I really enjoyed this film - which was truly different.

To be honest, I'm absolutely fed up with portrays of children (especially in commercials and family movies). Children are always portrayed as so cuuuuuuute and nice - actually, I'm worried about getting tooth decay because of the sweetness involved.

Problem Child is just different - the child is a complete evil brat which causes havoc during the whole movie.

Basically, the film concentrates on showing the evil side of children - and yes, people, there is a cruelty in children. Do you remember your own childhood? The bully who loved to harass weaker children? How about children treat outsiders, like fat/ugly peers? What about kids torturing animals like flies or frogs?

Sure - this comedy is far of and unrealistic, but so are cuuuuuuute and sweet family movies.

So - I quite like the movie, it's a black comedy which is a nice counterpoint to sweet & cute comedies like Home Alone.

7 / 10

I'm not a fan of comedies but any movie that starts with a scene of school children writing to their penpals with the following dialogue :

" Dear Queen Elizabeth . How is England ? "

" Dear Bishop Tutu . How are you ? "

" Dear bow tie serial killer . I have all your newspaper articles "

has something going for it , and the best thing about PROBLEM CHILD is the amount of very bad taste comedy . It's almost like a Farrelly Brothers comedy ( THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY , KINGPIN etc ) in both feel and execution . Okay so it's a goofy movie , okay some of the acting is poor , and okay you can see some of the jokes coming a mile away ( Oh a bear costume . I bet a real bear will turn up within the next five minutes ) but I watched it on TV one wet Sunday afternoon and had a few laughs

I can't help thinking that the poor response from many forum members might be down to the fact that this was marketed as a " family comedy " . I can just imagine many parents renting this from the video store , taking it home and watching it with their cherubs only to find it features attacks on religion and family pets . I reckon Joe Stalin would have enjoyed this movie as much as I did

I was expecting to really hate this film, but after seeing it, it wasn't that bad. Yes it was mediocre and crude at times, but absolutely awful, no. There are much worse movies out there, and I will probably be here all night listing them and why they are so bad. I'll drop a few hints, Friedberg-Seltzer movies, Home Alone 4, Cat in the Hat, NeverEnding Story 3 and Superbabies:Baby Geniuses 2 ring a bell? Anyway, the script does have its weak spots, the ending could have been better, Michael Oliver as the truly dysfunctional kid is thoroughly obnoxious at times and the plot is a touch simplistic. That said, it has its good moments, the gags are crude but some of them are amusing, John Ritter is charming in the title role and Gilbert Gottfried is hilarious. The soundtrack ain't half bad either, Amy Yasbeck is effective at playing her character like a total snob,Jack Warden is great and the film is nice to look at. Overall, could have been better but it could have been a hell of a lot worse as well. 6/10 Bethany Cox