Problem Child 3 Is The Painful End To A Nostalgic Trilogy

Problem Child 3: Junior In Love is a terrible ending to the cult comedy series. The first Problem Child was one of several examples of the “precocious kid causes mischief” subgenre that became popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Other entries include Kindergarten Cop, the Look Who’s Talking series, and, of course, Home Alone. Problem Child is notable for being a little darker and involves a couple who adopt a red-headed boy named Junior who causes them no end of mystery and is even penpals with a serial killer played by Michael Richards.

Problem Child was reportedly a messy production where even the filmmakers themselves had little hope for its success, but it proved to be a surprise hit. Problem Child 2 was quickly rushed into production before Junior’s performer Michael Oliver grew up too much. Like the original, it didn’t receive great reviews and grossed less than half of the original’s haul. The film deliberately cranked up the toilet humor too, to the point where an early cut was given an R rating before it was re-edited.

The first two Problem Child movies are far from perfect, but to a certain generation who grew up watching them on video, they’re nostalgic comedies. What some fans may not realize is that there’s also a third, made for TV movie in the series. Problem Child 3: Junior In Love aired in 1995 on NBC, and finds Junior competing for the affections of a girl named Tiffany alongside three other boys.

Problem Child 3: Junior In Love recast Junior with Justin Chapman (Jingle All The Way) and his father Ben – previously played by the late, great John Ritter (IT 1990) – with William Katt. There are some returning players, including Jack Warden as Ben’s father and Gilbert Gottfried as the shrill Mr. Peabody. The first two movies wallowed in how mean-spirited they could be within the confines of being a children’s movie, but Problem Child 3: Junior In Love is a nurtured dud. The slapstick and toilet humor falls consistently flat and the Junior/Ben dynamic doesn’t work as well without the original actors; that said, Chapman actually does a good job with the lead role.

Problem Child 3: Junior In Love’s only real saving grace is the return of Gilbert Gottfried’s Peabody, who holds the distinction for being the only actor to appear in all three films and the short-lived Problem Child cartoon. The third movie tends to be forgotten in retrospectives on the series, and it’s easy to understand why.

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Padraig Cotter
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It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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