THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 6, 1995 TAG: 9508080424
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
DANIEL STERN is a close cousin to Pluto in his ``Aw, shucks'' manner of shrugging off a world that keeps dumping on him.
As a sensitive soul in ``Breaking Away'' and ``Diner,'' he got nowhere. He became a kid's doormat in the ``Home Alone'' films and an ineffective bumbler in the ``City Slicker'' movies, and now seems to have found fortune, if not art, with films like ``Bushwhacked.'' This flick is so dumb that you gotta kinda like it.
It's not as dumb as ``Dumb and Dumber,'' but it's mining the same vein.
Stern, who is also the producer, plays a delivery man who is framed for murder. He runs, and hides by masquerading as a scoutmaster for six kids who think he's an expert on the great outdoors. They head for Devil's Peak, with Stern stumbling every moment.
He thinks a beehive is a football. He runs into a bear with bad breath.
Along the way there are numerous little off-color jokes that will have the kids giggling. There are bathroom jokes just made for kids, and the meaning of sex is explained (not really) via the use of dolls. The PG-13 rating warns you that this is not for particularly protective parents. The kiddies, though, are going to love it.
The film bears a resemblance to the old Clifton Webb vehicle ``The Scoutmaster'' (although Webb was a good deal funnier and more sophisticated). Here, Stern mugs to the extent that his face must have been sore.
Adventure is added with a rickety bridge that has to be crossed and a rampage through rapids.
The child performers are merely routine. Jon Polito is almost funny; he would have been hilarious if he'd been given a broader range as the bald-headed bad guy.
It's vulgar. It's dumb. But Daniel Stern has a good deal more heart than Jim Carrey does, working with the same type of material. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Bushwhacked''
Cast: Daniel Stern, Jon Polito, Brad Sullivan, Ann Dowd
Director: Greg Beeman
Screenplay: John Jordan, Danny Byers, Tommy Swerdlow, Michael
Goldberg
Music: Bill Conti
MPAA rating: PG-13 (potty jokes, general vulgarity)
Mal's rating: Two stars
Locations: Cinemark and Regal Greenbrier 13 in Chesapeake; Janaf
in Norfolk; Columbus and Lynnhaven 8 in Virginia Beach
by CNB