Problem Child (film)

Ben Healy Jr. is a pleasant man working for his father, "Big Ben" Healy Sr., a tyrannical sporting goods dealer running for mayor. Big Ben intends to sell his entire estate to a Japanese conglomerate, as he holds contempt for Ben's considerate personality and considers Ben "too nice" to be his heir. Ben would love to have a son of his own but his obnoxious social climbing wife, Flo, has been unable to conceive, though she cares more about the image of being a wife and mother than the responsibilities. Ben approaches less-than-scrupulous adoption agent Igor Peabody with his dilemma and Peabody presents him and Flo with a 7-year-old boy named Junior, who Igor wants out of the orphanage. Junior is hardly a model child; mean-spirited and incorrigible, he leaves a path of severe destruction in his wake and is pen pals with Martin Beck, a serial killer known as "the Bow Tie Killer", who mistakes Junior's signature, "J.R." for that of an adult and fellow criminal. Big Ben falls down the stairs and Junior's room catches on fire. Junior messes up a camping trip with brash and arrogant neighbor Roy and his family by urinating on the campfire and manipulating a practical joke played on the kids by Roy. Junior then is taken to his neighbor Lucy Henderson's birthday party, only for her to ban him from seeing the booked magic act; Ben tries to lift Junior's spirits by giving him his good-luck charm - a hardened prune - but Junior instead sabotages the party. Finally, Junior displays his method for winning in a Little League baseball game, which involves hitting rival players in the crotch with his bat. Ben has severe doubts about Junior and takes him back to the orphanage. Upon hearing that Junior was returned thirty times by previous adoptive families, Ben decides to keep and love him, something no one has ever done. Distraught, Junior retaliates by driving Ben's car into Big Ben's store and Big Ben cleans out Ben's bank account to pay for the damage. Ben is on the verge of cracking until Beck arrives at the house and kidnaps Junior and Flo. While Ben initially sees this as good riddance to browbeating Flo and trouble-making Junior, he soon notices signs that Junior is not the monster he appeared to be; through a series of pictures he drew, he depicts children and adults who treated him poorly as deformed monsters with hostile surroundings but depicts Ben as a person in a pleasant background, revealing that he did value him as a father figure. Realizing that Junior's behavior was simply a reaction to how he was treated, Ben undertakes a rescue mission to get him back from Beck. Ben first steals Roy's car and hat and confronts Big Ben for money; when he is rudely dismissed, Ben pushes a button that unknowingly puts Big Ben on camera before announcing his election campaign, where he reveals his true nature on the news, mooning the camera. Ben catches up with Beck and Junior at the circus. Junior gets rescued after escaping from Beck through a trapeze act. Beck drives away but the Healys are on his tail. After a collision, Flo, who was stuffed in a suitcase, flies over the bridge and ends up in the back of a truck loaded with pigs. Beck is arrested but not before getting a shot off, which hits Ben in the chest. Thinking he has died, Junior apologizes and tells him that he loves him. Ben wakes up and realizes that the bullet ricocheted off the good luck prune he had in his shirt pocket. Junior then removes his bow tie and throws it over the bridge as a symbol of rejecting his relationship with Beck and walks away with Ben. The movie ends with Flo in the back of a truck full of pigs. ==Cast==

• John Ritter as Benjamin "Ben" Healy Jr. • Michael Oliver as Junior Healy • Jack Warden as Benjamin "Big Ben" Healy Sr. • Gilbert Gottfried as Igor Peabody • Amy Yasbeck as Florence "Flo" Healy • Michael Richards as Martin Beck • Peter Jurasik as Roy ==Production==

The film was shot on location in Texas from October 2 to November 24, 1989. The primary locations were Dallas, Farmers Branch, Fort Worth, Irving, and Mesquite. Also, there were two weeks of reshoots in Dallas in March 1990. The production budget was originally projected to be $11 million. Then-unknown child actor Macaulay Culkin reportedly auditioned for Junior, but Michael Oliver was ultimately cast. about Tom and Janice Colella, a married couple suing Orange County Social Services Agency after they were not informed that their adopted son Tommy had severe mental health issues with violent tendencies and had been previously returned to the agency multiple times. ==Music==

A soundtrack was released by Universal the same day as the film, and included an original composition by The Beach Boys. ==Reception==

Box office The film was released on July 27, 1990, and debuted in third place, behind Presumed Innocent and Ghost. It went on to be a commercial success at the box office, grossing $53 million domestically and $72 million worldwide. Critical response The film received negative reviews upon its release. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a rare approval rating of 0% based on 30 reviews, and an average rating of 2.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Mean-spirited and hopelessly short on comic invention, Problem Child is a particularly unpleasant comedy, one that's loaded with manic scenery chewing and juvenile pranks". On Metacritic, it has a score of 27 out of 100 based on reviews from 12 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave it a grade "A−" on scale of A to F. The film was heavily censored when shown on television due to the remarks characters made about adoption, which critics saw as insensitive. It was not screened for critics prior to its release. ==Home media==

The film was more successful on home video. The VHS version adds an extra bit just before the closing credits, in which Junior interrupts the sequence to tell the audience that he'll be back next summer for Problem Child 2. Then he disappears and a loud crash noise is heard, followed by Ben shouting, "Junior!", him laughing, and the roll of the closing credits. The VHS version was released on January 31, 1991. The first DVD release was released by GoodTimes Entertainment on May 1, 2001. It and Problem Child 2 were released together on DVD in the US on March 2, 2004, as a package entitled Problem Child Tantrum Pack. They were presented in open-matte full screen only. However, no home video release thus far features the deleted footage shown on TV airings of it. The film was re-released on the Family Comedy Pack Quadruple Feature DVD (with other comedy films like Kindergarten Cop, Kicking & Screaming and Major Payne) in anamorphic widescreen (being its first widescreen Region 1 DVD release) on August 5, 2008. It was released on Blu-ray on August 8, 2017. TV version The film first aired on NBC on September 15, 1991, with 12 minutes of previously deleted scenes and all the profanity was dubbed with different and appropriate words and phrases. ==Legacy==

Sequels The film inspired two sequels: the first, Problem Child 2, was released theatrically in 1991; the second, Problem Child 3: Junior in Love, was a television film aired on NBC in 1995. The first one brought back the original cast in their original roles and picked up where the first film ended. However, Amy Yasbeck was given a new role with a new dynamic opposite to her original character. In the third and final film, William Katt and Justin Chapman replaced John Ritter and Michael Oliver as Ben and Junior respectively, while Gilbert Gottfried and Jack Warden reprised their roles as Igor Peabody and Big Ben and the film does not follow the storyline of the first two films. Television series The film was adapted into an animated television series that aired on USA Network for two seasons, from October 31, 1993, to December 4, 1994. Gilbert Gottfried was the only original cast member to be featured as a voice-over actor, making him the only cast member involved in all three films as well as the animated series. In 2015, NBC ordered a pilot for a live-action TV series based on the film, produced by STXtelevision, Imagine TV, and NBCUniversal, but the pilot was not picked up by the network. In popular culture The film was featured in a famous scene from Martin Scorsese's 1991 remake of Cape Fear, where it is shown screening at a movie theatre attended by ex-convict Max Cady (Robert De Niro), attorney Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) and the latter's family. Cady, trying to unsettle Bowden and his family, loudly and obnoxiously cackles at the film. Adaptations In 1995, a Turkish-language adaptation of the film was made called Zıpçıktı, which was directed by Ünal Küpeli and featured Şenol Coşkun in the lead role. ==See also==