Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead Reviews

Viewers must utterly suspend logic to enjoy the farfetched plot of DON'T TELL MOM THE BABYSITTER'S DEAD, a fitfully amusing but often ingratiating contemporary comedy. Before Mom Crandell (Concetta Tomei) departs for a two-month Australian vacation with her boyfriend, she hires an elderly woman who has to be the personification of every child's worst nightmare. This ghoul of a babysitter begins her reign of terror over the kids the moment their mother walks out the door. It only lasts one day, however, for that very night the old shrew dies in her sleep, leaving the five teens and pre-teens to fend for themselves. Even though the siblings are unable to find the money their mother left with the babysitter for their care, they decide to dump the body in a box, label it "Nice Old Lady" and drop it off at the mortuary ... and not tell anyone about their misfortune. Having to earn a living to survive, oldest sibling Sue Ellen (Christina Applegate) applies for work as a receptionist for a large clothing manufacturer, but instead, through a fluke, ends up in a $37,500-per-year job as the administrative assistant to Rose Lindsey (Joanna Cassidy), a top marketing executive. By the finale, Sue Ellen has successfully defended herself in clinches with Gus Brandon (John Getz), an office lothario, and has escaped several mean-spirited attempts to expose her by jealous fellow employees. The plot includes a brief romantic interlude with Bryan (Josh Charles), a fast-food delivery man, who's also the brother of Sue Ellen's most envious coworker, a girl who would give her right arm to see Sue Ellen humiliated. Despite its preposterous storyline, DON'T TELL MOM THE BABYSITTER'S DEAD is surprisingly entertaining and fun. While the film, directed by Stephen Herek (CRITTERS, BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE) from a screenplay by Neil Landau and Tara Ison, might have been sharper, wittier and cleverer, it nevertheless achieves on its own level by genuinely involving its young target audience. Plot holes? ... TV sitcom-style cliches? ... Pure teen wish fulfillment? Yes on all counts! But there was no doubt that the audience this reviewer observed, at a second-run San Fernando Valley neighborhood theater, loved the film and showed its collective appreciation of it with great gusto, relishing every loony moment. The performances are fun to watch and Herek is to be saluted for the first-rate acting he has gleaned from Christina Applegate (Kelly Bundy on TV's "Married ... with Children"), Joanna Cassidy, and the actors who portray Applegate's younger brothers and sister. Particularly effective is Keith Coogan as oldest brother Kenny, the pot-head and heavy metal enthusiast who, by summer's end, is forced to clean up his act as well as help his sisters and brothers straighten up theirs. (Profanity, adult situations.)