There was a point in time where everyone in Hollywood wanted to be in the Alicia Silverstone business. She earned her way into the minds of American audiences by starring in a series of music videos by Aerosmith, something several generations now currently can’t fathom, and a pair of films that wound up becoming staples of the early to mid 1990s. It was a weird decade and Silverstone’s career would suffer the most from the debacle that was Batman & Robin by the end, never really recovering to the heights she once had.
In four years she had gone from near certain star to the one who got the worst end of a film that managed to cast Arnold Schwarzenegger armed with a book full of ice puns, George Clooney trying to be an action hero and Bat nipples. The franchise wound up being shelved until Christopher Nolan, a veritable unknown, provided a much darker and grittier vision for the character directly because of how profoundly Batman & Robin failed under the stewardship of Joel Schumacher.
Like I said … the 90s were a weird decade for film.
Going direct to video in an era where that was about as low as one could get, and at the height of her powers this was profoundly shocking at the time. Major celebrities didn’t go direct to video all that often; in today’s era even multiple time Oscar winners can find themselves barely able to get more than a limited theatrical run with a focus going toward video on demand. Twenty years ago going DTV was relatively unheard for a major star, especially considering she has the Aerosmith videos as well as Clueless propelling her up the path of what appeared to be certain top level billing for her career. It wasn’t the only film that year that went DTV for her, as True Crime with the future Johnny Drama (Kevin Dillon) also wound up going straight to video store shelves, and her post Clueless career seemed to lead to the disaster that was the final 1990s Batman film.
Simple premise. Silverstone is Jennifer, a high school student who finds herself the object of affection of multiple suitors. In the course of one night it all goes horribly for everyone, as well.
If you’re ever curious what bad 90s cinema looks like, this is it. In an era where direct to video doesn’t seem nearly as bad as it used to, mainly because not as many films hit theatres as they did, this is a look into an era where going DTV as any star of note meant that the film wasn’t merely unmarketable into theatres; it was also profoundly terrible
This is a Blu-Ray dump of a DVD that had no extras, thus no extras on this one.
Paramount presents The Babysitter. Written and Directed by Guy Ferland based on the short story by Robert Coov. Starring Alicia Silverstone, Jeremy London, Nicky Katt, J. T. Walsh. Run Time: 90 minutes Rated R. Released on DVD: 8.25.15
