Getting Even with Dad

Ray Gleason is a former thief trying to put his life on a steadier footing, working as a baker and planning one last score with two accomplices so he can leave crime behind for good. His plans are disrupted when his young son Timmy, who has been living with Ray's sister, is dropped off to stay with him. Ray has been an absent father, and Timmy, who is about eleven, decides to make his presence felt. He hides the proceeds of the robbery and uses them as leverage, agreeing to hand them back only if Ray starts behaving like a parent and spends time with him. The arrangement complicates Ray's dealings with his impatient partners, and the situation draws attention from the police.

The film was directed by Howard Deutch, its place in a run of comedies he made between the mid-1980s and the 2000s, and was written by Jim Jennewein and Tom S. Parker. Macaulay Culkin plays Timmy and Ted Danson plays Ray, with Glenne Headly, Saul Rubinek, Gailard Sartain and Sam McMurray in supporting roles. It was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on a budget of roughly 30 million dollars and took about 19 million dollars worldwide, a return well below its cost.

Audience response was modest: on IMDb it holds 4.9/10 from around 9,300 votes, and on TMDB 5.3/10 from just over 220 votes. A critics' rating of 3.7/10 from 31 reviews sits below both audience figures, suggesting reviewers were less receptive than viewers.