I think a lot of people have heard of "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids". While it never became a huge franchise for Disney, it served as a vehicle for Rick Moranis and also sparked imagination with the sets and effects surrounding the shrunken kids. With the first film being a hit, the sequel decides to switch things around. Instead of having a character shrinking down, how about one growing in size? The sequel opens up a few years after the original, where Wayne Szalinski is working on a project for a modified shrink ray that can both shrink and enlarge thing. Wayne brings his kids to work one day in order to secretly solve the issue. His two-year old son though gets zapped by the machine, which gives him the ability to grow enormously when around an electric device. Wayne and his family now struggle to find a way to shrink him down to normal size, while the public becomes aware of the rapidly-growing toddler. An issue that many would spot first is that the tone is much more childish than before, which is mainly due to the toddler being the source of the story which of course involves his family trying to calm him down or make him stop causing trouble. Another problem is that despite the 90 minute runtime, the pacing feels really slow, which is not because things don't happen for a long time, but rather the opposite. Basically, too much happens as the toddler, Adam, gets exposed and makes his way to Las Vegas, making the third act feel extremely bloated. Despite this issues, the film is still charming with the absurdity and it does have some imagination to it, albeit not as much compared to the first film.
Rick Moranis is once again fantastic as Wayne Szalinski, the eccentric yet goofy scientist. Moranis is just really charming as this character and it's quirky to see how smart, naive, and slow Wayne is, which makes him a fun character to watch since you won't know exactly what his next move could be. Marcia Strassman plays Diane, Wayne's supportive yet furious wife who gets roped in with her husband's misadventure and pushes him to help shrink down their son. Nick Szalinski, Wayne's teenaged son, played by Robert Oliveri, is helpful and bonds with his father, but also wants his father to help him out impressing his crush. These characters and the family dynamic is well done and almost believable for their chemistry, but the side characters are either generic or unnecessary. Adam, the toddler who gets blown up in size, is not necessary a bad character for what the role he is needed for, but the kid can get pretty annoying and bratty at times. Mandy Park, played by Keri Russell, is Nick's crush who shares no chemistry with him, since they act like being in the same situation instantly means personal attraction to each other. But, the worst character here is the antagonist, Charles Hendrickson. Hendrickson hates Wayne for no real reason and wants him to not get involved with the shrink ray project, despite Wayne having vastly more knowledge than he does. When Adam is revealed to the city, he attempts to capture him for testing and experiments. The guy is just a complete asshole for no reason and feels so forced in the film, which didn't even need a villain to begin with. So, the cast overall is generally decent with the Szalinski's being the best characters, while side characters such as Mandy and Hendrickson are just unnecessary or annoying.
Randal Kleiser replaces Joe Johnston as director for the sequel and it clearly shows I do like the change of the location compared to the first film, as being set in Nevada lends them the ability to use Las Vegas as a plot element in the film. I also like how there are much more gadgets present in the Szalinski residence, which makes sense for the character to try to experiment with small-scale ingenuity. The directing, lighting, and cinematography for the most part though is very average, which doesn't help in making a film stand out from the crowd. The score by Bruce Broughton is not bad as it does have similar beats for the franchise, but it just blends in with the film, while the main theme from the first film is more memorable due to it being more prominent. The biggest thing to mention however are the effects. When Adam grows to around seven feet, the effects are done extremely well. It's clearly using editing and green-screen, but it's so well done that the actors look like they inhabit the same space with each other, making scenes with the family in the house look amazing. However, when Adam grows much bigger though, the effects kind of get worse, since the outline is more obvious and it's simply not as convincing. Heck, they use plenty of close-ups for the giant toddler to make it easier to film around, but it just speaks lazy as a whole. The problem is that since the entire third act uses this effect, it loses care and attention from the viewer. Though with that said, the props are really good and gives off vibes of the micro-world from the first film. The main issue with the direction overall is just the lack of ambition.
"Honey, I Blew Up The Kid" is perhaps the weakest of the franchise. With the childish tone, pacing issues, awful side characters, average filmmaking, forgettable score, noticeable effects for the giant Adam, and the lack of ambition from Kleiser. However, the best things of the franchise still apply to this film. The film is still very charming and offers some creative scenarios (albeit not as much compared to the first film), the Szalinski family are well acted and offer a very nice dynamic amongst each other, Moranis is just as enjoyable as ever, and the props and effects are really good, especially the seven foot tall Adam. Overall, I can't call this a good movie, but I don't want to say it's a bad one. It's slightly above average in my opinion. The good stuff combats the negatives, although I find that the direct-to-video sequel almost outshines this film surprisingly.
Verdict: 5.5/10. Has plenty of issues, but one can still find some enjoyment out of it. I hope to cover the nostalgia that is "Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves" in the near future.
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