Product Description

Mom's on a trip, leaving her brood in the care of a babysitter, who's just died. Now the kids can have a summer full of fun, or can they?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #631 in DVD
• Brand: HBO HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2000-12-12
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.com
Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead aspires to be a cross between Home Alone and Risky Business, with Christina Applegate as an inadvertent scam artist who gets in over her head and somehow pulls it off. When her mother goes to Australia for two months, Sue Ellen (Applegate) thinks she's going to be in charge--until an elderly tyrant of a babysitter arrives. But on the very first night the old lady has a heart attack and keels over. Sue Ellen and her siblings leave the body at a mortuary, only to discover afterward that all the money their mother had left for the summer was in the babysitter's clothes. So Sue Ellen has to get a job. Thanks to a trumped-up resume, she ends up as an executive assistant at a clothing manufacturer. For a while she keeps her head above water by skillfully exploiting a friendly coworker, but her brothers and sisters are running amok at home and a venomous receptionist has it in for her at work. The role-reversal humor of Sue Ellen having to mother her siblings is unsurprising, but Applegate is unexpectedly appealing; her scenes with Josh Charles (Dead Poet's Society, Threesome) have a sweet chemistry. Joanna Cassidy (Blade Runner, The Laughing Policeman) plays Sue Ellen's boss and a young David Duchovny (The X-Files, The Rapture) is a weaselly clerk. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead
Christina Applegate is surprisingly good in this cult classic playing Sue Ellen. After the babysitter dies from old age, she finds herself responsible for her four younger brothers and sisters for the entire summer. As much as she hates it, Sue Ellen has to get a job to support them all. When she applies for a receptionist job with a clothing manufacturer, her fabricated resume lands her a job with the chief executive. This is a lighthearted movie with many funny scenes.

One Crazy Summer
What did Christina Applegate do during her 1990 summer hiatus from television's popular series, "Married...with Children"? Well, she made this charming, highly entertaining comedy of a Los Angeles teen that finds herself in a tough predicament one summer. After her mother leaves on a two-month trip to Australia, Sue Ellen (Applegate) finds herself taking care of her four siblings after the mean, elderly babysitter that was hired by their mother for the summer drops dead from natural causes. Unwilling to put a dent to their summer fun, the kids decide to rid the body and take care of themselves for two months without having to tell their mom. Only problem is that when they dropped the body off at the local mortuary, they forgot to check the babysitter's pockets for the money their mother left for groceries for the entire summer.

Determined to keep the fun and food flowing, Sue Ellen decides to look for a job. After not having too much luck at a fast food restaurant, she applies for a receptionist position at a clothing company. When a resume mix-up gets in the way, Sue Ellen becomes a career woman in order to pay the bills and keep their summer alive. Meanwhile, she develops a blossoming relationship with a fast-food worker she once worked with (Josh Charles of "Threesome") and is being hounded by two office workers who want to wreck her reputation (Concetta Tomei & a very, very young-looking David Duchovny of "X-Files fame).

Featuring a great cast of actors such as Joanna Cassidy and Keith Coogan ("Adventures in Babysitting"), "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter is Dead" is a grown-up version of "Home Alone" for teens. Amusing, funny, and entertaining, it was Applegate's only feature-film hit. While she made other low-cost films such as "Streets", this film happens to be her best work outside from her work on "Married...With Children.." If you are looking for a great flick for the family this is it. Please be aware that the film contains scenes of drug use (marijuana) and might be unsuitable for children under the age of 13.

Good movie, good print on DVD
Please note several reviews of this movie here are referring to earlier VHS version. We just purchased this on DVD (we love this movie) and it is in widescreen (well, 16:9, that "sort of" widescreen) and has very clear picture and excellent sound quality.

We delayed purchasing this because of a lack of info on Amazon page regarding the specifics of the DVD, but it's fine, we're very happy with it.

If you like the movie, it's a good DVD and certainly worth the $5-6 price.