So much average

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Okay right from the top this is not great art but with that title were you really expecting it to be? If you want that go watch a three hour Ingmar Bergman film but if you want a breezy, silly comedy with good performances and a snappy pace than this is for you.The whole setup is preposterous but so are many 80 & 90's comedies, Adventures in Babysitting, Home Alone etc, but once this one gets past its bumpy intro scenes it actually becomes a more focused story of a young girl finding her way through unexpected responsibilities.It helps a great deal that the cast headed by two very good actresses. Christina Applegate as Sue Ellen the young teen who finds out she is more resourceful than she realized and the marvelous Joanna Cassidy as Rose, her new boss. Keith Coogan is also a lot of fun as stoner brother Kenny who belatedly grows up. Besides the good performances the film is filled with some amusing quotes, enjoyable situations and a flashback to 90's fashion. A pleasant diversion but again don't expect anything high toned and you'll enjoy the ride.

While "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead" is no masterpiece, it's 5.5 rating is a bit harsh for this early 90s movie that I remember watching during High School. Caught it at a Hotel with HBO recently and I thought I'd be cringing a lot, but it has it's entertaining moments and quite a few chuckles. It's almost a homage to John Hughes type movies. There's a lot of adult vs. teenagers vs kids humor, and some of the witty dialog that mimmicks Hughes scripts in movies like "Uncle Buck". Here Christina Applegate who never really launched in the movie-world, holds her own pretty well, although she doesn't quite cut-it believable as a 17 year old. I liked the romance and subterfuge she threw at her crush and all the office antics and characters. You can see some of Office Space like goof-balls and behavior in this movie a good 8 years before the Mike Judge Masterpiece came out. Anyway, this deserves a higher rating - it still clings to some 80'ness in a fond way.

This really should've been 2 movies. There are 2 great premises here that are almost completely unrelated that are just squashed together into 1 not-so-good film. We have the hilarious slapstick comedy of covering up the death of an elderly babysitter, and a woman trying to find a way to save the company she works for (which is a movie that I personally wouldn't have cared for, but probably would've made a great chick flick), both of which could've easily carried themselves over an hour and a half each.Instead, all we get is a half-hour of comedy and an hour of boring Yuppie-ville Corporate America, with the plot of the first half-hour poking it's head every so often, mercilessly trying to remind us that we're supposed to be watching a comedy. But just as quickly as those every-so-often's come up, they disappear back into the void.And they should've done away with the 'no money, gotta get a job' plot device, as that was pretty much what killed the rest of this film. They could've developed a lot more comedy just out of them say... having a party and trashing the house, or relatives come looking for the babysitter, or mother comes home early, or from the fact that they should've just called an ambulance in the first place seeing as how the babysitter really did die of natural causes and they wouldn't have been in any trouble anyway, or any number of possible plot devices that could've been so much funnier than Christina Applegate parading around in Yuppie-land. And as for that part of the film being it's own movie, this section has a lot more detail than the first half. Just add a bit more character development to the supporting cast, and bam, you got that film.The acting is overall fairly decent though. Christina Applegate is definitely convincing as both the valley girl and the yuppie. Keith Coogan as Kenny and the hilarious pranks that him and his gang pull are sadly underused in my opinion, although his transformation from stoner slacker to Julia Child-obsessed chef throughout the film is one of the best parts of the film. Josh Charles (whom everybody would remember as anchor Dan Rydell from the show Sports Night) as the boyfriend Bryan does a fairly decent job here as well. Eda Reiss Merin as the elderly babysitter had me scared stiff. The actress also was sadly underused before the character's untimely death. I mean, come on. The title of the movie is based on this character. Had that been it's own movie (forsaking the Corporate America bit, as I suggested earlier), they could've developed the character a lot more. Maybe have her dole out some worse embarrassments and harsher punishments to the children before her death.Most of the actors in the latter part of the film were pretty stiff. The actress who played Carolyn should've been replaced, as it seemed that she read her lines like a wannabe actress in a poorly written commercial. I was however surprised to see David Duchovny (long before his triumphs on The X-Files & Californication) with the worst hair cut the 80's had to offer, and stiff as a board in the acting department.So basically that's it. 2 good premises, but one overall lousy film.

Rambunctious teenagers, left alone with a cantankerous guardian while Mom is away, must fend for themselves after the old crone croaks (they use the dirty dishes for target practice: "The dishes are done, man!"). Airheads antics for an undiscriminating target audience, although Christina Applegate approaches the limp material with a dry resolve which is admirable and appealing; playing the eldest of the colorful clan, she rises far above the script and general handling. Second-half of the movie takes a sharp turn into big-business waters which, while too klutzy to be called satire, nearly achieves a certain unsteady charm. *1/2 from ****