Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Sabah Hensley This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Sintz49 I was surprised to see that the IMDB collective viewer rating wasn't lower; but even more surprised that most of the written reviews were high. I caught this film on cable tv, late at night, and gave it a look. Though Beth-Williams "Natalie's" and O'Neill's "Dutch" were presented as caring for each other, it was not really shared with us, except as a contrasted to the awful ex-husband's connection. I stayed tuned in, in expectation for more evidence of closeness and growth for them. Next up, the meeting of Dutch and Doyle, the son, was violent, but was presented as "comedy". As the meanness continued, I kept thinking that Dutch might later surprise me, and being the "adult", he'd learn more, and share that with the boy. Or, maybe the boy would inadvertently share his own buried softer side with Dutch, who'd then grow and share. I doubted Doyle could learn anything from Dutch's rampaging self-indulgence. If Dutch did grow more selfless and caring, I only saw it in a few occasionally warmer smiles (not those other glaring smiles he pushed onto Doyle). I welcomed the scene where Dutch tried to entertain Doyle with a private fireworks display. In this scene, the camera work seemed disconnected: it showed Dutch smiling, as in trying to get the kid to laugh along, too; but the jump cuts to the car then showed Doyle only looking at the dashboard. Yes, he looked at and liked the lights, but (based on the camera work) only when Doyle was being distracted by them too . I drew back, into my hope-wait-and-see posture. As Doyle and Dutch began to fall into a shared predicament, and were stranded out in the cold, I felt they might finally draw closer. Then, in a scene at a shelter for homeless folks, Doyle warmed up inside, making a kind gesture to one of the children. The child's mother (played so well, tho' very briefly, by L. Scott Caldwell) responded very lovingly to Doyle before he slept, and I thought the uplifting changes I'd hoped for him (and for Dutch) would finally kick in. It really never seemed to though. The ending prompted me to imagine a sequel. That 2nd movie would pick up after this film's final moment. In it, Dutch's JOY in inflicting some new pain on Doyle, would be responded to appropriately by his mother. Probably not a comedy this time. Overall, Natalie, and Dutch showed no signs to me of being close in any way. They may have each wanted some "good" things, but probably not the same things. At least Dutch got the son home. But Doyle's love of mom may have been discovered as a judgmental response to Dutch's behavior, and not really as a credit to Dutch's "help". Very few laughs for me.

gavin6942 To get to know his girlfriend's son (Ethan Embry), a working-class good guy (Ed O'Neill) volunteers to pick him up from a prep school -- only to learn that her son is not the nicest kid.This film has an impressive pedigree. The director, Peter Faiman, is not well known, but he was the director of "Crocodile Dundee", which makes him a small legend. And the writer was John Hughes, a giant in the industry."Dutch" received extremely poor reviews from critics, where it has a 14% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 3.7 out of 10 from 21 reviews. It was also a flop at the box office, grossing less than $5 million compared to its $17 million budget. Despite poor reception from critics, the film has garnered a cult following (as is common for Hughes films).

policy134 First there was Ed O'Neill the dramatic actor, then the comedian and now the star. O'Neill has had a tough time finding new roles that aren't connected with Al Bundy in some way. If you saw the E! True Hollywood Story on MWC you'd know that his scenes were actually re-shot with another actor because the audience couldn't stop saying: "That's Al Bundy!". Here he does an admirable job with basically a decent character but still a few traces of the madness of Bundy. The kid, played by Ethan Randall (Or Embry, whatever) is the most snotty little brat I have ever seen in a movie and according to the trailer he's supposed to be like Bart Simpson. Not true. Bart Simpson occasionally got out of hand but he was kind of decent underneath. Not so with this kid. He is totally rotten and the 180 degree turn he makes at the end is totally unbelievable. He doesn't even seem to care that he almost kills a truck driver at one point. That scene is followed by a slap-sticky fight that tries to imitate the prattfalls of the two burglars in "Home Alone". That undermines the seriousness which have gone before in my opinion.The boy's parents, played by JoBeth Williams and Chris McDonald are only incidental so we don't really know anything about them except that the dad is even meaner than the kid. Because he is so mean, we are supposed to feel sorry for the kid but for that to happen we must first sympathize with him. I couldn't because he is so smarmy all through that the transformation he is supposed to have seems phony. And it's not like some viewers have commented that he needs love. His mother is basically a loving mother. The whole film is about who breaks down first, Dutch or the kid.In Denmark the movie was released under the title "Driving me Crazy" and that is pretty much a description of my state of mind when I watched it. The only reason to see it is because of O'Neill. If you want to see Embry in a more positive light, check out him and O'Neill in the new "Dragnet". You could even tolerate him in "Vegas Vacation" but that was a stinker for another reason. To close I will say that I would like to see O'Neill in the type of role he had on "The Spanish Prisoner". He only had a small part but he made a big impression. His performance here is good but he is undermined by the weakness of the story.

Pepper Anne Dutch is fantastic because Ed O'Neill, the star of the movie, is a fantastic comedian, and an underrated one at that (but then again, Hollywood does recycle the same cast over and over, so it's no surprised you never see him in too many major motion pictures). And though Christopher MacDonald, who play's Doyle's father is a real creep, he is a great comedian as well, and you just can't help to laugh whenever this guy is around (uh...that's a good thing).This is the early part of John Hughes's transition into strictly doing family films. He passed the teenage films (the brat pack series), then films with slightly younger supporting and main casts (Uncle Buck, Curly Sue, Dutch), and then went straight for the youngest-aged family film series (Home Alone, Baby's Day Out, etc). The early part of the John Hughes family film series, which started somewhere around 1989/1990 and continued into the early 90s, are comedies that I still enjoy watching (I haven't cared to watch many of his later movies because Baby's Day Out and Beethoven, etc. just doesn't interest me). They had two great elements: the social commentary (though it tends to be repeated in many of his films/screenplays), and the comedy element. Disappointed that his father (Christopher MacDonald) is in London (on a supposed "business trip", which translates into a holiday with a woman instead of his son) and won't be spending time with him on Thanskgiving, spoiled-brat Doyle (Ethan Embry) decides that he doesn't want to spend the holiday with his mother, either. They don't get along well, especially considering he is more like a mirror of his incredibly obnoxious father, while his mother (Jo Beth Williams) is a sensitive, kinder woman who just wants to get along with her son. Don't worry, 'Dutch' is on the case! Dutch (Ed O'Neill) is sort of a bafoon character (as we see from the introduction at the party where he engages in something like a mini version of Peter Sellers in 'The Party'). But, he's a good-natured fellow with a heart of gold. He'd have to be to make a promise to Doyle's mom that he'd bring the boy home for the holidays (Doyle goes to private school). It proves to be no easy task. Not at all. Since Doyle doesn't want to come home at all, let alone with his mother's goofy boyfriend. Doyle despises Dutch because Doyle comes from major money (Dutch works in construction) and sees himself as a much classier person than Dutch (who can get pretty gross when he wants...if only to annoy Doyle). But, Dutch is going to do whatever it takes (and it takes a lot) not only to keep his promise to Doyle's mother, but to try and get the tense little boy to lighten up and see that the world is not entirely against him. So there, you have the typical elements of Hughest: 1) social commentary via class divisions; and 2) unecessary youth angst. With a guy like Ed O'Neill, who even offers some great slapstick comedy, you can be sure that you'll be in for a lot of laughs. This guy truly is one underrated actor.