“Getting Even with Dad” stars Ted Danson and Macaulay Culkin (both sporting really bad hairdos) as a father and son who haven’t seen each other in years. Ray (Danson) was arrested for stealing VCRs and spent a few years in jail, and when he was released, his wife asked for a divorce. She died of cancer not too long after that, so Timmy (Culkin) has been living with his aunt ever since.
Ray wants to go straight and has been working in a bakery ever since his release from jail – he took a class on cake decorating in prison. He wants to own his own bakery, but to do that, he’ll need a lot of money. Getting together with friends Bobby (Saul Rubinek) and Carl (Gailard Sartain) he cooks up the plan of a century – stealing $1.5 million dollars in rare coins. His cut will be a quarter million, enough to buy the bakery where he works.
However, his sister has just gotten married and she’s decided to bring Timmy to stay while she goes on her honeymoon. She shows up out of the clear blue sky just as Ray’s planning his robbery, and leaves Timmy behind.
Ray thinks he can have his cake and eat it too. He leaves Timmy at the apartment and pulls off the robbery, then returns home, telling Timmy he’s been at work. What he doesn’t know is that Timmy found the newspaper article telling about the coins, then saw the news report saying they’d been stolen, and he saw his dad bring a sack into the building and hide it up on the roof. He puts all the pieces together and realizes what happened. He steals the coins from their hiding place and concocts a scheme of his own to get what he’s always wanted – a dad.
He sits Ray, Carl and Bobby down and tells them the deal. He’ll tell them where he’s hidden the coins if they’ll take him on a whole bunch of outings and let Ray spend some father/son time with him. He wants to go to the museum, the aquarium, the amusement park, miniature golfing – he wants to do what other kids get to do with their fathers. Reluctantly, Ray agrees, and his friends go along just in case Timmy decides to spill the beans.
The police, meanwhile, have got a rookie cop with a nose for crime, and she thinks she knows who did it. She starts following Ray and Timmy, not realizing that her emotions could get involved as well.
Overall, I enjoyed this movie. It had some great moments of comedy and it was fun to watch the kid outsmart the criminals. I wouldn’t, however, call it a children’s movie just because it has a child star. It does have some language in it and Bobby is somewhat vulgar and a bit violent — and there are a few crude moments. While there’s nothing shocking or over the top about the film, if you’re worried about your younger children hearing language, you may want to prescreen the film and see what you think.
This film is rated PG.
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