I originally started off this post talking about DCOM's and how we haven't covered one for a while, and how broadbrushly speaking they have been pretty decent e.t.c, but after looking todays movie choice up, I discovered Blank Check isn't even a DCOM at all! And that it got a cinematic release so uhh... scratch that original intro! But to repurpose some of what I had originally written; The Disney movies I've covered so far have mostly been pretty decent watches. Not at all what I expected when going in to this project initially. I fully expected *the DCOM's to be incredibly low on substance, incredibly low on talent, and incredibly intelligence insulting but for the large part they've all been enjoyable enough watches. *And the others that had cinematic releases have mostly been pretty decent too. So do I think that is about to change with todays subject: Blank Check? Well, uh, no actually, and the only reason I've left this one till a bit later is because it hasn't jumped out at me quite like the others did, but initially I can tell you one thing that's annoying me is that it's spelled: 'Check' and not 'Cheque' - the British way of spelling it, but you know what? I'll try to get over it and not let it sour my opinion too much...
Preston Waters (Brian Bonsall), after being born into an incredibly frugal, yet seemingly financially comfortable family, despite being a clever enough kid, grows up to view money with an inflated sense of purpose leading to psychopathic tendencies, like wanting to have his own brothers ruthlessly murdered... Is this a Patrick Bateman origin story? But after a dramatic twist of fate sees Preston cross paths with Carl Quigley (Miguel Ferrer) - a money launderer and jail escapee, after Carl accidentally crushes his bike and has to escape before the Cops catch up with him, Preston is gifted with a blank cheque and does what any well socially adjusted person would do in those circumstances: invents an entirely new identify and awards himself $1,000,000. We've all been there. After cashing it in at the same dodgy bank Carl Quigley uses to launder money, Preston suddenly becomes incredibly wealthy, and as his first act under the moniker of Mr. Macintosh (y'know, after the computers), he literally buys a castle for $300,000... Obviously distraught with the fact that he just lost his entire stash of ill gotten cash, Carl and his accomplice Juice (Tone Loc) pay a visit to the Bank Manager; Edward Biderman (Michael Lerner) and essentially threaten and blackmail him into helping them find Preston. Meanwhile Preston hires a limousine... and with limo driver Henry (Rick Ducommum) proceeds to go about blowing his way through $700,000 as he, amongst other things; buys an entire store stockpile of televisions, rides a tandem bicycle around a department store picking out clothes at random, plays basketball (?) and eats a entire dustbin's worth of Haagen-Dazs ice cream... Meanwhile Bank Cashier and undercover FBI operative Shay Stanley (Karen Duffy) alerts the Fed to the potential that the money laundering scheme has been restarted again... Preston, determined to do... whatever the opposite of keeping a low profile is... proceeds to have his stuff moved into his fucking castle under the guise of working for "Mr. Macintosh", catching the attention of Shay along the way, who pays Preston a visit at his castle turned child's activity centre with the intention of setting up a meeting with Mr. Macintosh. But instead Preston offers to attend in his place, clearly beginning to develop a crush on Shay despite her being, y'know, old enough to be his mum. Said meeting goes pretty horrendously, with Preston basically making it stark obvious that he is in fact Mr. Macintosh with his comments towards Shay with the dinner meeting ending after he accidentally falls backwards on his chair taking the tablecloth and everything on it with him... but he wins her back when he takes her for hamburgers and they dance in a water fountain in a scene which is a little bit... groomy... however the water fountain stunt does attract the attention of Carl, Juice and Mr. Biderman who just so happen to passing through the park when they spot Preston and give chase but aren't able to catch him before he and Shay bail out in his limo. Inviting Shay on a "second date" to "Mr. Macintosh's" birthday party, which just so happens to also be Preston's birthday, Preston sets in motion planning to get the party of the century organised, but begins to learn that despite having seemingly unlimited money he still feels lonely and isolated. And after riding into the park to just be around other kids I guess, he is spotted by Carl and his entourage and a chase scene ensues, with Preston nearly losing his backpack full of money... Like, kid? You have a maximum security castle? Why you still carrying round your money in backpack?!... Preston doesn't lose all his money though and the scene ends with him having thwarted the bad guys for the moment, but with them learning his name and address from one of his schoolfriends... As the party of the century gets underway, Preston begins to have further reservations about his new found wealth and whether it really is bringing him happiness. Meanwhile Shay and the FBI are monitoring events ready to bring Mr. Macintosh in, suspecting him of being behind the money laundering, with Shay acting as an undercover agent. Back at the party, after some quick accounting Preston realises his overspending has lead to him being completely flat broke, and just as the realisation dawns, his Dad walks into the office, believing him to be Mr. Macintosh as his back is turned, and delivers a heartfelt speech about how much he misses Preston with him working all the time and hoping that Mr. Macintosh will send him home early so he can be with his family on his birthday, which tugs at Preston's heartstrings. Compounding this, as he contemplates things in the office, Shay let's herself in, asking after Mr. Macintosh and warning Preston that he could be in danger, but he just tells her to leave, convinced she was only ever interested in him because of his money... Having a crisis of conscience, Preston takes to the stage at the party and announces that Mr. Macintosh has left and that the party is over and everything falls apart and everyone leaves. All alone in the Castle, Preston is contemplating his choices when Carl and the his entourage finally catch up with him. Locking themselves all inside. Carl is beside himself when he discovers that not only is Mr. Macintosh not real, but that it is also Preston, and that he managed to spend over $1,000,000 in 6 days... but when Mr. Biderman interjects and suggests that Carl could become Mr. Macintosh, Preston makes a run for it and the 3 give chase, but Preston manages to slip away into hiding. As they split up to try and find him, Preston uses the various gadgets and toys to disarm first Mr. Biderman and Juice and then later Carl when he traps him a giant roller ball cage and uses his go kart to spin him around. But after those shenanigans are over and Preston nearly drowns Carl in the swimming pool, the 3 come together to catch Preston just as several FBI agents flanked by Shay burst into the garden and arrest the 3 men when Carl pretends to be Mr. Macintosh. In the closing scenes, Preston and Shay discuss her being an FBI agent and about their date, and she ACTUALLY kisses him?! NO. That is not right... that is grooming... and Preston, managing somehow to shift all of this onto the hypothetical Mr. Macintosh, goes back home with his dad where he realises he actually has everything he ever wanted after all, with a loving family.
Ok I... no... I can't carry on and just treat this normally without first addressing the MASSIVE, HUMONGUS, subjective elephant in the room. How Preston and Shay developing a romantic relationship is portrayed is really not ok. I mean like, it really isn't. It's grooming. Let's just flip the gender roles for a moment: if this was an adult male bank cashier turned undercover FBI agent, developing a relationship with a child girl. It would be skewered. You would have rights groups campaigning to get it banned, and you know what? I'm inclined to agree with them. Just because the gender roles are switched here, doesn't make it any less wrong. And sick. I had to check out the critical reception on Wikipedia, something I don't usually do until after I've written a post and I am glad I'm not the only one who picked up on it. You can't even say "style at the time," or any such nonsense excuse, it's 1994. It was wrong then! It was weird, it was uncomfortable, and I was not ok with it.
That out of the way, and I will try, honestly try, not to let that unsavoury undertone have any further bearing on my opinion, this was otherwise a generally entertaining film. It did sort of circle around a bit in the middle and I don't think Preston's emotional development was really fleshed out enough to fully understand his motivations at the end, but I mostly enjoyed it and was genuinely invested in the film enough to see how they were going to bring it to a resolution.
The acting got... a bit spotty. Miguel Ferrer played the token posh, rich, evil villain of the piece and was decent at it, but it's a cliché. Rick Ducommum as Henry, the Limo Driver turned best friend to Preston was alright as a kind of stooge and comedic relief but there were moments I just found him to be too over the top and hyperactive, like a kind of man child, and he skirted on being annoying but was mostly likeable. Brian Bonsall was pretty good, accounting for the fact he was a child actor and had to go through a considerable different range of emotions throughout the whole movie. He was believable in his role and although there was heavy degree of Home Alone rip off-ing going on in the last 20 minutes he still managed to keep his portrayal fresh enough that he didn't become a total Kevin McCallister copy.
Everything else was managed pretty competently as you would come to expect from a Disney movie, although the soundtracking was very much of it's time. Right down to the very 90's music choices. But the cinematography work was pretty good and the movie found alot of opportunities to really exercise the camerawork in various different skits and montages that kept the movie interesting. Storyline-wise things got a little bit vanilla and it was very much a coming-of-age tale intended to sew the seeds that having unlimited amount of money to buy your hearts desires is not going to deal with your loneliness or wanting issues. It's a positive moral to the story I guess, but would you rather be miserable and broke? Or miserable in your Lamborghini parked outside one of your mansions?...
Look, I wanted to enjoy this, ok? It was fine. Mostly fine really in every aspect. Nothing really excelled beyond being fine but it was enjoyable enough that you aren't going to come away from it with buyers remorse... for the most part... If, if, you are able to overlook the weird, and creepy overtone that hangs over 2/3rds of the movie when it comes to the development of Preston and Shay's relationship. It was a cinematic depiction of grooming. I can't... I can't see it any other way. Even in her line of duty, there was never any element of her mission that required her to become romantically involved with a 13 year old boy... It... wasn't right. Which is a shame because it was a really unsettling, really un-necessary direction to take the story in, that was otherwise decent and enjoyable enough on its own without it? But heavily damaging otherwise. 2 out of 5.
