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Parents' Guide to

Dennis the Menace Strikes Again!

By Andrea Beach, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 7+

Slapstick comedy has cute kids, terrible stereotypes.

Movie G 1998 75 minutes
Dennis the Menace Strikes Again! Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

There's a nugget of a fairly entertaining family movie in here, somewhere, but there are just too many shortcomings to make it enjoyable to viewers outside of the target age group. Dennis the Menace Strikes Again! has all the pratfalls, potty and body-part humor, giant bugs, belly flops, and ooey-gooey messes that kids will find hilarious. And there's a little bit of heart in this version of Dennis as a good, friendly kid who's trying to be helpful but who always manages to cause chaos and destruction by accident. The kids in the cast are pretty cute, but except for a very young Alexa Vega as a standout, they aren't yet very strong actors.

Unfortunately, it's also got more than enough cliches and stereotypes, even a cringe-worthy White actor in brown face, to drive older viewers away. They may also be put off by a 7-year-old character using her "feminine wiles" to catch her (also 7-year-old) man. Little kids may be confused by the subplot with the con men, and possibly a little frightened by the scary "doctors' exam" scene.

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