July 30, 1990 | Problem Child is a seriously demented comedy with a great deal of rudely subversive, rigorously inventive wit. It has the shape of a bland TV sitcom, and the soul of a sentimental anarchist, as it juggles razor-sharp satire and soft-headed sweetness.
The sweetness blunts the satirical edge more often than it should, most frequently in the film’s final third. But when Problem Child is at its least predictable, and most malicious, it is a spiky, spirited hoot.
Written by Scott Alexander (a graduate of HBO’s Tales from the Crypt) and Larry Karaszewski, the movie is a cross between Dennis the Menace and The Omen. Seven-year-old Junior (Michael Oliver) is an angelic-faced, smart-mouthed orphan who spends most of his time plotting new torments for the long-suffering nuns at St. Brutus Orphanage. Why is he such a little monster? Well, he’s the product of a broken home. Or, to be more precise, he’s the product of 30 different broken homes, all of which he broke himself.
Junior’s latest would-be parents: Ben (John Ritter), a gentle-natured suburbanite who yearns to be a terrific father; and Flo (Amy Yasbeck), who views children as the ultimate yuppie status symbols. Unfortunately, Ben and Flo can’t conceive a child on their own. Even more unfortunately, they get conned into adopting the terror of St. Brutus.
Only a few minutes after Junior arrives at his new home, he manages to set fire to his room and blame the “accident” on faulty wiring. Things go downhill after that. The family cat, a camping trip with neighbors, the sporting-goods store where Ben works for his blow-hard father (Jack Warden), a birthday party for a spoiled little girl — nothing is safe from this ingeniously destructive child.
Ben starts out reading How to Be a Great Dad. Before long, however, he’s looking elsewhere for answers — he reads The Exorcist.
Meanwhile, Junior’s pen pal decides to pay a surprise visit. This is even worse news than you might think, because Junior’s buddy is Martin Beck (Michael Richards), a prison escapee also known as The Bow Tie Killer.
Dennis Dugan, an actor making his debut as a feature film director, doesn’t make the absolute most of a bad situation. But he does have some gleefully misanthropic fun. Problem Child works best when it takes a skeptical view of parental pride, and questions whether, deep down, most other kids aren’t potentially as malevolent as Junior. The only difference seems to be, Junior at least has the courage of his own misanthropy.
John Ritter plays Ben as a basically decent fellow, unburdened by ulterior motives, but even he isn’t spared the sting of the movie’s buzzsaw humor. Indeed, if Ritter weren’t such a likable actor, Ben might be written off as a complete goof for taking so long to discipline Junior.
Amy Yasbeck plays Flo with hilariously transparent selfishness and, surprisingly, untapped reserves of lust. Gilbert Gottfried is aptly obnoxious as an orphanage official, and Michael Richards, who was a delightfully dopey kiddie-show host in U.H.F., plays Martin Beck with the right mixture of lunacy and menace. As Junior, Michael Oliver is effectively unaffected, so that the worst mischief seems perfectly natural for him. If I were this kid’s father, I’d be plenty worried.
