ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 18, 1994                   TAG: 9407140017
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

'GETTING EVEN' MORE OF SAME FOR CULKIN

Forget that the kid's a millionaire and say to yourself, "Poor Macaulay Culkin," Hollywood's poster child for the overlooked and neglected child. The "Home Alone" kid is on his own again, this time as the forgotten son of a convicted thief.

In Howard Deutch's new film, "Getting Even With Dad," there are enough "Home Alone" hallmarks to draw the masses who loved that movie out of the heat and into the theaters, but not quite enough laughs or original story to keep either adults or kids thoroughly entertained.

Culkin is 11-year-old Timmy, who is dropped into the lap of his ex-con father, Ray (Ted Danson), by Ray's sister, who has been raising Timmy since the child's mother died. Ray wants nothing to do with the kid, especially on this particular day: He's planning the robbery of some valuable coins with his two sidekicks, Bobby (Saul Rubinek) and Carl (Gailard Sartain).

Timmy is a smart kid, so he quickly figures out what's afoot. With the help of a video camera, he records Ray's deviousness, snags the coins and sets up a scheme to exchange them for the only thing he really wants from Dad (sniff): attention.

Ray agrees to do kid things with Timmy, and what follows is a succession of not-very-fun scenes at lots of fun places in and around San Francisco. It's all sort of pathetic: Ray's just doing the Dad thing so he can get his coins back, and smarmy Bobby and compulsive overeater Carl are just tagging along to make sure that Timmy doesn't tell Ray where the coins are, giving Ray an opportunity to keep the entire thing for himself. Of course, it wouldn't be a Culkin movie if there weren't two hapless thugs around to take pratfalls and, in general, behave like idiots.

Danson is fine, Culkin is so deadpan he's dull, and the rest of the cast does OK with a story that is entirely derivative (have we forgotten "Three Men and a Baby"?), but children of a certain age might find it sufficiently entertaining.

But it would be nice to see this particular plot put to rest and see if Culkin can do something else.

Getting Even With Dad **

A United Artists release showing at Valley View Mall and Salem Valley 8. 120 minutes. 


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