This week’s theme was “Babysitters Who Simply Shouldn’t Be Trusted”. Sure there are plenty of movies of babysitters that are lovely and wonderful that change little kiddies’ lives, but what about the bad babysitters? The messed up people who screw with innocent children’s heads? They need fair representation too. That’s what this week is all about.
Now seeing as I broke my good habits of being organised in regards to this, and being social again, I only watched one movie this week. And that movie was Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead. A family full of awful, selfish children think they’re going to have the best summer holiday ever, as their mother is going to Australia for two months. Unfortunately for them she hires a nasty old lady to be their babysitter (who subsequently dies) and they have to fend for themselves, to hilarious ends.
This was one of those movies that I tried to watch when I was younger and just didn’t get it and turned it off after probably ten minutes. I was a bit hesitant about trying it again because if it’s still boring then I’ve wasted time downloading this thing. But I’m glad I did, because I actually get the jokes now. Who would have thought that jokes about having to work would make more sense now that I have actually been employed!? Also, while it is a bit dated these days, it’s held up pretty well over time. While the outfits and hairstyles were a bit hilarious at times, on the whole I was able to look past those things and just enjoy the movie, which has been proven to be a bit hard to do in previous films.
While this movie was suggested because of the terrible old lady at the beginning, I think it works pretty well in the theme when talking about the older siblings being the babysitters. The eldest child (Sue Ellen) goes and gets a job, and the stoner second-eldest is left in charge of looking after three unruly kids. Obviously this is played on and the kids run wild (and hurt themselves), but I guess you could look at it from that perspective. I wonder how it would have been if the old lady hadn’t died and if having such an overbearing babysitter for those two months would have been good for that family. Of course we’ll never know.The movie is essentially saying (in a funny way) that having the responsibility that comes with having to be self sufficient is supposed to be a good thing for the family and how they grow as people as a result of the old lady carking it, but I still would have found it interesting to see how they dealt with her. I guess it wouldn’t have been as funny a movie if she had hung around, unless they stayed little shits and terrorised her the whole film? I think ultimately I like this story better.
I also downloaded one of the other movies, Raising Arizona, but didn’t watch it. I figured I would hold out on watching Nic Cage movies until the Nic Cage week. Oh yes, there’s a Nic Cage week coming up. The other suggestions were Halloween, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle and The Night Of The Hunter. Next week is all about Christopher Nolan films, which should be fun!