Baby's Day Out

...but I really love this movie! It's a pity this was released on the coattails of "Home Alone", since it's inevitably perceived as a knock-off. But the comparison is really unfair. "Home Alone" featured McCauley Culkin as annoying, precocious, and self-sufficient far beyond his years. The criminals who were his foils were reminiscent of The Three Stooges in their ineptitude. The one quality both Culkin and the criminals shared was a being mean spirited to some degree.

Baby Bink in "Baby's Day Out" is a true innocent who survives on luck while remaining adorably unaffected. His criminal foils are more reminiscent of Laurel & Hardy than The Three Stooges - cleverer and more subtle. In this case, the quality shared by Baby Bink and the criminals is innocence and an underlying decency.

The supporting cast is superb, led by Joe Mantegna in one of his best comic roles.

If you're not too jaded to appreciate it, I highly recommend this movie.

Bennington Austin Cotwell IV also known as "Baby Bink" (Adam Robert Worton and Jacob Joseph Worton) is the infant son wealthy Chicago couple Laraine and Beington Austin Cotwell III (Lara Flynn Boyle and Matthew Glave respectively). As the two arrange to have their son photographed for a picture in the newspaper, the photographers are hijacked by criminal trio Eddie (Joe Mantegna), Norby (Joe Pantoliano), and Veeko (Brian Haley) who pose as the photographers in order to get close to Bink and ransom him back to the Cotwells. After successfully kidnapping Bink the trio await the ransom drop scheduled for midnight, but when Norby falls asleep while putting Bink down for a nap, Bink sees a pair of birds which reminds him of his favorite picture book and wanders off from the three crooks to various places around the city as the three inept crooks unsuccessfully try to reacquire Bink only to be met with slapstick punishment.

Baby's Day Out is a 1994 slapstick comedy from prolific writer/producer John Hughes who with the success of 1990s Home Alone refocused himself more towards broad family comedies finding success with the likes of Beethoven, Dennis the Menace, and Home Alone 2 albeit not quite to the level of Home Alone. During the mid 90s Hughes had workshopped a number of ideas at Fox which were designed with increasingly little dialogue exchanges and more on action and slapstick with Baby's Day Out along with unmade pitch The Bee experiments by Hughes in producing comedy films with protagonists who didn't speak much (if at all). Director Patrick Read Johnson had experienced decent success with his debut film Spaced Invaders and on the basis of that film was contacted by Hughes who invited him to read the pitch for Baby's Day Out. As Johnson was an expectant father he gravitated towards the idea of working with babies and agreed to direct. Produced in Chicago the film budgeted $50 million (though brought in at $48 million) was a massive undertaking requiring the construction of several large sets (some reportedly give stories high) and a large amount of time needed to get the appropriate reactions from the twins playing Bink (according to director Johnson, there's supposedly footage of him several feet off the ground in a cherrypicker holding an Elmo doll and doing an impression that was but one of many instances of him trying to get the proper reaction). Despite the pedigree of John Hughes and its position as a major Summer release, Baby's Day Out opened at number 8 at the box office as Disney's The Lion King continued to dominate cinemas and no doubt diverted many of the film's potential audience. Critical reception was skewed negative with some exceptions such as Gene Siskel and Hal Hinson enjoying the film, with many critics lamenting the film as another retread of the Hughes formula. Following the failure of Baby's Day Out and another 1994 Hughes film the remake of Miracle on 34th Street, Hughes would set up shop at Disney which would churn out other Hughes' comedy product. Upon reflection, the movie does have a certain charm to it and it's better than its reputation would suggest.

While movies centered around Baby characters have a...mixed reputation for lack of a better word ranging from the inoffensive mediocrity of the first Look Who's Talking film to the aggressively annoying or borderline disturbing Look Who's Talking sequels or Baby Geniuses movies, what makes Baby's Day Out work is in its simplicity, While the movie follows Baby Bink around as the "main character", Bink doesn't speak aside from babbles and giggles and is more of a chaos agent in the script that a source of wisecracks or one liners which works much better with the slapstick focus of the film. The three crooks played by Joe Mantegna, Joe Pantoliano, and Brian Haley are basically the three stooges by way of Looney Tunes' Rocky and Mugsy and much like Home Alone this movie is another refresh of the O. Henry short story "The Ransom of Red Chief" wherein crooks' attempt at a kidnapping yields punishment by the one they kidnapped, but at least there is a decent amount of difference between the take in Home Alone vs. Baby's Day Out. As the movie is primarily a showcase for slapstick shenanigans, it largely succeeds thanks to Johnson's precision sense of timing and pacing that allows the gags to be funny as well as the commitment from the three crooks who have solid reactions and timing with one another. The movie does have issues such as being a tad too long at 100 minutes and it probably would've benefited from tighter pacing to 85 minutes. The movie also has something of a drag on the comedy in the film as much like Home Alone, Hughes tries to add moments of sentimentality with Lara Flynn Boyle and Matthew Glave's characters, but the scenes don't fit tonally with the rest of the film and only serve to be whiplash from the lighter more slapstick part of the film. This was a sentiment echoed by director Johnson who said test audiences were left uneasy with the kidnapping aspect slightly overshadowing the comedy and Johnson has said that if he were to re-write the film he would've had Bink leave on his own accord because his parents aren't paying attention and then rewrite the three crooks as good natured conmen who try to bring back Bink to get the reward money.

Baby's Day Out is a perfectly decent film that's slightly above the level of many Home Alone inspired films that tried to copy the formula and it's significantly better than the Look Who's Talking series. Most of the criticism that was levied against the film can't really be denied and it was deservedly beat out at the box office by The Lion King, but as an inoffensive piece of broad family entertainment you can certainly do worse.

Despite being the heir to a small fortune Baby Bink has never had his picture in the paper like other rich babies. However his mother hires a famous photographer to take his picture. However when the photographers arrive they are actually kidnappers who steal away baby Bink and demand a ransom. However Baby Bink manages to slip out of their sight and begins a journey through the city of his story book. The kidnappers try to catch him but seem to be always one step behind.

John Hughes won't be remembered in the same way as ‘great' filmmakers will be - but like it or not, he knows how to do this type of film with his eyes closed. This never gets above the same cartoon humour of Home Alone, but it still manages to be very funny. The story is daft - the baby going through the city by recognising things from his story book, however the cartoon humour is very good throughout. Some scenes (with the worried mother) and the ending can't help but lapse into sentiment, but for the most part it's sheer comedy antics.

The reason the comedy works is not due to the baby - he is cute but he never dominates the way Mulcaly Culkin did, instead he haplessly crawls his way around using `baby luck'. What makes it work are three really funny performances from the kidnappers. One of my favourite actors Joe Mantegna is usually above this type of stuff, but he's really funny here. Similarly Joe Pantoliano has been in his share of blockbusters and is funny here with Haley. The support cast has it's fair share of famous faces - Boyle is lumbered with all the emotional scenes and Matthew Glave (The Wedding Singer) doesn't have much to do. An uncredited Mike Starr as an informant, Fred Dalton Thompson as the cop, Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City) as the nanny and Anna Levine (Bad Boys, Unforgiven, The Crow) as an understanding mother make interesting appearances. However when the kidnappers are off the screen things aren't as good and start to drag.

Overall you know what to expect from this. If you're in the mood for Tom & Jerry style cartoon humour (as opposed to Jerry & Tom humour - Mantegna fans will understand!) then this is a really good laugh. Simple, unmemorable but fun!

This film reminds me a bit of home alone, with the bad guys getting injured in a slapstick kind of way.

I watched it with my 5 year old and she was in absolute stitches. It was very enjoyable to watch with the family.

This story is about three idiot criminals who kidnap an adorable baby. However, the baby turns out to be smarter than them and again and again, it manages to not only get the upper hand but horribly hurt them in the process.

"Baby's Day Out" was a HUGE money-loser...and it's sad, as it was a clever and funny film. In so many ways, it was like "Home Alone" but with a baby instead of McCauley Culkin...combined with huge amounts of Sweetpea from Popeye cartoons. I only saw the movie because the studio was giving out free passes...desperately hoping the film would gain traction, which it didn't.

When we went to this free showing, we took my daughter...who wasn't quite 4. And, I was so glad we did because she spent much of the film laughing so loudly everyone around us laughed....it was the perfect film for small kids. But I also had a great time because although the movie was about a tiny baby evading some idiot criminals, it also managed to be very funny and well constructed. Overall, a terribly underrated film that manages to entertain everyone in the family.