Dennis The Menace Film Review

When you typically think of comic book movies nine times out of ten you think of action films like Superman and Avengers: Endgame. However much like comics you can find a great deal many different comic book movies be they horror or drama or in the case of the film i'm going to talking to you all about today comedy as there's shockingly high amount of comic book films that are comedies and so then join me as i review the film that is kind of a Back To The Future reunion film with the film in question being called simply just "Dennis The Menace" enjoy.

The plot of this film is when a villain called Switchblade Sam starts robbing things around town a young boy accidentally finds himself in his crosshairs. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with the plot of this film being one that could be seen as being dumb but in a way that's charming and that feels true to the kind of film that this film as it's a family film and therefor it doesn't need to have that deep of a plot to it and to the films credit it does feel like what I imagine the comic strip is like in that this film is nothing more then just a series of sketches with a thin plot stringing them all along and that's it and that's all it needed to be as by doing anything more then that would feel like a betrayal of the films comic strip routes and yet at the same time given that this is a film you do expect there to be much more stronger plot to it as all this film does is feel like a clone of Home Alone and that's really it and while this film does come across as being really good it could have been so much more better if the makers of the film bothered to come up with a much more stronger plot as that would then make seeing this film really all the more worth while as the plot of this film does feel like something that you'll see in the comic strip with the plot of this film not really being really rather entertaining and nor is it really rather engaging either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Mason Gamble as Dennis Mitchell , Walter Matthau as George Wilson and Joan Plowright as Martha Wilson. Also starring in this film is Christopher Lloyd as Switchblade Sam , Lea Thompson as Alice Mitchell , Robert Stanton as Henry Mitchell , Amy Sakasitz as Margaret Wade , Kellen Hathaway as Joey McDonald , Paul Winfield as Chief Bennett , Natasha Lyonne as Polly , Devin Ratray as Mickey , Hank Johnston as Gunther Beckman , Melinda Mullins as Andrea , Billie Bird as Edith Butterwell and Bill Erwin as Edward Little.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With the films child actors really doing the best that they possibly could have done in this film with none of them coming across as being annoying as they are afterall still just kids with all of the kids in this film feeling like they were perfectly well cast for this film with the same thing even true for the films adult actors as well as all of them bring something that is unique to them that helps there performance be all he more better because of it with the film best actor really being Mason Gamble as Dennis Mitchell as he is really likable as this character when it would have been really easy for him to come across as being really annoying or just flat out unlikable and yet you can tell that Mason Gamble really did have alot of promise as an actor should he have chosen to continue acting with him more then holding his own when acting opposite the likes the Christopher Lee and Walter Matthau both of whom bring there A game to this film and both of whom have to act in scenes with this kid who is stealing the show in every single scene that he's in with the acting that's in this film not really being helped by the fact that the script for this film is just so bad as it gives none of this film actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Character wise this film really doesn't fair all that much better as this films characters do feel like they belong in the first draft of a script and not the final draft of a script. With this films characters not being that well drawn out with alot of them just having one character trait and that's really it which is fine for the comic strip as there you only have a set number of panels to tell a story and that doesn't really leave alot of room to give us well thought out characters and that's something tat this film really should have fixed as it's a different medium and yet the makers of this film still treated this film like it was another issue of it's comic strip with really the only well thought out characters being Mr. Wilson and Dennis himself with George being a bit of grumpy next door neighbor type of character who just wants to enjoy his retirement and even tho he says he hates Dennis frequently he does love him and care for him and heck when Dennis does go missing it's George that first starts looking for him as he felt bad for telling of him earlier with Dennis himself being someone who is just typical kid as he doesn't know that he's causing trouble for others as he's just doing what he thinks his the right thing to do at that moment and while that does make him a sweet character there's nothing in this film that makes him out to be a menace which does in someway make the title of this film out to be a menace as he is a good kid with that being the only facet of his personality and while that does make sense again he is only kid it still would have helped the film out if he did more to him then just that as that would have made him out to be a more well rounded character.

Something that alot of you might now know is that there are two characters each starring in strips called Dennis The Menace with the both being created in the exact same day , month and year just on opposite sides of the pond with the both versions being created on 12th March 1951. With the American version being the one that this film is based off of but it's the British one that actually acts like a menace as we see him cause pain and misery to all those around him and while the American Dennis The Menace is hugely popular in America the UK version is extremely popular over in the UK with the fact that there are two vastly different comic strip characters both called Dennis The Menace being the main reason why both characters have had there various forms of media changed when going to the other side of the pond as other here this film was released simply as Dennis and in America the UK Dennis The Menace is known as either Dennis The Menace and Gnasher or Dennis And Gnasher with this also meaning that neither creator can sue the other as they just straight up didn't know that the other had made the exact same character just done more differently and while the UK version definitely earns the menace part of his name the American version doesn't as the American version has no idea that what he's doing is causing harm and distress to other people whereas the UK version not only knows this but sets out to do it deliberately just because he can do as he knows that no one will stop him due to the fact that his dog will bite them if they so try to both takes work for both characters but only one of them is a true menace while the American version is just a kid acting like how a kid would do and that's fair enough but that doesn't make him a menace it makes him a kid.

Switchblade Sam is a character that really doesn't get that much screen time which is something that does make some sense as he's not meant to be the main character of the film. However at the same time tho it would have made him be all the more threatening of a villain if he did have more screen time as we the audience don't really know what his end goal is in the first place and even why he's a villain in the first place with hm coming across more as a rip off of the villains from the first two Home Alone movies as the only thing that we see him do is rob people and that's really it and heck both him and the villains from the first Home Alone films even fall victim to a kid who is just doing what he thinks is right all of which makes it obvious that this films writer and producer John Hughes is just copying what he did on those first two Home Alone movies where as if he gave Switchblade Sam both a reason to be a evil and an end game in mind then it is something that would have gone a long way into making him a really creepy villain as while Christopher Lloyd does do his best to make the character a creepy character an actor can only do so much with the material that there given to work with and sadly he is not given all that much to work with as we the audience don't really find out anything about his character and therefor we have no reason to care for Dennis or want to see him take Switchblade Sam down outside of the fact that Sam is bad guy and that's really it and that's not enough to make the character interesting as you can give kids films scary villains heck just looks at Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit as a prime of example of that as that is a kids film and yet he's a creepy villain that has a clear end goal in mind and yet Sam has neither of those things.

It's clear as day that the thing that makes or breaks this film is the relationship between Dennis and Mr. Wilson. As we do get to see just how much they truly mean to each other as even tho he would never say it to anyone's face Mr. Wilson does care for Dennis as a friend and Dennis does openly admit in a rather sweet moment that if he can't be with his parents he's happy to be with Mr. Wilson as he views him as being his best friend which is a sweet thing for a kid to say with this being something that does make the big blow up scene where Dennis takes everyone's attention away from the fact that his rare flower that Mr. Wilson has is finally blooming with Wilson just straight up telling Dennis what he really thinks of him in that moment and while the two of them do reunite by the end of the film what does hurt them getting back together tho is the fact that George does come to realization of how awful he treated Dennis a bit to quickly as a moment like that would have worked all the more better if there was a few more scenes with him at first one his own and being out right determined that what he did was the right thing and then have him being told off by both Dennis's parents and by Martha as while having him be the first one to go out looking for Dennis and sleep out on the porch waiting for Dennis to come back does work it would have worked better if we got to see George taken to rock bottom first by being made to feel how he himself made Dennis feel as that would have made the scene where he and Dennis see each other and hug each other at the end of the movie all the more impactful as would having George play a more active role in the films third act but the third act between Switchblade and Dennis works well enough either way.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and thirty five minuets and fifty five seconds. Which to be fair to this film is perfectly solid amount of time for this film to have with the film having the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time in the first place however tho this film really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely as this film really doesn't take the time to fully develop it's plot with the film being more like the comic strip as there are just a bunch of scene loosely strong together with a small amount of plot and that's really it which is fine for an issue of the comic strip but for the movie there really should have been more time spent on developing the plot of the film rather then giving us pointless scenes with characters that add nothing to either the plot of the film or the films characters with this even effecting the films characters as none of the films characters get any kind of character development outside of George and that's really it as he learns to trust Dennis and that's it as even the films title character gets nothing in the way of character development and heck it could be argued that we know just as much about the films characters coming out of the film then we did coming into the film as the film is more focused on wasting it's time on pointless scenes when those scenes could have been better spent giving either the plot or the characters and heck it would even go along way into making Sam really more of a credibly threat as the films main villain but In really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is a comedy film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With this film making use of slapstick comedy which is something that can be funny and was funny in Home Alone but here it just falls flat as it felt like that the makers of this film didn't really know how to make it funny and so they relied on the actors making a funny face when they were about to get in the face and called it a day which is fine for one joke but when all of the films jokes repeat that exact same formular it speaks loudly as to how bad that this film could be from a comedy point of view with the only decent joke in the hole film being how Dennis defeats Sam as he does so by having Sam pull himself out of the water he's fallen into only then for a train to come along and force him and the rope he's using to go up in to the air hitting the roof of the bridge and then falling back down onto a blank of wood in the water with his switchblade then coming down and hitting in a place where you don't want to a blade to stick into you while your lying on your back which is something that does work because of how over the top with it being a joke that could only work in this film as it would feel a bit to out of place in any of the Home Alone films and yet here it is something that does oddly work and if the film put as much effort into the rest of it's jokes as they do into that one jokes then we would have a really painfully funny kids family comedy film in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall this film had all of the potential in the world to be a really good film but for one reason or another it just ends up being a bland and borderline boring knock off of Home Alone only without any of the funny jokes and half h charm that made that film as well loved as it is in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.