and get their cell phones mixed-up, in a scene right out of "Stuck in the Suburbs." After they're done, Lola gets a parking ticket (one of many), from a rookie traffic cop who she develops a crush on. Desperate for cash to pay for that ticket, she accepts a babysitting job that was supposed to be offered to Jenny. Lola's charges turn out to be roller derby fan AJ Anderson, would-be pre-teen chef Bobby Anderson, and unknowingly teenage would be rebel Trey Anderson. Former Miranda Cosgrove look-alike Nikki Hahn plays Emily Cooper, a 14-year-old emo girl who is determined to either shave her hair off or dye it green just to be noticed. She's the complete polar opposite of her 7-year-old sister Katy, who makes Quinn Morgendorffer look like the biggest bull dyke in the Bedford Hills Women's Prison. These two end up with Jenny as their babysitter, and when she calls up Lola's kids to check on her phone just as chaos is breaking out there, she drives the Cooper kids to the Anderson house hoping to intervene. The runaway here is not frantic nerdy friend Brenda, but semi-cool rebellious teen Trey, who escapes from his room just as Jenny and her charges arrive, and unlike Penelope Ann Miller's character just wants to score some concert tickets. The girls look at his laptop and find out he was getting them from a pawn shop in the "big bad city," and decide to drive off in the GMC Yukon XL owned by the Anderson matriarch. When they arrive at the pawn shop, they find the owner is dealing with a stolen rare Saphire Ferrett, which Bobby Anderson spooks and accidentally lets loose in the store. Lola loves the commotion and takes pictures of the incident leading to a big chase in the city which is compromised by having that SUV towed away. Most of the chases with the bad guys have been compared to "Home Alone," and justifiably so. When they finally arrive at the pizza restaurant Trey loves, Lola talks him into giving away his tickets so she can scalp it and use the money to get Mrs. Anderson's SUV out of the impound. Emily isn't so happy when she finds that Trey and her friends are all ga-ga over Jenny. From this we can conclude that Trey Anderson is a combination of both Keith Coogan's character and Penelope Ann Miller's. After another chase, Lola tries to scalp the tickets but gets caught by the cops. A.J. Anderson's "Thor" is Roller Derby girl "Jailer Swift," and she meets her idol while her team and their rivals get busted for fighting outside of the rink. When they finally let Lola go, and the two roller derby teams get into another fight, the cops send them outside, right into the hands of the crooked pawn shop employees, and another chase begins. Instead of stumbling into a blues night club and being forced to sing the blues, Jenny is forced to rap at a night club by a DJ, and Emily encourages Lola to turn it into a rap battle. Despite the fact that they both trash each other on stage (although the trashing is nowhere near as fierce as in "Let it Shine"), they actually bond with each other. Between the two of them Sofia Carson is the better dancer. Is it because she's older, taller, and more developed than Sabrina Carpenter? Maybe... or maybe not. Either way, most of the kids are impressed with both of them, except for Emily, who Jenny tries to cheer up before they finally find a way to get the money for the same towing company (albeit different driver), that towed the Anderson's SUV to the impound in this movie, as the one that towed the Buick Electra Estate Station Wagon through Chicago in 1987. Fans of the original SHOULD see the remake. They should look for every contemporary version of the original scenes, and not just the rap battle between Carpenter and Carson replacing the Albert Collins-Elizabeth Shue concert. None of the girls are mistaken for playboy models, but horny guys will enjoy Sofia Carson in a one-piece bathing suit to make up for it. Nobody gets stuck on the ledge of a building or gets sidelined to the friend zone at least for that long. There's also no "Lords of Hell," to mess with, or any cheating boyfriends. Likewise, kids who would only know of the remake should see the original, if they haven't already. I almost considered listing scene comparisons and contrasts between the two versions as my review, but I changed my mind. Though it's more adventure than comedy, I got a big kick out of it, and I just think purists who are fans of the original shouldn't be dissuaded to see the new version due to a knee-jerk aversion to remakes and give it a break.