Wayne Szalinski accidentally shrinks himself, his wife, his brother,
and his brother's wife, leaving the kids to somehow solve the problem. FAMILY/SCI-FI
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Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves (1997)Directed by Dean Cundey
Written by Karey Kirkpatrick, Nell Scovell, Joel Hodgson Starring Rick Moranis, Eve Gordon, Stuart Pankin, Robin Bartlett, Bug Hall, Jake Richardson, Allison Mack Sequel to 1992's Honey, I Blew Up the Kid |
It's hard to maintain full trilogy momentum. Very few franchise pull it off. I don't think it helped that this third movie was direct-to-video. Disney's first, actually. Compared to the high stakes of the first two movies, as well as the intriguing story, there's just not enough going on here to justify a third movie. It's got a great concept. This time, the adults shrink themselves and the kids have to realize something is wrong. Give Wayne Szalinski a taste of his own medicine. But then, there's no more conflict. The kids throw a party, the shrunken adults just wander around the house with very few problems, and everything works out in the end.
The first sin the film commits is recasting Diane, Wayne's wife. In the first two movies, she was patient, encouraging, and a good partner. Eve Gordon's version is an aggressive nag who is constantly bitching about her marriage (in front of her husband and her kids), and ordering Wayne around like a beat dog. Way to ruin an established character. I will admit there is one scene that has aged like wine. Wayne's niece Jenny (a young pre-cult Allison Mack) is kissed by the boy she likes, but without her consent. She goes off on him about not asking permission, then tries to kick him out of her house. Way to get something right, movie. Hard to believe such progressive views about consent are in a direct-to-video threequel from 1997. Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves is easily the worst and most dated of the trilogy. It's just so tame and listless compared to the first two, where you had an Amazonian jungle lawn fraught with danger and a giant baby terrorizing Las Vegas. Now, you've got a brief scene with a horribly CGI'd cockroach and nobody really taking their situation seriously. Could've been better. |