Review: Problem Child

Big-hearted John Ritter and his wife Amy Yasbeck (whose heart is considerably smaller) adopt young Michael Oliver from Gilbert Gottfried’s adoption agency where the juvenile devil has been traumatising the staff of nuns. Ritter, whose disreputable businessman father Jack Warden is a cold-hearted jerk, wants to do everything right with ‘Junior’ that his father did wrong with him. Junior however, is a malevolent little turd who lives almost solely to cause mischief and has been pen-pals with a psycho dubbed ‘The Bow Tie Killer’ (Michael Richards). Every now and then a film comes along that apparently I shouldn’t like because it’s considered trashy or puerile or just plain low-class.

 

Screw everyone else, “Problem Child” is a perfectly fine, amusing film and you’re all just plain wrong about it. This one’s underrated and I say that knowing that Gilbert Gottfried is in the cast and the first pee joke is mid-opening credits. Directed by Dennis Dugan (who has helmed way too many Adam Sandler films), the film is basically “Dennis the Menace” meets “Home Alone”, but at times the title character comes closer to “The Good Son” or even “The Omen” (I also think “Young Sheldon” owes more to this film than it does “The Big Bang Theory”. The kid even wears a bow tie!). The film gets quite a bit of comic mileage out of the title character’s malevolent delinquency. Played by Michael Oliver (who didn’t stick around in the industry all that long), he’s a malicious little shit and enjoys every bit of it. Zero remorse and it’s to the film’s credit that he’s never really sugar-coated. The title song may be by The Beach Boys but this film’s (and character’s) true anthem is George Thoroughgood’s ‘Bad to the Bone’, played throughout the film. I remember this film really pissed critics off at the time for being crude, but perhaps as a sign of the times it actually doesn’t remotely shock looking at it in 2024.

 

Although young Oliver is no better or worse than Macaulay Culkin, John Ritter is really likeable here as the well-meaning dad who simply has the wrong sort of kid for a son. Veteran character actor Jack Warden is well-cast as the shonky grandfather who is disappointed that his own son isn’t more underhanded like he is. Meanwhile, the idea of Gilbert Gottfried as the head of an adoption agency/orphanage run by nuns is hilarious in and of itself. It might also be my favourite thing Gottfried has ever done. Low bar? Perhaps. Just as he did in “UHF”, Michael Richards steals his every scene here as The Bow Tie Killer who is unknowingly pen pals with Junior from prison, assuming he’s communicating with another likeminded psychopath. He may not be entirely wrong. Aside from being too short, the only flaw with the whole film is that Amy Yasbeck’s character is a bit too unlikeable. I understand why she’s playing the role in such a manner, but I think a softer characterisation would’ve been better. Grandpa is plenty awful enough that we don’t need a female version of him.

 

Basically “The Bad Seed” as a comedy, this one gets its comic mileage out of how much glee this malicious little shit gets out of his delinquency. Scripted by the now respected Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (who together went on to script “Ed Wood”, “The People vs. Larry Flynt” and “1408”), this mild box-office hit is no great film but much better than its critical reputation.

 

Rating: B-