Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead

Wade Allain-Marcus has directed the reboot of 1991's "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead." It's unclear why he bothered.

In the update, Tanya (Simone Joy Jones - fresh from "Bel Air," another retread) is seventeen and the oldest of four siblings. After a meltdown at work, their mom is sent to a resort for some mandatory R&R. Sure. Happens all the time. The kids are left in the "care" of an elderly, pistol-wielding maniac who promptly passes away. Right. Rather than bothering their mom, the kids decide to dispose of the body and fend for themselves. Of course they do. With the help of her siblings, Tanya lies about her age, gins up a fake résumé and gets a job at a company specializing in fast fashion. Uh huh. Desultory observations about adulthood, responsibility and getting by financially dribble out after that.

In the original film, the lead role was played by Christina Applegate, an actual teenager, who was in the middle of an eleven-year run on "Married... With Children." Her interactions with Joanna Cassidy, who played the owner of the fashion company, were the most redemptive elements of a film that was panned by the critics. A high-water mark was a critic labelling the film "amusing fluff." (It got a 35 score on Metacritic.) Inexplicably, the reboot hews closely to this marginal original story. The only novel element in any of this is that the family at the center of the story is Black.

The casting here is uneven. Jones, who plays Tanya, is twenty-five years old. She struggles to be convincing as a seventeen-year-old. However, her charm and effervescence give the film what little energy it's able to generate. As the two youngest siblings, Ayaami Sledge and Carter Young are cute, cuddly, chatty and clever. On the other hand, portraying the role of the lead fashionista is Nicole Richie, who has made a career out of being the daughter of singer Lionel Richie and the sidekick of Paris Hilton. With practice, diligence and hard work, her acting could someday rise to abysmal. Today is not that day. She and some of the other cast members say their lines and then pause a beat, apparently hoping for a sitcom laugh track to bail them out. Help does not arrive.

This is a film with limited aspirations that are underachieved.

I was highly excited to see this movie since the original from 1991 is a favorite. This movie is just not funny. It tries too hard. The unoriginal concept to this was a huge let down. I really tried to enjoy this but I couldn't. The movie is a huge letdown to anyone thinking this might be a funny modern version of the original.

The problem I have with this movie is it's trying to culturally change the original story. The kids were acting too grown. The attitudes these characters displayed were bothering. This movie really paints a bad picture on the original. Even though they call it re-imagined, it just seemed like a hot pile of garbage. I really wanted to rate it 2-stars, but I couldn't. I was giving this the benefit of the doubt too many times and should have just turned it off. I painfully let it play until the end.

This is literally the most painful thing i had to sit through, which im only sitting through to see the OG's appearances. The references and how things worked out DO NOT FIT IN WITH THIS MOVIE'S REALITY! How are they going to explain the CREDIT CARD STATMENT??? The original movie DEALT IN CASH, you could make up the receipts as we saw them doing in 1991.

A behavioral retreat? Leaving five children under the age of 17 BACK IN THE STATES? No. Even with a babysitter what the heck??? No, just no. None of this makes sense. The only thing enjoyable is the house. Too short for crap too short for crap...

I suggest the kids in Hollywood get off TikTok and start reading some books because there is ZERO creativity these days.

This is yet another remake of a classic comedy that they ruined with complete incompetence.

It doesn't have any of the sharp humor of the original and they rely on shaded racism for some (non)-laughs.

Hard to believe but the story line is about 5 times more boring than the original. And whomever directed this really needs to get an Uber job because it sucks.

And that brings us to the "acting." There is none. These are basically waiters and waitresses who somehow got a leg up and were put into this fiasco.

It's not worth your time. And shame on them for making it.

Right, when I stumbled upon the 2024 movie "Don't Tell Mom The Babysitters Dead", I didn't know that they had remade the 1991 movie from director Stephen Herek. And my first thought was "but why?". Yet, I opted to sit down and watch the movie with an open mind and give director Wade Allain-Marcus's 2024 movie a fair chance.

But not even five minutes into it, it was painstakingly clear that this was going to suck big time. Yup, I figured that this movie would be a pointless remade that was remade solely for the purpose of being potically correct and inclusive. And guess what, my intuition was right.

The narrative in the movie was similar to the 1991 movie where writers Neil Landau and Tara Ison put together an enjoyable and entertaining script and storyline. But this watered-down 2024 remake from writer Chuck Hayward just paled in comparison. Sure, there were some fair enough aspects to it, but it was overshadowed by the looming sense of how pointless the remake was and some insanely recially stereotypical characters that just did nothing to further the enjoyment of the movie.

And even upgrading the movie to today's sad state of society and the inclusiveness and political correctness just didn't fare well on the screen. It was too forced and desperate from writer Chuck Hayward.

The comedy in the movie fell flat and I actually weren't brought to laughter even once throughout the course of the 99 minutes that the movie ran for.

I actually wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list. And that is actually usually something I do enjoy in movies, but it just didn't play out all that well here, because of the stereotypical character gallery, annoying music and general pointlessness of the entire movie.

Wow, the music in this abysmal remake of a movie was atrocious. I absolutely loathed the music that played throughout the course of the suffering that was the 99 minutes that the movie ran for.

If you've ever watched the 1991 movie from director Stephen Herek, then stick with that one, and just completely ignore and look past this 2024 remake, because it was a dumpster fire. However, if you haven't watched the 1991 movie, then you might actually find something watchable here, I guess. I just didn't enjoy this movie.

My rating of this utterly pointless remake lands on a generous two out of ten stars. Seriously? Why remake the 1991 movie?