Andie's Rating: 5 out of 5 gigantic oatmeal creme pies (yummy)
Andie's Review: I figured if we can review Goonies, we can also review another classic children's adventure, Honey I Shrunk the Kids. This movie has everything: funny lines, good adventures, and cute boys. What more could a 12 year girl ask for? (That's how old I was when I first saw this movie) I know you're thinking, "That's great for a 12 yr old girl, b****, but what about the rest of us?" Well, I happen to believe that this movie is good for all ages, especially people who are young at heart.

The movie's premise is that Wayne Szalinsky's invention shrinks his two kids, Amy and Nick, and the two neighbor kids, Russ and Ron, down small enough to ride around on an ant. They get swept up and taken out with the trash and have to trek through the back yard. What insues is a great adventure using everyday elements that turn deadly when you're a quarter of an inch tall. They encounter bees and scorpions, they sleep in a lego, the sprinkler system almosts drowns them, and then comes *dun dun dun* dreaded lawn mower. It makes for a delightful romp while the kids try to get themselves back to the house. The other funny elements include the parents trying to find out what happened to their children. It still cracks me up to see Rick Moranis clinging to the fence and hanging from the clothesline to avoid stepping on the lawn, for fear of crushing his kids.

This comes highly recommended for a fun 2 hours of mindless child-like adventure.

Special Note: Andie sent in two reviews for this movie, so rather than waste her ample talent, here we post them both.

Andie's Review... again: I'm starting to think that I'm the Mutant Reviewer of kids' movies. Since I'm the only one who seems to review them, other than Goonies. I happen to believe, however, that kids movies are great and should be watched regularly because they bring out the kid in everybody and they can be funny and exciting and poignant without using sex, drugs, violence, etc. That being said, I'm going to review Honey I Shrunk the Kids.

This is a fantastic movie that was marred by too many sequels. The first one is an original adventure of 4 kids who get shrunk to the height of a 1/4 of an inch and have to trek through the back yard to try and get enlarged to normal size. The 4 kids are Amy and Nick Zsalinsky and Russ and Ron Thompson from next door. In their quest to return to the house, they encounter giant ants, scorpions, sprinklers that cause a flood, and the dreaded lawnmower. It's an adventure of epic proportions right in their own back yard. My favorite part is when they find an oatmeal creme pie in the middle of the yard and to them, it's as big as a house. I also like watching Wayne Zsalinsky (Rick Moranis), after figuring out what happened to the kids, try to avoid stepping on the lawn by clinging to the fence and hanging from the clothes line. Overall, this makes the top 10 of my kids' movies and should be enjoyed by everyone, young and old.

Justin's Rating: i know a few people i'd like to shrink...
Justin's Review: Ah man, watching this movie takes me back! This was one of my childhood/teen favorites that I'd seen like sixty times before I finally realized that Disney does not equal Cool anymore. It's been like six years since I've seen it last, but I can remember every word and musical beat (I love the orchestral soundtrack here, it's very peppy and chaotic).

Most of all, I loved Honey, I Shrunk The Kids for Amy. Yes, boys and girls, it's time for another edition of Creepy Mid-20s Guy Boasting About A Crush He Had On A Movie Star. Ah, Amy. Looking at her now, I'm not exactly sure what I saw in her. She's got a charming, girl-next-door quality for sure. Her shirt gets wet and she educated us all in French kissing. I don't know... but I always thought she was pretty cute. Though she does wear this weird peach ensemble that does nothing for fashion. Heh... anyway, the entire cast fufills various zany roles, from WACKY INVENTOR DAD (now with button-pushing action!) to COREY FELDMAN STAND-IN (big red hat flips up!) to COMICAL NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS (borrowed lawn mower sold separately).

When a foursome of kids are shrunk to really tiny proportions, their lifespan is shortened to three minutes, tops, before they're smooshed or drowned or crushed. Oh wait, this is Disney... naturally, they live no matter what. It would have been more amusing to lose at least one of them along the way, just so that no one could look happy at the end of the movie ("Oh, Russ got sucked into a lawn mower? Bummer.") and we could've gone home depressed and little kids would be asking their parents about What is Death that night. Anyway. An epic journey ensues, crossing the wilderness of their back yard to the vast expanses of the kitchen table. This film does an excellent job of giving us the perspective of what being really, really small would be like. It's a surprising setting for action, adventure and comedy, but darn it if it works. The exotic settings are done well, the cast quips and hams their way through nutty situations, and... well, how many times do you see a kid in danger of drowning in his Cheerios?

The film flips stories between the the kids trying to get home and the parents trying to find them. There's a bit of a romance between Amy and the not-so-hunky teen boy (get your mits off of her, she's MINE!). Rick Moranis (as the inventor dad) and Matt Frewer (as the cranky neighbor) are a couple of grin-inducing actors who manage to balance the insane plot with a measure of reality. Well, not really, but they do have some wicked slapstick. And who could forget Auntie, the baby ant that befriends the kids and eventually dies in a duel with a scorpion (true story: my dad always tears up when Auntie dies). This part had me a bit incredulous: a SCORPION in midwest suburbia? WHAT?!? Geez, now I'm terrified of my own back yard!

Let this be an ode to Amy, the peach-colored love interest whose mere smile carried large portions of the film, and who kissed like a pro even though she had to lock lips with a weenie boy. Woo and Hoo.

The Scoop 1989 Rated PG Adventure . Comedy . Sci-Fi Director Joe Johnston Starring Rick Moranis Matt Frewer Amy O'Neill Thomas Wilson Brown

Didja Notice?
Remote controlled lawnmower. I wish I had one of these when I was a kid

The Movie Store!
Honey, I Shrunk The Kids: Movie [VHS]

Intermission!
Shrinking is supposedly done by merely reducing the distances between atoms, keeping the mass of the shrunk object the same. There is ample evidence during the film that the shrunk children's mass has decreased roughly proportionally to their decrease in volume.

Groovy Quotes:

Amy: I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto.
Nick: I don't think we're in the food chain anymore, Dorothy.

[after arguing with Amy]
Ron: I hope your face ends up on a milk carton.

[Russ revives Amy with mouth-to-mouth]
Nick: Where'd you learn artificial respiration?
Russ: French class, kid.

Nick: We're now a quarter of an inch tall, and sixty four feet from the house. That's an equivalent of three-point-two miles. That's a long way. Even for a man of science.

Big Russ Thompson: The early worm catches the fish, Russell. Remember that.

If you liked this movie, try these:
Honey, I Blew Up The Baby
The Goonies