problem child

Director: dennis dugan

Actor: michael oliver,john ritter,jack warden,gilbert gottfried

Data Published: Fri Jul 27 1990

Genres: Comedy,Family

Key Words: boy,slapstick comedy,mischief,naughty child,mischievous boy

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100419/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_Child_(1990_film)

Description: Problem Child is a movie starring Michael Oliver, John Ritter, and Jack Warden. A young boy is just short of a monster. He is adopted by a loving man and his wacky wife. The laughs keep coming as the boy pushes them to the limits.

Plot: Ben Healy (John Ritter) is a good-natured yuppie working for his father, "Big Ben" (Jack Warden), a very successful, but tyrannical sporting goods dealer running for mayor. Although Ben has worked under his father's employ without as much as a raise or promotion in return, his father plans on handing over control of the company and ownership of the land to the Japanese rather than following the classic "father-son" tradition, seeing his son as "too nice" to be his heir. Ben and his social-climbing wife, Flo (Amy Yasbeck), have been unable to conceive, because the fertility doctor told them they were both infertile. Ben approaches an adoption agent, Igor Peabody (Gilbert Gottfried) with his dilemma, and Igor presents him and Flo with a cute 7-year-old boy named Junior (Michael Oliver). However, he is hardly a model child; devilish and incorrigible, he leaves a path of serious destruction in his wake, and is even pen pals with Martin Beck (Michael Richards), a notorious serial killer. The film is interspersed with an imprisoned Martin looking to escape and meet up with Junior, whom he misconstrues as a fellow criminal named "J.R." Shortly after Ben and Flo bring Junior home, Big Ben visits, and is shocked that they adopted. Junior's bedroom catches fire when he shorts out the clowns in it, and Big Ben calls him "The Devil." Junior throws the cat at Big Ben and they both fall down the stairs. Junior messes up a camping trip with the neighbors by urinating on the campfire, and manipulating a practical joke played on the kids by their father. He then terrorizes his neighbors' daughter's birthday party, after Lucy, the snobby birthday girl, bans him from her magic show, though her snobby banning possibly spurred him into terrorizing the party. Finally, he displays his effective but unethical method for winning in Little League, which involves beating rival players up with a baseball bat after they bullied him. Ben is having serious doubts about him, and decides to take him back to the orphanage. However, upon hearing he was returned 30 times, he decides to keep and love him, something no one has ever done. Junior accuses Ben of lying to him. Ben left the keys in the car, and Junior drives it into Big Ben's sporting goods store. Ben has finally given up when his financial advisor calls and says his individual retirement account has been seized by Big Ben to pay for the damage done to his store. Martin then arrives at the house, who Junior claims as his uncle, and Flo sees this as a chance to be rid of him. He kidnaps them by pretending to take them on a family outing, and leaves a ransom note for Ben. While Ben first sees this as good riddance to Flo and Junior, he soon notices signs that the latter is not the monster he appeared as. Through a series of pictures he drew, he depicts children and adults who treated him poorly as deformed monsters with hostile surroundings, but depicted Ben as a happy man in a pleasant background, revealing that he did value him as a father figure. Ben, realizing that Junior's behavior was simply a reaction to how he himself was treated by the rather selfish and condescending people he had been surrounded by most of his young life, undertakes a rescue mission to get him back from Martin. Now exerting a more assertive attitude, Ben first steals his neighbor's car and hat and drives it all over their yard. He also appeals to Big Ben for the ransom money. When Big Ben says Ben ought to see the circumstances as the ultimate change for the better and let Flo and Junior rot, Ben pushes a button that puts him unknowingly on camera, where he ends up revealing his true nature on the news, even mooning the camera. Ben catches up with Martin and Junior at the circus. Junior is rescued after escaping from Martin through a trapeze act, and he calls Ben "Dad" for the first time. Martin drives away, but the Healys are now on his tail. Flo, who was stuffed in a suitcase, tells Ben she wants a divorce, and he tells her to shut up. Eventually, the suitcase flies over the wall, and ends up in the back of a pig farmer's truck. Martin is arrested, but not before getting a shot off, which hits Ben in the chest. Thinking he has died, Junior tearfully apologizes and says he loves him. He wakes up and realizes the bullet ricocheted off his good-luck prune. Junior removes his bow tie and throws it over the bridge after Ben tells him he just wants him to be himself.