This cute little comedy has become (in fact, probably always was) fairly obscure, but I got a real kick out of it.  As a small town girl, I get where it's coming from.

Adventures In Babysitting mines comedy from suburbanites' fear of the Big Bad City.  The joke here is that every suburban fear of the city turns out to be true.

As our story begins, high school senior Chris (Elizabeth Shue in her first starring role) is preparing for a big date with her boyfriend.  But cad Mike Todwell (Bradley Whitford, long before he went to work for The West Wing) breaks the date with a bogus story about a sick little sister.  (Hah!  We soon find out the truth about that.)

Now at loose ends, Chris comes to the aid of the Andersons, who are in urgent need of a babysitter.  She settles in to babysit young Sara (Maia Brewton).  Freshman Brad (Keith Coogan) was going to spend the night with friend Daryl (Anthony Rapp), but when he learns that crush-object Chris is coming to babysit, he arranges a change of plans and stays home.  The group is soon joined by Daryl. 

But Chris gets an urgent SOS from her friend Brenda (Penelope Ann Miller).  Brenda is unhappy at home and decided to run away.  She got as far as the Chicago bus station and has chickened out.  Can Chris pleeeeeeez come pick her up? 

Remember what I said about suburbanites' fears of the big city?  This bus station is one of the rings of hell, complete with giant rats, lunatics, and street people.  Chris can't leave Brenda there.  But she can't leave the kids home alone either. 

So she piles them all into her mom's station wagon, and they're off to Chicago.   It's to be a quick run down the freeway, pick up Brenda at the bus station, and drive back home.  Piece of cake. 

But just as she's driving along telling the kids a campfire-style scary story about a madman with a hook for a hand, the car has a flat tire.  Stranded on the side of the road, Chris learns that the spare is also flat.  And that she was in such a hurry to leave she left her purse back at the house.  No ID, no money, no nothing. 

A large, menacing vehicle pulls up behind the stranded wagon, and the driver steps out.... And he's got a hook for a hand!  Eeeeek!

Oh, but wait.  Turns out he's a jovial tow-truck driver.  Whew.  He'll tow the car and take the kids to his garage, and payment can be handled later. 

Chris and the kids feel silly about being so frightened -- until the garage dispatcher radios to tell the driver his wife is cheating again.  And now the driver is a genuine madman, driving off in a rage to catch his wife in the act, and Chris and party are along for the ride. 

As the tow truck driver heads into his house with a gun, the group leaps into a car to get out of the line of fire - just as the car is being stolen.   So now our group of white bread suburbanites find themselves in a chop shop. 

And so it goes.  If the group enters a subway car, they're going to wind up between two rival street gangs.  If they enter a door off a seedy alley to escape the baddies chasing them, they're going to wind up onstage at an urban  (i.e. black) blues club. 

Chris has to display spunk and ingenuity as she shepherds her rambunctious charges out of one pickle and right into the next.  Help is found in unexpected places, including a car thief and a dreamy college boy at a frat house party. 

It's silly, it doesn't have a deep underlying Message -- but it's fun.

Adventures In Babysitting was directed by Chris Columbus and written by David Simpkins.

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