{"id":10818,"date":"2025-01-18T12:01:25","date_gmt":"2025-01-18T17:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=10818"},"modified":"2025-01-18T12:01:25","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T17:01:25","slug":"carpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/01\/18\/carpool\/","title":{"rendered":"Carpool"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Carpool <\/strong>(1996)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 90 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, crude humor, comic action and violence, reckless driving)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Arthur Hiller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Mark Christopher and Don Rhymer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Debney\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: David M. Walsh\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 23, 1996 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: David Paymer, Tom Arnold, Rhea Perlman, Rachael Leigh Cook, Rod Steiger, Kim Coates, Micah Gardener, Mikey Kovar, Colleen Rennison, Jordan Blake Warkol, Ian Tracey, John Trench, Stellina Rusich, Obba Babatunde, David Kaye, Shawn MacDonald, Betty Linde, Dolores Drake.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $3.3M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0What is it with Tom Arnold and bad comedies circa 1996? Audiences (those that bothered to show up anyway) were treated to a triple-shot of his dubious abilities with Big Bully, The Stupids and Carpool<\/strong>. The key to understanding it is to know that it was filmed entirely in Canada. The clean streets are a dead giveaway. All that\u2019s missing is Harvey Atkin or Maury Chaykin, either one will do.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Like Big Bully before it, Warner had no faith in Carpool<\/strong> and did not screen it in advance. They also relegated it to that dumping ground of release dates, late August. All this they did despite the major league director at the helm, Arthur Hiller whose credits include Love Story, The Out-of-Towners, The Hospital, Silver Streak, The In-Laws and Outrageous Fortune. How did he get mixed up with something as dumb and juvenile as Carpool<\/strong>? By all rights, I should be panning this mindless chase comedy along with my esteemed colleagues. Truth is, I actually like it. God help me, I really like it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The madness begins when workaholic dad Daniel Miller (Paymer, Mr. Saturday Night) is forced to drive the neighborhood carpool on the same day as a big meeting with potential client Mr. Hammerman (Steiger, The Specialist) who owns a chain of gourmet grocery stores. In addition to his own sons, teenage Bucky (Gardener) and grade school age Andrew (Kovar),\u00a0 the passenger list includes slowpoke Chelsea (Rennison), her older sister Kayla (Cook, She\u2019s All That) and oddball Travis (Warkol), the weirdest kid in town.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It doesn\u2019t really matter how it happens. What\u2019s important is that would-be bank robber Franklin Laszlo (Arnold) ends up taking them all hostage as he attempts to dodge a bumbling cop (Coates, The Last Boy Scout), a pair of real crooks (Tracey and Trench) and a gung-ho meter maid (Perlman, Cheers) determined to make the collar herself. She really hates parking scofflaws! The kids start to bond with Franklin because he\u2019s a lot more fun than Daniel. He\u2019s also not that bad of a guy; he needs the money to pay the employees of the failing carnival he owns. Will Daniel make it to his big powwow in time? Take a wild guess.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Carpool<\/strong> contains several car chases including one through a crowded mall a la Blues Brothers. They\u2019re a lot of fun to watch. I suppose if I was 12, I\u2019d think Carpool<\/strong> was great. Well, I\u2019m not 12 and it\u2019s not great. It is, however, pretty good for what it is, a mindless late-summer comedy aimed at middle school kids dreading the fast-approaching first day of school. Paymer and Arnold make a decent comedy duo. The latter seems to be having great fun playing a character- a good-natured, not too bright child at heart- not unlike anything he\u2019s done before. The kids are all pretty good. Leigh is especially good as the object of Bucky\u2019s crush. Travis really is a little weirdo with his swimming goggles, bathing cap and bizarre sense of humor. Perlman also appears to be having a good time. Steiger falls into the same category as Hiller with his presence in a movie that\u2019s a big step down from his Oscar-winning role in 1967\u2019s In the Heat of the Night. Was he looking to cut loose or losing his mind? Hard to tell, but I\u2019ll say a little bit of both.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Hiller attempts to inject Carpool<\/strong> with a strong dose of heartwarming goop with Paymer predictably realizing that family is more important than his career. Anybody could have seen that coming. It\u2019s obvious from the word go that this is the intent of Carpool<\/strong>. It feels maybe half-sincere which is better than many family-oriented comedies. It is funny though. There\u2019s a pretty good running gag about Franklin\u2019s mother and the eating habits that earned her a lifetime ban from Sizzler (remember them?). It reminds me of Mrs. Wolowitz from The Big Bang Theory.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While not particularly well made, Carpool<\/strong> is reasonably entertaining and more enjoyable than it should be. Your enjoyment of it depends on your tolerance for movies aimed at preteens. Call me crazy, question my credibility if you must, but I like it.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carpool (1996)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 90 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, crude humor, comic action and violence, reckless driving)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Arthur Hiller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Mark Christopher and Don Rhymer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Debney\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: David M. Walsh\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 23, 1996 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: David Paymer, Tom Arnold, Rhea Perlman, Rachael Leigh Cook, Rod Steiger, Kim Coates, Micah […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Carpool-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10818"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10836,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10818\/revisions\/10836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}