The second of my entries in the Movie Dictator Club for the month of August, 2009!
Screenplay By: Paul Guay, Stepehn Mazur & Penelope Spheeris
Directed By: Penelope Spheeris
Maybe, just maybe a group of eight to ten year old kids talking and acting like adults is funny in small doses. Actually, I’m quite sure it would be funny in small doses. Unfortunately The Little Rascals is one large dose and it’s unbearable to sit through. Right off the bat you are confronted with the idea of small children walking, talking and acting like adults, and if this annoys you then the movie will annoy you. I was annoyed and spent most of the movie hoping that it would end so I could move onto anything else.
I don’t want to be mean, I really don’t. Clearly some people liked this movie and liked these characters, but I am not one of those people. I had no preexisting exposure to the shorts the movie is based off of, so nostalgia was never a factor for me. I was given a group of annoying characters and a weak premise and asked to go with it. I couldn’t, I tried, but I couldn’t do it. Scene after scene left me shaking my head at what was apparently supposed to be laugh inducing. I even tried looking at the film through the eyes of a child, and I realized there are plenty of films aimed at children that I love and it’s because they are funny, well written and more. The Little Rascals is a movie that as a child I wouldn’t have liked, and that is saying something, because I liked a lot of bad movies as a child.
The Little Rascals further confirms my belief that Wayne’s World was a lucky shot in the dark for Penelope Spheeris. How I could love one movie from a director so much and end up hating everything else she’s done so vehemently I don’t know, but she found a way to make this happen. I understand that I have been completely negative towards The Little Rascals, and I wish I didn’t have to be, but it is the rare movie that leaves me with nothing good to say. Wait, I take that back, I loved the dog, Petey was awesome, I would have watched a movie just about him, minus the annoying kids. I’m sorry FLYmeatwad, I tired, but The Little Rascals just wasn’t for me.
Rating:
*
Cheers,
Bill
Bill's Movie Emporium 
You can’t look at it with the eyes of a child. You were not one. Doesn’t matter if you were one at some point. You are an adult. Funny thing is. Most adults hate this movie, but for some reason; most children seem to like it. I’m talking below the age of ten. That’s a weird anomaly wouldn’t you agree?
Anyways. I’m tired of hearing adults say they hate this movie. Yeah, it’s poorly acted and poorly scripted. What I noticed, however, is how the kids seem to be using mannerisms and speech tone like any other kid that is around kindergarten to first grade age. Could that possibly be why kids love it? Because they mirror kids? Could it be not what they’re saying, but how they’re saying it that enthralls kids so much?
I don’t know. The movie is quite stupid, but at least I can understand why little kids would love it. It hits all the notes kids love. The adult humor goes over their head, but is presented in a way a kid would love. If anything, this movie is genius in its stupidity. It grips kids and teaches them some bad things.
I hate telling people that they suck at their jobs, but you totally blew it. You will be biased. You aren’t a kid. Who are you to say what kids would like. If you were speaking to the adult who is choosing whether or not to buy this movie for their kid, it would be one thing. You are, however, trying to say you looked at it from a child’s point of view. You still couldn’t understand how this movie could be great in a kid’s eyes despite most kids seeming to like it very much. Perhaps you aren’t one to review kid’s movies because some just go over your head?
Anyways. Enjoy your buased look at movies. I hope you never become a judge or anything. Bias has no place in determining many things. Later Bill
Bias is just another word for subjectivity, which is what the medium of film is all about. It’s a subjective art form, and the reaction of individuals will be different across the board as a result of this. Trying to adhere to some sort of dogmatic objectivity only hurts the art form. I don’t adhere to such dogmatism, and I’m okay with that. I’m not a child, but yes, hard as it may be to believe, I was once upon a time a child. I tried to pout myself in that mindset while watching this movie, but I still thought the movie was rather terrible. You don’t agree and that’s the glory of the subjective art form of cinema.