Its been at least 25 years since I last caught this one. Being more familiar with the UK version of 'Dennis the Menace' growing up, I never quite appreciated the US iteration. So with hazy memories and a take away ready to go, I thought i'd give it a revisit.

The plot largely centers around the titular 'Dennis' a Menace to his local population, and in particular to his next door neighour Mr. Wilson. The film really is split into two halves. The first half of the movie is Dennis just…being Dennis, annoying Mr. Wilson and putting him into several slapstick situations through tom-foolery. In the backdrop of this opening half however, a strange 'out of town-er' enters the story, looking to rob this sleepy little suburb of everything it has.

The second half of the movie shifts gears as Dennis is set up to stay at the Wilsons house when his family has to leave on short notice. When the thief begins a string of house robberies, Dennis spots him and raises the alarm, pushing Mr. Wilson over the edge and leading Dennis to set out to find the guy whos stolen from his friends.

Realistically? This is inoffensive. But it does feel a bit recycled. John Hughes handles writing duties here, less than a year after 'Home Alone 2' and a LOT of this film has the vague whiff of 'This was a half idea from Home Alone 2 that got cut from the script mid redrafting'. Even down the burglar element, this thing really does just feel like Hughes rustled through a few old notepads and pulled whatver he felt he could stick together and make fly into it. And while the slapstick elements here are creative and are funny. Its hard to escape the fact that this doesnt feel authentic to itself, it feels like reformed offcuts.

Outside of that, the pacing is a little on the pedestrian side. its consistently paced across the 3 acts, it never feels a flat or dry, but it does feel at times a little too slow for its own good. The humour is timed well enough to keep me invested, but I couldnt escape the feeling that this should have maybe been a bit more 'revved up' more jokes, more interesting developments and less 'set up'. By the third act it does really start to move at a clip. But it does feel a bit 'too little, too late'.

I will say I feel they get the characters more or less down pat, though its a shame they dont involve more of the comic strip cast more heavily. The script seems to focus a lot more on Dennis and Mr. Wilsons relationship, when I know the strips were a lot more versatile in involving Dennis' friends, his parents, teachers, other neighbours. This feels a bit too micro by comparison.

On the direction and cine front, I have no complaints Nick Castle is basically doing a John Hughes impression for the most part, its not a bad one either. In fact; until the end credits I assumed this was written AND directed by Hughes…In either case, its got a clear vision (homage can be a vision) and the scene setups are very well handled.

The direction of the cast is a little bit spottier truthfully, some of the cast like Walter Matthau and Joan Plowright pretty much nail it. bringing just the right level of 'comic' animation and grounded realism to the performances to bring it to life. While I dont like to comment on Child actor performances however, I feel Mason Gamble as Dennis is a little too retreating for Dennis, theres a distinct lack of extroversion that I feel Nick just wasnt able to capture with Mason. which is a shame, as I think Dennis as a character should be boisterous and a bit unaware of the consequences of his actions. I feel like Nick leant more into Dennis being an accidental and VERY apologetic menace. rather than Dennis not really being aware he's been menacing at all, because he's that busy focussing on the next thing at hand.

With it being a studio pic, the cine was never really a concern to me. Its competent, feels a bit like John Hughes tribute, but its got a decent amount of B-roll, the sequences are cut together nicely, theres some great Matte painting and early CGI elements which work well. the shot structuring is very creative, and I enjoyed the flow and feel of it.

Performance wise I've already talked about the core cast, but just to add, I think Christopher Lloyd is kind of underused in this one. He's kind of a mesh of Judge Doom, His character in 'Taxi' and the sticky bandits. He doesnt get a massive amount of screentime, and they other than his physical presence (which is wonderfully grimy) he doesnt get much in the way of character development to work with. Its a real shame.

All in all, 'Dennis the Menace' still holds up! Its a perfectly fine middle of the road family comedy movie, its maybe a little too slow for its own good and isnt exactly brimming with originality. But I feel that if the kids are driving you nuts on a rainy afternoon, you could do far worse. As for me? I enjoyed it, but I dont think I loved it. It has the John Hughes vibes, but it felt a bit diluted.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dennis-the-menace/