Rating of
2/4
"Larry the Scary Rex, he's a scary dinosaur"
MovieAddict - wrote on 05/04/13
The story starts in 2050 at a catholic school with Clifford (Martin Short) as an elderly priest giving advice to a young schoolboy who has a tendency to get into trouble. We then see a flashback of young Clifford on his way to Hawaii with his parents, desperately wanting to stop over in L.A. to go to Dinosaur World. He instigates it so the plane has to make an emergency landing in L.A and gets booted off the flight so his angry parents pawn off Clifford for a week with his estranged uncle Martin Daniels (Charles Grodin) and his sweet and naive fiancé Miss Sarah Davis (Mary Steenburgen).
Unfortunately when Uncle Martin fails to take him right away to Dinosaur World due to work restraints, Clifford embarks on a path of destruction and sabotage. Poor Martin is forced to watch Clifford make his life a living hell as he has to deal with Tobasco hot sauce in his drink, Clifford replacing his chapstick with lipstick, Clifford tricking him to go to San Francisco so that he can throw a big party at his house and blowing up his model at a press conference. Of course everyone except Martin is oblivious to Clifford's true demonic nature so it becomes inevitable that the prospective in-laws think Martin is crazy for not being able to make a toast in their honor and that the FBI incarcerates him over Clifford's manipulated outgoing phone message describing a bomb threat on City Hall. Martin’s descent into despair and madness is absolutely palpable.
Martin Short plays a very convincing 10 year old holy terror of a child who will do anything to get to Dinosaur World to fulfill his dream and his facial features alone are worth seeing and Charles Grodin is funny as a middle-aged bachelor who is trying to convince his fiancé that he loves kids.
