Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead - 1991

Synopsis From Back Cover:

It's a summer full of unexpected fun and foul play when mom takes a trip to Australia leaving Sue Ellen and the kids behind.  What they didn't expect was the babysitter mom left to take care of them - an elderly tyrant who's ready to make their lives miserable - until she keels over dead on the first night.  Now the kids figure they can have the summer of their dreams, only they don't have any money for the basics - like movies, dates and pizza.  It's up to Sue Ellen to find a job, but to make it in the adult world she has to fake it from the top her resume to the tip of her nail polish.  If she succeeds, Sue Ellen and the kids are going to have a summer they'll never forget... so long as they don't tell mom the babysitter's dead. 

This is the one movie that has me laughing out loud, and staring at Christina Applegate's eyebrows.  If you have seen this movie, you know what I'm talking about.  Those eyebrows are there, front and center, and they are sure proud of themselves. They almost become a character in and of themselves.  But I'm digressing here, this post is about the movie, not the eyebrows.

I actually adore this movie, the huge gaps in logic included.  Let's not even go into the moral implications of dumping the dead body of an elderly woman at a funeral home, or the idea of a mother leaving her give children with a complete stranger for an entire summer.  I really don't want to even think how a teenager with no work history, can fool an entire company into thinking she is a college educated adult, with both talent and experience.  It's a movie with a ton of story line issues, but it's one that I love all the same.

In the end, it's a movie about a family coming together, overcoming obstacles, and finding mutual respect and love.  In the beginning, the kids aren't all that close, they have different agendas, and don't seem all that intent on spending time with each other.  By the end of the movie, they are pitching in to help each other, turning their lives around, and dong what's best for them as a whole.

Of course it's a little hard for me to not love a movie with Joanna Cassidy.  I absolutely love her, and never understood why didn't become a bigger star.  It also has a young Josh Charles, pre The Good Wife.  He's not as hot then as he is now, but he's still adorable as Sue Ellen's love interest.  Which I guess is a good way to describe the movie, adorable.