First Kid

Why does this movie get such low reviews; it's terrific!!!!! I love Sinbad and he is very funny in all of his movies such as this, "Jingle All The Way," "Houseguest," etc.; he's DA BOMB!!!!! LOL Anyway, it's about a kid who lived in the White House. No, he can't be qualified to run our country just yet, but still... Anyhow, he likes to get spy gear, talk with his buddy Mongoose_12, and use his pet snake to trick people into thinking he's doing homework and stuff...LOL Some parts range from serious (seeing one of the "Home Improvement" kids as a bully; watching the "baked bean" fly out of that bad guy's gun) to LOL (Laugh Out Loud) fun (the spit ball the size of ice cream!!!!!; the pizza/Coke mascot, etc.)!!!!!

Anyways, I've seen this in the theater in 1996, and have seen this a lot on the old Disney Channel after that. "First Kid" is a cool movie!!!!!

10/10

My expectations for 'First Kid' were very low, in that regard it's actually marginally better than I thought it would be. Still, it's a film I most certainly wouldn't recommend.

Sinbad gives the most noteworthy performance of the cast, in his role as Simms. Even so, it isn't anything great or memorable from him. All of the others aren't worth mentioning, though it is cool to see Rafiki himself, Robert Guillaume, make an appearance - I didn't actually know what he looked like before watching, but in one of his early scenes he laughs and I knew instantly it was that man.

The plot is what lets this down. Just a quick glance at the cover gives off negative vibes, while the opening few scenes don't give you any more confidence either. It's extremely predictable, as well as being rather messy - you don't see the villain until the final 20-25 minutes, so are waiting for around 70mins for the obvious to come to fruition.

I've seen worse from live-action Disney, but it's still a poor attempt from the studio.

I didn't dislike First Kid nearly as much as I thought I was going to, but I also didn't think it was that funny. Most of humor depends on whether you find Sinbad to be entertaining or not. He mostly just seems to riff on the scene and improvise his lines. Sometimes it works. Most of the time it doesn't. I found the titular kid to be highly annoying for the first part of the film, too, but I guess that was kind of the point. The story also takes an oddly dark turn at the end, which I wasn't expecting in such a lighthearted movie. I don't regret watching it, but I probably won't watch it again.

Okay, okay. The movie doesn't aim at high quality. It's not meant to be. It is meant to be funny and entertaining. It is shallow and sometimes oversubscribed. However, I thought that a) Brock Pierce did a wonderful job, b) I could deduce some messages of life, c) the plot was nice and d) the interaction between Sinbad and Brock was rather substantial and well staged. Brock Pierce showed how lonesome and frustrating the life as the "First Kid" can be, how isolated he is and how much he suffers from this isolation. Sinbad - I mean, he is a clumsy guy, but he did fine in here. I never thought that he was constrained or fake. The movie as a whole lacks a realistic storyline, but that didn't matter to me. I was rather attracted by the scene in which Brock told him amid tears how outcast he felt, and I thought it was witty how Sinbad showed him what to do about it. Definitely not a masterpiece but surely above the average.

In the 90s, Sinbad was doing pretty well for himself in the family comedy genre. First Kid falls into that genre. It's a safe harmless comedy for all ages. Though it has, unfortunately, aged like milk. Watching it in 2020 is a challenge. Although it still has it's funny moments, it's just can't compare to other films in the same genre that have come out since. Where as films like Home Alone, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, or The Sandlot are timeless classics, First Kid definitely had it's expiration date. Brock Pierce was an OK child actor but he definitely needed Sinbad to prop him up. He hasn't done any films since 1997, so perhaps Hollywood was well aware of his limited acting chops. It's OK, child actors in the 90s were a dime a dozen and most of them have since moved on in their lives, Pierce among them.

If you want a safe child-friendly family comedy to kill an hour and a half, there are much better films to choose from, but if you've seen them all, give this one a chance. It is indeed entertaining.