With a title like this and the moronic footage used to advertise it, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead seemed headed for the cinematic morgue faster than its title character. But the movie is not nearly so eye rolling as one might think, nor as mean-spirited. After earning fame as the selfish airhead Kelly Bundy on Married...With Children, Christina Applegate actually plays the brains of this backward clan in her first prominent leading role outside of TV. Starting out as a churlish rebel, Applegate's character quickly softens into a respectable heroine given a nice boyfriend (Josh Charles). In this way, the movie is a bit schizophrenic. It wants the lowbrow crowd who will hoot and holler when her brother (Keith Coogan) blows up the china with a shotgun, proclaiming "The dishes are done, man!" but it also wants to be something of a date movie and a flattering vehicle for Applegate. While the two approaches never quite mesh, each half is successful enough to win either giggles or warm fuzzies, making for a classic case of the movie that's a surprise hit because it exceeds expectations by so much. Fresh off of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, director Stephen Herek proved he had a minor hit streak going with undemanding comedies, which continued with The Mighty Ducks in 1992.
