DENNIS THE MENACE STRIKES AGAIN!, an innocuous direct-to-video sequel to the 1993 big-screen adaptation of Hank Ketcham's comic strip, has only limited appeal even for kids under the age of eight, but possesses considerable camp value in the personages of Don Rickles as Mr. Wilson, and--as
the press release notes--"Academy Award Winner" George Kennedy as Dennis's Grandpa.
Mischievous seven-year-old Dennis Mitchell (Justin Cooper) surprises his cantankerous elderly neighbor Mr. Wilson (Don Rickles) with a birthday gift of a frog in his bath. Dennis then learns that his young-at-heart Grandpa (George Kennedy) is moving in with him. Unexpectedly, Mr. Wilson becomes
jealous and begins a rivalry with Grandpa, but always loses their competitions. Feeling old and rundown, Mr. Wilson falls prey to a pair of con men--Professor (Brian Doyle-Murray) and his sidekick Sylvester (Carrot Top)--who try to swindle him into buying a series of miracle youth cures, but
Dennis thwarts them at every turn.
After Dennis destroys most of the neighborhood by substituting cotton candy mix for soap in a car-washing machine, Mr. Wilson puts his house up for sale. Posing as termite inspectors, the two con men swindle Mr. Wilson into paying them for unnecessary repairs to his house. During the repairs,
Dennis's dog chases a cat into the house and Mr. Wilson is knocked through a window and hangs onto the ledge. When the police arrive, the con men try to escape, but Dennis stops them with a slingshot, and they're arrested. Mr. Wilson decides not to sell his house after all and Grandpa takes Dennis
on a camping trip to the Grand Canyon, where Dennis accidentally pushes their RV into the canyon.
For anyone whose idea of fun is the chance to see the paunchy and aged Don Rickles and George Kennedy in swimsuits or having a wild hip-hop contest to the accompaniment of "Play That Funky Music," then DENNIS THE MENACE STRIKES AGAIN! is cinematic nirvana. Unfortunately, for its supposed target
audience of kids, the film wastes too much time on the old geezers to the detriment of the story's ostensible protagonist--Dennis--which is a shame since the scenes involving the rascally tyke and his young friends are cute. The scenes in which Dennis plays in his "Boys Only" clubhouse with
Gunther, Joey, and Gina (who's allowed in because she's a tomboy who likes bugs), while the bespectacled Margaret, dressed as a ballerina, tries to get in, are genuinely funny and come the closest to capturing the spirit of the original comic strip. The rest is pure sitcom nonsense set in a
timeless suburban never-neverland, filmed in typically exaggerated wide-angle cartoon style and filled with digital effects (bugs, snakes, etc.), along with the feeble de rigueur addition of HOME ALONE--like bumbling crooks, and a sentimental finale, replete with slow-motion hugs and kisses
between Dennis and Mr. Wilson, with a shameless Don Rickles shoving his mug right into the camera lens and an inexplicable, albeit uncredited, appearance by George Wendt as a cop.
leave a comment