Forgotten Friday: Little Monsters

Thanks for checking out our Forgotten Fridays feature. This is a feature to review some older films that maybe you have forgotten about or maybe never got around to seeing that we just want to share. They may not be old, maybe not forgotten, but they are not new. Just fun to share.

Today, we review Little Monsters

Genre: Comedy
Directed by: Richard Greenberg
Staring: Fred Savage, Howie Mandel, Daniel Stern, Margaret Whitton, Rick Ducommun
Released: August 25th 1989

THE GENERAL IDEA

A child meets the monster that lives under his bed. He even becomes one of his best friends. Soon the child discovers a whole new world of fun and games under his bed where pulling pranks on kids and other monsters is the main attraction.

THE GOOD

This was Howie Mandel in one of his funniest appearances. The guy is always spot on funny, but he is always best when he is improvising. Howie’s physical comedy combined with perfect comedic timing makes this all that much more fun.

Little Fred Savage once again plays the part of the everyday boy and allows you to live this frollicking silly adventure through his eyes. There is a lot of child’s wonderment and adventure in this movie and much of it looks like it was Mandel just playing off of Fred Savage. The pranks are hillariously delivered and it all works at getting the laughs.

THE BAD

The effects are dated and very distracting. While in the time they were forgivable, they take away from the movie a bit when occassionally a gag is painfully effected in.

And while all film is subjective you have to like Howie’s clean comedy stuff to enjoy this.

OVERALL

There is a nice balance of the silly and a message of responsibility and growing up that make for some serious moments too. But not so much to ruin the fun.

I’d be all for Howie doing a sequel to this, and perhaps befriending Fred Savage’s kid so he could be on the recieving end of the parents frustration.

Since all of these Forgotten Friday reviews are going to be what I would already give a high rating to, I had a Tv, Rent or Buy scale going on, but it would seem that an overwhelming majority of my picks get a BUY rating.
So with every Forgotten Friday you see from now on, you get to rate your anticipation for yourself!

TV – If you are at least a little curious, catch it if it comes on TV.
Rent – If it is something you have heard of and forgotten, or just remember enjoying this as much as I did once upon a time, go rent it.
Buy – But if you are like me, and you agree with my review you should go buy it. If its featured here, I already have.