Richie Rich

In 1994, Macaulay Culkin stared in 3 films: 'Richie Rich', 'The Pagemaster' and 'Getting even with dad', none of them particularly interesting. The movies themselves did poorly at cinemas and in critical terms.

In 1994, Macaulay Culkin was 13/14 years old. He was in his early adolescence, so he was growing. A difficult phase for him. Ridiculously, people began to ignore him because of that - either that or they simply thought his cuteness was disappearing and gave him little value for that. But he always proved to be a terrific actor. True, there were many, many great child actors but he was one of them for sure. Sure, his cuteness took him far, but it was his talent that made him a legend.

After playing a completely different role in the 1993 film 'The Good Son' (where he played a psychopath that could very well disguise that nature thanks to his angelical looks, a wolf in sheep's clothe), he returned to the roles of 'good guys' in all of his 1994 films.

'Richie Rich' is not much of a film, but perhaps it's a little more interesting than 'The Pagemaster'. It's not a bad movie, but it's a somewhat complex film for me to give a fair rating. It has good moments but also very stupid moments, particularly from the 2nd half on (in my opinion, where the movie is at its weakest).

Macaulay Culkin plays the title character. Richie Rich is rich (like his name suggests), lives in a fancy mansion surrounded by comfort and luxury and can even count with a chauffeur that takes him in his majestic and elegant Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud whenever it's necessary. But Richie realizes that there is one thing that money can't buy: happiness. He feels the lack of friends and possibly bored with his tedious life. He just wants to be like the other kids.

About the things I found funny in this film, a good example of that is the line «Oh my God, I look like Michael Jackson!» by Richie's mother. Come to think of it... that's not untrue - lol. I'm surprised they put this line in the film because Macaulay Culkin stars in it and considering the friendship he had with the eccentric singer... Other funny details are, for example, the cute dog that has dollar signs instead of spots and appropriately named Dollar, and the scene when Richie doesn't wanna wake up but stares at his personal trainer when he realizes what a beauty she is (she is portrayed by the supermodel Claudia Schiffer).

Macaulay Culkin had everything to be a great name of the cinema. And he was, for a few years, mostly thanks to the success of the first two 'Home Alone' films. He was talented, charismatic and good-looking. Too bad he trashed his life later, but I believe he turned out to be like this because of his personal problems.

This movie - Macaulay Culkin's Last movie as a child is not his best but not his worst - that goes to the unfunny Ted Danson Action 'comedy' Getting even with dad which came out the same year- But it's pretty sickly sweet and you can see why it bombed at the Box Office. The plot concerns the richest boy in the world 'Richie Rich' Played by Culkin, But by this time he was at 14 looking too old to play the title role. He's the boy who has everything, wealthy parents lives in a big mansion has a butler (wonderfully played by Johnathan Hyde) - But he's very lonely, he has no friends. So one day he tries to join a group of inner city kids playing baseball but they don't want to know him. one of Richie's father's associates Lawrence van dough (John Larroquette) wants to get his hands on the company and the family's fortune, so he tries to kill mum and dad -Ritchie needs the other kids's help to save the company, his parents and his fortune aided by The butler.

Not a bad movie it has a very good moral story (all the money in the world can't make you happy)- But strictlty for KIDS or easily amused adults

Rating 7/10

Sometimes, when I come home tired from work and have a brewski and want to zone out, I feel like a total fluff movie. Richi Rich fills the bill. It moves along, something most movies don't. It's harmless and doesn't require any involvement on my part. The jokes are silly. I can miss some of it on a fridge run, come back to it, and still follow it. In fact, if I don't finish the movie, it doesn't seem to matter. However, it is charming, so I usually do.

The movie pokes fun at the super rich on a superficial level, but that's all right. I'll save the harshly critical movies for a different mood. There's some lovely views of the Biltmore estate. There's light ribbing of the corporate world. Oh dear, I'm falling asleep. I'll miss the end of the movie. Too many brewskies.

This was Macaulay Culkin's first major flop, when he was finally un-cute enough that viewers noticed he couldn't act. Other than that, compared with other mindless, shallow, hopelessly far-fetched pseudo-adventures designed for either very small or very uncritical children, it's really not worse than one would expect. Well, the comic book on which it's based is not exactly Stan Lee either… From a pedagogical point of view, one must say that Richie takes control of his situation in the absence of his parents, makes decisions that are largely sensible and practical, and carries them out mostly without adult help. He combines emotional and rational qualities without violating his basic identity as a kid. To me, that's all good, and redeems the entertainment value of this movie for a young audience.

I gave this movie a 7 on a scale of 1-10 because I took into consideration it is a kids movie and should be judged as such. When this movie came out I was 13 and of course I enjoyed it much more then as opposed to now but having watched it as a child and as an adult I do remember how much I enjoyed the film as a kid. From the harsh grade of a 4.4 average I assume people where comparing this to complex movies with great plots. Kids should not be subjected to nothing but adult theme. So when you grade the movie remember what audience it was desighned for.As a child I would have gave this movie a 7. Would you drive a metro and act as if it should perform like a porsche?