Baby’s Day Out

Directed by Patrick Read Johnson, Baby’s Day Out details the chaos that ensues after an infant (Robert Worton and Jacob Joseph Worton’s Bink) escapes the clutches of three inept kidnappers (Joe Mantegna’s Eddie, Joe Pantoliano’s Norby, and Brian Haley’s Veeko). It’s a decidedly over-the-top premise that’s employed to frequently silly (and frequently hilarious) effect by Johnson, as the filmmaker, armed with John Hughes’ screenplay, delivers a briskly-paced comedy that benefits from its agreeably broad performances and smattering of laugh-out-loud funny jokes and interludes (eg Eddie attempts to keep his composure in front of two cops despite Bink’s painful interjections) – with, in terms of the former, Mantegna’s go-for-broke turn certainly standing as an obvious (and ongoing) highlight within the proceedings. And while the 99 minute running time can’t quite sustain the cartoonish, wafer-thin narrative, Baby’s Day Out does, for the most part, come off as a fun, thoroughly watchable comedy that is, at the very least, quite amusing from start to finish.

*** out of ****