[255D
Lights Out
Copyright (c) 1994, Bruce Diamond
All rights reserved


[8C[0;1;34mĿ
[8C [33mTHE LITTLE RASCALS:  [32mPenelope Spheeris, director.  Paul   [34m
[8C [32mGuay & Stephen Mazur & Penelope Spheeris, screenplay.[5C[34m
[8C [32mStarring Bug Hall, Brittany Ashton Holmes, Travis Ted-    [34m
[8C [32mford, Kevin Jamal Woods, Jordan Warkol, Zachary Mabry,    [34m
[8C [32mRoss Elliot Bagley, Courtland Mead, and Sam Saletta.[6C[34m
[8C [32mWith cameos by Mel Brooks, Darryl Hannah, Reba McEntire,  [34m
[8C [32mthe Olsen twins, Lea Thompson, Donald Trump, George[7C[34m
[8C [32mWendt, Raven-Simone and Whoopi Goldberg as Buckwheat's    [34m
[8C [32mMom.  Universal.  Rated PG.[31C[34m
[8C

[10C[36mLo, I have been to the wasteland, my friends, and I have
[5Cseen the devil's work.  Harken to me now as I tell you a tale an'
[5Cwill chill your blains and set your knees to knockin'.

[10CThere were matinees abroad in the land in those days, a
[5Ctemptation to adult and child, an idol to the heathen god of
[5Centertainment.  And Hollywood created the serial and the short
[5Csubject, and the audience looked upon them, and they were good.
[5CAt the very least, they were entertaining.  At the very, very
[5Cleast, they killed time before the feature attraction.  And the
[5Cshort subject begat cartoons, and cartoons begat cliffhangers,
[5Cand cliffhangers begat action serials, and action serials begat
[5Cchildren's serials, and children's serials begat "[33mOur Gang[36m," and
[5C"[33mOur Gang[36m" begat Alfalfa, Spanky, Darla, Stymie, Porky, and
[5CBuckwheat.  And the children looked upon them, and they were
[5Cotay!

[10CAnd movies begat radio (kinda sorta), and radio begat
[5Ctelevision (sorta kinda), and television became the devourer of
[5Cmaterial and the babysitter of children.  "Our Gang" became "The
[5CLittle Rascals," and lo, the message was brought unto a new
[5Cgeneration, and the message was otay!

[10CAnd successful television series begat motion picture
[5Cremakes.  STAR TREK begat [33mSTAR TREK:  THE MOTION PICTURE[36m.  And
[5C[33mSTAR TREK:  THE MOTION PICTURE [36mbegat [33mTHE ADDAMS FAMILY[36m.  And [33mTHE
[5CADDAMS FAMILY [36mbegat [33mTHE FUGITIVE [36mand [33mTHE FUGITIVE [36mbegat [33mTHE
[5CBEVERLY HILLBILLIES [36mand [33mTHE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES [36mbegat [33mTHE FLINT[36m-
[5C[33mSTONES [36mand [33mTHE FLINTSTONES [36mbegat [33mTHE LITTLE RASCALS[36m.  And the
[5Ccycle was complete, and the audience looked upon it, and it was
[5Cnot otay.  In fact, it stunk to high heaven.

[10C[33mTHE LITTLE RASCALS [36mhas to be the worst-directed movie I've
[5Cseen this year, and in a summer that includes [33mNORTH [36mand [33mCOLOR OF
[5CNIGHT[36m, that's saying something.  I've long suspected that
[5Cdirector Penelope Spheeris wasn't an actor's director, and this
[5Cpicture proves it.  Mugging kids, misdirected gazes, an
[5Cinconsistent mix of over-reacting and non-reaction . . . the
[5Cchildren are constantly distracted, unable to focus on who
[5Cthey're talking to or what they're supposed to be working on.
[5CSpheeris works better with experienced actors (i.e., Mike Myers
[5Cand Dana Carvey in [33mWAYNE'S WORLD[36m, [37m1992[36m), but even then she can't
[5Crein in the mugging and broad acting styles.  Something seems to
[5Chappen to Spheeris once she sits in the director's chair; she
[5Closes all sense of control and proportion.  In the current
[5Cproject, she indulges her entire "kids is cute" repertoire,
[5Cemploying extreme close ups until Darla's darling pudgy face
[5Cfills the screen or Alfalfa's endearing cowlick hits the top of
[5Cthe frame.  Had any of these kids the comic timing or double-take
[5Cability of the original cast, they'd manage to redeem the use of
[5CSpheeris' lingering and intrusive camera.  The camera isn't an
[5Cobserver of the Rascals' adventures -- it's an unwilling and
[5Cunwitting partner in their nefarious activities.

[10CLabeling [33mTHE LITTLE RASCALS [36msexist or racist is silly --
[5Clittle boys and little girls frequently don't like each other,
[5Cand this time both Stymie and Buckwheat are more positive role
[5Cmodels than the originals.  No, [33mTHE LITTLE RASCALS[36m' primary
[5Cproblem isn't PC-related.  It's the other aspects of the movie
[5Cserials that Spheeris slavishly sticks to that sinks the story-
[5Cline and the picture's entertainment value.  She repeatedly uses
[5Crapid motion to convey comedy, whether it's Keystone Kops-like
[5Cchases or group scenes like building a new race car.  This visual
[5Cgag is old hat and doesn't pull laughs from today's audiences (at
[5Cleast not from the audience in the screening I attended).  The
[5CHe-Man Womun Haters Club, Alfalfa's romance with Darla (actually
[5Cone of the sweeter aspects of this movie), Alfalfa's singing and
[5Chis incident with soap bubbles are all things we've seen before,
[5Cand don't bear repeating.  And the costuming, gadzooks!  [33mTHE
[5CLITTLE RASCALS [36mis set in today's Los Angeles, but the kids dress
[5Cas though they stepped right out of the '40s.  They own no modern
[5Ctoys (aside from the race car, and even it seems dated), they
[5Cdon't reference today's pop culture (comics, movies, TV), and
[5Cthey don't interact with modern technology in any way.  It's as
[5Cthough the children live in their own world, a time warp bubble
[5Cset in the California hills.  What at first seems cute becomes
[5Cweirder and more divorced from reality as the movie progresses.[0m
[255D[40m
[10C[0;1;36mSpheeris also displays a shocking lack of continuity.  She
[5Chad her hands full concentrating on the childrens' performances,
[5Cas the end-of-movie outtakes show (and even then she botched her
[5Cjob), but surely she had a responsible continuity person who made
[5Csure that scenes matched from take to take.  These gaffes are
[5Cincredibly easy to spot and don't take a special eye at all.  It
[5Cbecomes something of a game with some movies to see how many
[5Cmistakes you can spot.  With [33mTHE LITTLE RASCALS[36m, you'll find so
[5Cmany bloopers (moving scenery before kids arrive to move it,
[5Creappearing items after the prop has been removed from a scene,
[5Cthe race car being rebuilt in a cockeyed order, and a spilled
[5Cpickle jar that apparently had no effect on Porky and Buckwheat)
[5Cthat it's no fun looking for them after the first twenty minutes.

[10C[33mTHE LITTLE RASCALS [36mis a poor excuse for a movie, and should
[5Chave been shelved or released straight to video to save the
[5Cembarrassment of the big screen.  How Spheeris managed to snag so
[5Cmany recognizable stars for cameos escapes me, especially
[5Cconsidering her movie track record, her most recent stinker being
[5C[33mTHE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES [36m([37m1993[36m).

[5C[32mRATING:  [37m0[0m
