Dennis the Menace (1993)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

For what it's worth it's a good movie. Dennis is cute and unintentionally mischievous making him a pest to his neighbor Mr. Wilson. The story's not the greatest but it's good enough to be believed. Everything seems to fall into place such as the gags and the lines. The movie basically chronicles the misadventures both Dennis and Mr. Wilson face everyday. Christopher Lloyd's character as the reclusive serial killer is strange yet fits in still. In conclusion the movie's a great family movie and i'd recommend it to anyone.

Alright, well, I usually like movies like this. I'm a pretty big fan of the Richie Rich movies, especially Richie Rich's Christmas Wish. However, the Dennis the Menace movie just makes me sick. The horribly disturbing scenes in this movie, were actually too disturbing for even me, and I saw a man get hit by five trains in unison. He was a very fat man, and the trains were relatively thin. The scene where Dennis cuts open the family dog and prances around the house singing pharell's Happy was great, but unfortunately, that was the only scene of it's kind. The rest of the movie was ass. It sucked like my dog. The scene in which Dennis stomps his dad's fingers till they are moosh was too much for me. I just couldn't stand it. And then when he tells the dad to pick up the gallon of milk on the floor with his mooshy hands, a projectile vomited all over the people in the theater in front of me. When I did that, they cheered. Because they thought they thought they were at sea world, and they were in the splash zone. They were also blind, deaf and unable of feeling texture. All they felt something warm and wet them. I continued to projectile vomit for another few minutes. It was coming like a firehose. It filled the theater, and by the end of the movie, some people had drowned in the vomit and I was arrested for manslaughter. Also it wasn't very nice when someone drove their truck into the theater. After they got out, I vomited right into the man's mouth. He ate it. Willingly. We're actually friends now. At this point, the whole theater has either left, cannot leave because they are being pushed down the monsoon of vomit or were dead. Anyway, 5/10.

Mr. George Wilson (Walter Matthau) is a retired postman with loving wife Martha (Joan Plowright). He is tired of the irreverent boy living next door, Dennis the Menace. He is hosting the party for the Garden Society and desperate to show off his flower. Dennis has loving parents (Robert Stanton, Lea Thompson) who treat him with kid gloves. He hates being forced to spend time with Margaret Wade. It's an idyllic town life until the arrival of Switchblade Sam (Christopher Lloyd). Dennis' parents go away for work and the Wilson has the babysit the Menace.I love Walter Matthau and the kid is rambunctious. I like Dennis' family. I love Margaret and the other kids. Switchblade Sam makes no sense being in this movie universe. I think John Hughes is trying to recreate Home Alone. It's a big mistake. The movie is split in two. I find the parts without Switchblade Sam fun especially with Matthau. It's got a childlike innocent tone with a splash of modern irreverence and that's what so great about it. Switchblade Sam has no place in that world.

I remember exactly when I first saw some of this movie. It was Christmas Eve in 1997, when I was eleven years old and it came on TV (it's not a Christmas movie, so don't be mislead by that), but I didn't finish it, and can't remember exactly how much I liked what I saw. At the time, I had never heard of Dennis the Menace, and only recall seeing a strip once in the newspaper funnies shortly after that. To this day, I'm still not very familiar with the strip, and have never seen any episodes of the TV show, but a few months over a decade after seeing some of this movie, I finally watched the whole thing, which left me with mixed feelings.Dennis Mitchell is five years old and lives with his parents, Alice and Henry, in a suburban house. Their next-door neighbours are Mr. (George) and Mrs. (Martha) Wilson, an elderly couple. Unfortunately, it's Dennis' nature to constantly cause trouble, even if he means well, and he often unintentionally makes Mr. Wilson's life difficult! During the summer, Dennis' parents have to find people to babysit him while they're at work. Sadly, their son's bad reputation spreads among the local babysitters! By the time they both have to go on business trips, meaning they will have to find someone to look after their son while they're gone, they try many people, all of whom refuse, so they have no choice but to leave him with the Wilsons! Meanwhile, a thief named Switchblade Sam prowls around town, and anyone around could become a victim of his! Knowing this adaptation of the "Dennis the Menace" comic strip wasn't very popular, I didn't have very high expectations, though I think I was expecting some laughs, remembering what I had seen before. Fortunately, I wasn't let down by that. Some of the gags are lame, such as the scene with Margaret and Joey (two kids Dennis has to stay with at times), where Margaret makes forces Joey to close his eyes and kiss her doll's bare buttocks. You can usually expect lame gags like that in these PG-rated family movies. There's also a scene where Switchblade Sam lets out a huge fart. Yes, I think you can also usually expect fart jokes in these PG-rated family comedies, ones which aren't usually funny, no exception here. Fortunately, there aren't too many of them in this film, that's the only one I can think of. Despite these weak gags, however, there are also some very funny ones, usually the ones involving Dennis causing poor Mr. Wilson grief.Overall, due to the mixture of funny and lame gags, this is certainly not a work of genius, but worse comedies have been made, including some of these other PG-rated children's comedies, such as "Jungle 2 Jungle", "Snow Day", and probably countless others! Aside from the humour, some performances are highlights, including Walter Matthau as the short-tempered Mr. Wilson. I may have enjoyed this adaptation of "Dennis the Menace" more if I had watched it from start to finish back when I was eleven, and right now, I wouldn't want to watch it multiple times, but since I did find some parts funny, and the gags and conflict kept me watching, I will give it some credit. So, while this movie is pretty cheesy, and I'm sure it's generally more amusing for kids, some parts could amuse adult slapstick fans.