Wow! Such a good movie.

Just perfect...

Better Late Then Never

Absolutely brilliant

'Clifford' is like a bad dream. I'm not saying that to be cute, I mean there are moments in this movie that look, feel and play-out like they came right out of a nightmare. Part of the reason begins with Martin Short who plays a 10-year old brat, who doesn't look, talk, act or dress like any little boy that I have ever seen.The movie begins far in the future as Short plays an elderly man working in a home for unruly kids. He begins spinning his yarn to a rebellious kid about his own days as a little monster. Then we flash back to the present as makes life a living hell for his Uncle Martin (Charles Groden) Uncle Martin takes charge of little Clifford to show his fiancée that he likes children. Clifford wants to go to Los Angeles to a Dinosaur Amusement Park but Uncle Martin is too busy. So that brings about a series of endless, cruel gags that little Clifford plays on Grodin and everyone else. They are cruel jokes and gags involving hairpieces, face-lifts, strokes, bomb-threats etc.There are moments in this movie that are simply baffling. There is a scene in which Grodin's boss tries to sexually assault the fiancée in a scene that has no purpose and was (for me) disturbing.Getting back to Martin Short. I don't know what the thinking was here. Short wears a little red suit and a mop of red hair. He looks and acts like a dwarf on uppers. His dialogue consists of annoying little phrases like 'You're the bestest uncle in the whole world' I don't mind Martin Short, I liked him in films like 'Father of the Bride' and 'Innerspace' and I loved his SNL character Ed Grimley but here he is trapped in a character that is unhappy, ungainly, mean-spirited and embarrassing.The ending has Martin finally taking Clifford to that amusement park. He sets the kid on an run-away roller-coaster with bad special effects and cinematography that would be right at home in a George Romero movie. The payoff doesn't happen; the movie sets up this pointless scene then tries to justify it by ending with sentiment.What shocked me most was the closing scene, which goes back to the future with Short as the old man and closes with a smarmy piece of dialogue that would have us believe that what we have just witnessed was tender and sweet.I chose 'Clifford' as the worst film of the decade mostly because for days afterwards I was depressed. I think of the 90 minutes of my life that are now gone forever. Precious minutes that could have been used to further the course of my life in a positive way were wasted watching jokes about a hairpiece. I think I'm going to go cry now.

The only reason I watched this whole thing through was it just had to get better at some point. It HAD to! There was just too much talent on the screen for this mess to keep stumbling along at low speed. Martin Short stars as the title character who is apparently a ten year old boy. At least he is supposed to be. Anyway, he is truly a monster. He plays a series of cruel practical jokes on his uncle played by Charles Grodin. Grodin has agreed to watch the little brat for whatever reason I don't quite recall. He hopes that taking care of the little tyke will impress Mary Steenburgen whom he is intending to marry. Grodin is basically one of those long-term bachelors (like yours truly) who waited until practically middle age to settle down. Hopefully bonding with the young man will show his lady that he is in fact a good catch.The first time you look at Martin Short, and accept the premise that he is in fact a little boy, you begin to expect to laugh. But the filmmakers must have thought the premise was enough, since they just don't give Clifford and his uncle enough funny things to do. Most of the pranks are cruel, and a few are admittedly funny. The only real laughs I had were watching Grodin's reactions to some of the pranks. He was a really talented guy, but it looks like he mostly retired after this came out. Hard to blame him. There is a stupid subplot involving Dabney Coleman trying to win Steenburgen over and eventually almost trying to rape her in the back of a limo. Ha ha. The film has a cheap look to it, and its no surprise to learn it was actually filmed in 1990. This was during a bleak period of American cinema when even some of the better films were just lazily made. The climax of this film takes place at a Dinosaur themed amusement park that looks incredibly cheap and mostly made with cardboard and matte paintings. The musical score is a generic up-beat, by-the-numbers deal that sounds like something Danny Elfman would have wadded up and thrown in the garbage in a fit of despair.The stars of this film deserved something better, and I have no doubt that better writers and a better director could have had something here. But as it stands, Clifford is an unfunny, mean-spirited mess. And a big waste of talent. 3 of 10 stars.The Hound.

This work falls in there with movies like Howard the Duck, Oliver Stone's Alexander, Cherry 2000, and Taylor's Cleopatra in that tons of money was spent in the making, only to have the audiences reject the work.None of the works named stunk, indeed, there are endearing moments and qualities to every ONE of those works, but as far as average audiences were concerned, they were dismal disappointments, for one reason or another. Clifford is generally considered to have fallen into that category.Martin Short portrays a 90 year old priest, and a 10 year old holy terror of a child who will do anything he can (and what he can do is formidable) to get to Dinosaur World to fulfill his dream.I found this work amusing. I was highly entertained by Clifford's constant, non-stop, one track obsession and his total lack of that little voice which tells most people that their inappropriate actions are a BAD idea! It makes me thankful I'm not raising children at this point in my life; that part of my life is done, so I can appreciate the humor herein.I do not understand why this work is generally despised, other than Clifford IS a holy terror. He is the epitome of the Demon Seed. But the work is endearingly quirky, amusing, and entertaining.I liked it and own it. It rates a 7.8/10 from...the Fiend :.

I just watched this movie on TV and came here to see what other people think about it. I was very much shocked to see that the lead actor Martin Short was 40+ when this movie was made. He is playing a 10 year old brat in this movie and I got to say he has done very well at that. Though he doesn't quite look like a 10 year old but he surely comes close to it. This is a movie about a 10 year old boy, Clifford, who is very mischievous and raises hell everywhere he goes. Sick of his mischiefs, his parents leave him with his Uncle who is a middle-aged man and is trying to convince her fiancée that he likes kids and that's the reason why he agrees to keep Clifford with him. As the movie goes on, Clifford completely destroys his Uncle's life with his pranks because he didn't take him to the local Dinosaur Park. Although the ending wasn't the best but most of the movie is really good. This may not be the best movie you'll ever see but its a nice one to watch with your family. I think kids will really like it. It is really hilarious. I was very surprised to see the IMDb user rating for this movie being a moderate 4.2 and that's why I thought I should stand up for this movie. I think its far better than what the rating suggests.