Customer Reviews

The Beniker Gang [VHS]

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This one of three movies ("Benji" being one and "The Adventures of Milo and Otis" being the other) that I did not edit before showing other peoples' children. I love it for its family spirit and its good lessons. It has a plot and children will actually sit through it, two things sometimes difficult to reconcile.

This movie is a kids movie, starring a young Andrew McCarthy and an even younger Danny Pintauro (who played Jonathan on "Who's the Boss?"). The story is about a bunch of orphaned children who vow to stick together as a family. The kids move to a small town and start their life together. The character Arthur played by Andrew McCarthy works on a newspaper advice column known as Dear Lola (everyone assumes Lola is an elderly lady). The story revolves around the kids keeping the fact that they do not live with an adult from the small town. This movie is very charming, and has a sweet story. Beniker gang is one of my childhood favorites.

The Beniker Gang is about a group of orphans who run away from an orphanage with the help of 18-yr old orphan Arthur Beniker (Andrew McCarthy) who earns his living as an advice columnist known as Dear Lola. It's a movie about their struggle and hope to stay together as a real family while hiding and running from the authorities who want to split them up.

One of Andrew McCarthy's best heart-warming performances. This was a film can be watched by the entire family.

When I was a kid, I used to watch this movie all the time. As an adult, I've watched it once or twice and I still love it. The characters are great, the actors are brilliant and the story is heartwarming.

I think Rooneyfan reviewed the wrong movie. LOL!

Someone else said something about Jon Cryer being in this movie, but he is NOT. The actor who plays James (that's the one I'm assuming the reviewer was referring to because he bears a slight resemblance to Cryer) is named Jeff Alan Lee and this is the only movie he's ever been in.

When I was growing up, The Beniker Gang was in heavy rotation in our house. It seemed the Disney Channel played this movie a lot (along with tons of other great stuff) and we even had it shown to us once or twice in elementary school. It always felt like a "popular" movie. That's what makes it so vexing that it wasn't until recently it became available on DVD.

Compared to the often over-processed, plastic cinematography of movies today, it's striking how "rough" the Beniker Gang looks. The colors and contrasts are pretty muted compared to the latest Transformers flick. Of course, not every movie in the 80's looked this "grindhouse-y" but this was certainly more common back then.

Is this muted, unprocessed world a bad thing? Absolutely not. I am someone who firmly believes that the less processed a movie looks, the more timeless and dreamlike its hold on the viewer can be. And such is the case with the Beniker Gang.

Indeed, if one were to really look at this movie with a snarky, post-modern eye, it could be taken to task in all kinds of ways. The cyncial critic could say it's "hokey." Or he would notice that the movie just coasts on through, glossing over potential plotholes before the audience has time to ask questions. And it has a very short (87 min) running time, with many scenes feeling abbreviated. (For example, the carnival backstory of one of the kids is launched into with very little buildup. Another example, the movie tells us that a Halloween party at the school is coming up, and rather than letting that "pay off" a bit later in the movie--bam, we get the Halloween party right away.)

But you know what? It all works. The audience (assuming they're willing to be told a gentle story) doesn't care about those things. And I believe it's because the characters inhabit this dreamlike, organic, "other" world, that the story feels so legitimate. You don't ask questions, just like you don't ask, "But how can dragons exist?" in any good fairy tale. And that's what this movie feels like, a fairy tale.

(One example of how the movie's down-to-earth presentation works in its favor is the courtroom ending. Just reading that on paper makes one roll their eyes. It sounds like the typical Hollywood cliched stuff. But the story's tone thus far has been so low-key, the viewer just accepts the finale as a natural extension of the story. This does not feel like a Big Daddy/Patch Adams contrivance.)

Still, having written that love letter to "unprocessed" cinematography, this DVD copy still seems a bit shabby compared to my memory of the movie on TV all those years ago. They probably didn't dig up the most pristine copy of the movie from the vault when it came time to make this DVD, nor was the best care taken to avoid digital compression in the transfer. I'd guess if you have a super HD-insano TV, this isn't the movie to show your home system off to your bros with.

I must also put in a negative word about the mono sound mix. I suppose it's possible it was never mixed in stereo to begin with, it being low-budget-feeling and all. But that's a little hard to believe. (This was the 80's, not the 40's.) I cannot imagine this is quite how it's supposed to sound. (The most glaring example is when the kids find their new house. Edmund and Benjamin walk towards Cassie and both say a line. But when Benjamin talks, nothing comes out. Clearly something is wrong here.)

But despite all that, I do recommend picking this one up. Absolutely. It's one of those cases where I feel one should be grateful that a gift is available to purchase at all, regardless of how bare-bones the package it comes wrapped in is. I don't suppose the more cynical or hip movie goer of today would enjoy this, but then, those people don't seem to be open to watching anything older than 5 minutes ago. I'd recommend this family-themed movie for people open to sweet stories, and for their kids--kids who haven't yet been taught that art needs to look like a plastic Hasbro toy in order to be enjoyed.

P.S. Rewatching the movie again, I was struck by how enjoyable the music score is. It really adds energy to a premise that might otherwise feel thin. I wish one of those "specialty" soundtrack places like Varese Sarabande would add this to their catalogue.

The beniker gang is a great family movie. I saw it as a child and I loved it. I'm in my 30s and still thought it was great, they don't make them like this anymore.

Saw this on TV ages ago and continued to look for the VHS or DVD. Found it, finally at Amazon and grabbed it. (Never mind the price.) It's a fabulous little movie with Andrew McCarthy as the head of the "gang".
It's right at the top of my list along with Ray Bradbury's "The Electric Grandmother".

IS THERE SOMEONE WHO LIVES IN THE UK WHO HAS BROUGHT THIS VIDEO AND IT WORKED ON THERE VIDEO RECORDER AS I DONT WANT TO BUY AND IT WONT WORK

THANKYOU SOO MUCH

The sevice was great.I My Purchase alot sooner than a thougt I would.
Thank You.