Such a frustrating disappointment

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

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

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I don't know why Macaulay Culkin made this movie. I mean, I do know his dad forced him to, but I don't know why he didn't run away from home in protest. Even he must have been dismayed making something that was just a cheap rip off of his most famous movie role. Ted Danson is an unlikable jerk, his two moron loser friends make Marv and Harry look like road scholars and the music is fingernails on a chalkboard obnoxious. It also contains maybe the most unromantic romance in movie history with him and Mrs. Rent a cop. Vomit. Not a single moment of genuine heart is here. It is by the numbers in every respect. If you took out the dumb slapstick all this would be is a cringe worthy father son after school special. After a lot of stinkers, this was obviously the straw that broke Macaulay's back. I can imagine him jumping up in happiness when that's a wrap was finally uttered. I can also imagine Ted Danson wandering back to TV grateful to still be alive.Maybe the reason this movie annoys the hell out of me was it was that we watched the VHS copy of it about 200 times at our holiday house as it was one of the few kids movies on the shelf. For some reason, Home alone 1 and 2 were nowhere to be seen. Man I would have even taken Richie Rich over this pile of garbage.

When he was young, Macaulay Culkin consistently played incredibly street-smart kids with a knack for setting traps, catching bad guys, and outsmarting adults in a cute and memorable way. One wonders how his characters like Kevin McAlister or, in this case, Timmy Gleason fared in school, with classes like calculus, physics, and trigonometry requiring more book-smart level thinking. It's one thing to build an amateur trap; it's another being able to explain why the trap works and how it is triggered.Getting Even With Dad marked Macaulay Culkin's last project for six years before appearing in a film adaptation of the stage play Madame Melville. His downfall could be attributed to many things, but Culkin was fourteen during the time of this film, already growing out of his cute-kid appearance and becoming more of an adult, as well as Getting Even With Dad's extremely poor box office performance after the kid was proved to be a solid cash-grab with two Home Alone projects. Even with this film, Culkin shows a certain tiredness to doing the same old schtick with little reward.The film revolves around his character Timmy, whose mother died some years ago and who has been living with his aunt and her fiancée since the event. Planning to marry and get Timmy out of her hair, the aunt decides to drop Timmy off at his biological father's house, where both can meet each other and Timmy can have a place to stay. Timmy's dad turns out to be a petty-con by the name of Ray Gleason (Ted Danson), who is plotting with two amateur cronies Bobby and Carl (Saul Rubinek and Gailard Sartain) to steal a collection of rare coins. It is only obligatory that Timmy is smarter than all three of these cons put together, so when the gang actually do find the coins, he'll hide them in order to squeeze more quality time out of his father than he's willing to give (and also maybe have his hand at nudging a little romance in his direction on the side).Getting Even With Dad is the classic case of a film biting off more than it can chew. The film tries to mesh themes of crime, romance, father-and-son bonding, slapstick comedy, and sentimentalist drama all into and it barely succeeds as a film detailing father-and-son bonding. It makes not knowing your father and then coming across him when you discover he's a petty crime out to be another instance to practically laugh off rather than one to be deeply upset about. Writers Tom S. Parker and Jim Jennewein (who also wrote the other Macaulay Culkin showcase of the same year Ri¢hie Ri¢h as well Major League II) had a golden opportunity to explore the sadness and the neglect of a father not being there for his son during crucial developmental years and then not even making a good too-little-too-late effort that, I believe, kids would've responded to much more than the mashup of cheesy themes we got with the end product of Getting Even With Dad.The film was directed by Howard Deutch, who was responsible for directing both of John Hughes' screenplays Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful as well as other products such as the charming Great Outdoors and The Odd Couple II. Deutch's directing style has never been one to praise for its uniqueness, but even in projects such as The Odd Couple II, he always seemed to manage to squeeze something out of his performers and his crew. Here, however, there's little he can do to liven a slumping screenplay with too many different themes to tackle adequately.Starring: Macaulay Culkin, Ted Danson, and Glenne Headly. Directed by: Howard Deutch.

I like Macaulay Culkin and his films like the first two Home Alones, Uncle Buck, My Girl and The Pagemaster, and after seeing some tepid reviews and a very low IMDb rating I was expecting not to like Getting Even with Dad. But I actually did. It isn't perfect, it is overlong with an obvious and predictable story and the pace slackens at times, but this is a much better film than I was led to believe.It does look very nice, with good photography and scenery, and the soundtrack was mellow and engaging enough too. Getting Even with Dad does have some funny parts at the expense of Danson's inept sidekicks, and some poignant moments without being too mawkish. Howard Deutch is a talented director, and he proves it I think here, and I really enjoyed the performances of Macaulay Culkin and Ted Danson both of whom carry the movie with ease.All in all, far from perfect but there are much worse out there. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Getting Even with DadAwful story about a smart-a$$ed kid (Macaulay Culkin) who goes to live with his crook of a father (Ted Danson) and ends up stealing his father's (and accomplices') stash of money they've stolen from a bank. He promises to give it back if his dad hangs out with him and treats him like most sons.There's a lot of feuding between father and son in this dismal and unfortunate tale that tries to prove kids are smarter than their parents and can control them with a bit of blackmail. If this movie had been released thirty years ago...I can only imagine what parents would have done to the copies.Besides, apart from the stupid message of the film, it's just a bad movie. Macaulay Culkin has finally outgrown his childhood and for once the critics started to notice he couldn't act (like he ever could! He got lucky with "Home Alone"--it was good because of Pesci and the rest of the cast, not him). Danson is equally annoying in the role of his father, who seems to have been born without a personality. Yes, Danson is very watered down in this movie. To be honest, I don't blame him--this is the type of stuff that belongs on made-for-TV movies. You know your career has hit rock-bottom when you're in something like this.And just think, this was made somewhere around ten years ago.What a disaster.* / *****