BABY’S DAY OUT was written and produced by John Hughes, who did such films as HOME ALONE, SIXTEEN CANDLES and THE BREAKFAST CLUB, amongst many others. His style of filmmaking is mostly what I would call ’’Cutesy-Home style’’.
In BABY’S DAY OUT, we have a very well-to-do family, including a mom, a dad and a very pampered baby. The Nanny is really the primary caretaker of the child.
The first words you hear in the movie are spoken by the baby. ’’Boo-boo!’’
Boo-boo is what the baby calls his favorite book ’’Baby’s Day Out’’. The baby wants his nanny to read the book to him... Again!
The parents are downstairs discussing the photographers that are coming to take the baby’s picture today. The wife has called a new company, DOWNTOWN BABY PHOTOGRAPHERS to do the job, because she wants the babys picture in the paper. This is a big social deal to these rich folks.
In the meantime, three crooks have tied up the real photographers in a plan to impersonate them so that they can get in to the house and kidnap the baby for ransom. When the crooks get to the house the butler greets them with apprehension, but lets them in anyway.
Once inside they convince everyone to leave them alone with the baby and then they take the baby. The nanny had told them if the baby got cranky to read him his book, so they take the book with them.
The mother, the nanny and the butler come back into the empty room to find only a ransom note that says ’’...Don’t call the police’’. So of course they call the police.
Once the kidnappers have the baby, they take him to an apartment, change his clothes and try to get him to sleep, with no luck. One of the crooks falls asleep trying to read to the baby while the other two are out in the living room. The two in the living room start bickering when one thinks the other spit on him. When they look up they see the baby over them, in the skylight on the roof and the chase begins.
The baby leads them on a chase in the city. It all starts on a big blue bus, just like in his story book and follows to a yellow cab, to a department store, to a park and to the zoo, all exactly like whats in his story book.
The scene at the Zoo has got to be one of the funniest I’ve ever seen. It takes place in the Monkey and gorilla cages. The crooks follow the baby’s tracks into the Monkey and gorilla building at the zoo to find that the baby has crawled into the cage of a huge gorilla with Big-time maternal instincts. The bad guys get beaten up with each of their attempts to free the baby. It is one of the funniest yet painful scenes in the movie. Eventually the outside door of the cage opens and the gorilla leads the baby outside.
Out on the street again, the baby sees what could be called ’’The ultimate playground’’, a working construction site. Classical music plays in the background in this scene which really adds to the aesthetic. The bad guys catch up but they still can’t get the baby. They get beat up a little more and finally get stuck up in the air when the site closes for the day.
At home the mom and the nanny are very worried and sad about the baby, when the police come and tell them about the various reports that have come in about a baby on the bus, in a taxi, the department store, the construction site. The nanny then realises that the baby is doing everything in the storybook, which leads them to an ’’Old Soldiers Home’’, where they are all reunited.
On the way home in the police car, the baby sees and recognises where he had been held and they turn back to retrieve the babys book and capture the bad guys.
The bumbling bad guys are played by JOE MANTEGNA, JOE PANTOLIANO and BRIAN HALEY.
The parents are played by LARA FLYNN BOYLE and MATTHEW GLAVE.
And the Nanny is played by ’’Sex and the City’s’’ CYNTHIA NIXON with an inspired English accent.
Running time is about 1 hour 35 minutes.
My opinion on the movie is this: Anybody at any age will like this movie, unless you’re really against ’’Cutesy’’. I believe it appeals to the inner child in all of us. It’s a sweet, funny movie that is sure to cure the Blues or whatever else ails you.
The kidnappers are funny and they barely make it through the movie in one piece. Joe Mantegna, as Eddie, gets beat up the most. From falling off a roof on to an airconditioning unit into a garbage dumpster, to getting beat up by a fat lady, getting his toes run over by cars, jumping over a hedge into a ditch, having his crotch burned and then stomped out by his partners, to being flung by a gorilla into another monkey cage. I felt sorry for him even though he deserved it.
The baby laughs and giggles the whole time. He has no idea about the havoc he is wreaking on these guys. Its just a big day of fun and adventure for him.
I recommend this movie highly. BABY’S DAY OUT is a movie for all ages.