''First Kid'' is a 1996 American

slapstick Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such a ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

David Mickey Evans David Mickey Evans (born October 20, 1962) is an American film director and screenwriter. His films tend to focus on children and the challenges of childhood. A baseball fan, Evans directed and co-wrote ''The Sandlot'' (1993). Life and career ...

and starring Sinbad and

Brock Pierce Brock Jeffrey Pierce (born November 14, 1981) is an American entrepreneur known primarily for his work in the cryptocurrency industry. As a child actor, he starred in Disney films '' The Mighty Ducks'' (1992), '' D2: The Mighty Ducks'' (1994), an ...

. It was mostly filmed in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

Plot

Sam Simms is a

Secret Service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For ...

agent assigned by his superior Wilkes to protect President Paul Davenport's rebellious 13-year-old son Luke Davenport after Luke's behavior causes another agent Woods to be replaced for mistreating Luke in front of media cameras. Simms sees this assignment as undesirable, but a possible stepping stone to protecting the President. He fails to connect with the boy at first, and Luke continues to misbehave. After seeing Luke get beat up by the school bully Rob, his parents punish him for the fight, even though he didn't start it. Because of the re-election, they can't risk Luke going out of public for a month while his parents are on the campaign trail. Simms feels sorry for him - he had felt alone as a teenager, too (losing his father in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

while his mother worked 2-3 jobs to financially support him) - and they become friends. Simms, a former boxer, agrees to sneak Luke out against the wishes of his parents and teach him how to fight. Meanwhile, Luke agonizes over asking the cutest girl, Katie to the school dance, which he finally does successfully with Simms's help. However, while Simms and Luke are practicing some moves for the dance, the Secret Service director Morton tells them that they can't go to the dance due to an emergency lockdown because of a duffel bag left unattended on the sidewalk outside the main entrance being investigated by the bomb squad. Simms, breaking the rules, takes Luke to the dance. There, Rob tries to attack Luke again while Simms is distracted, but this time, Luke puts him down. After that, Secret Service agents bust the school dance and retrieve Luke. Simms is fired and not allowed to speak with Luke, who is crushed that his friend has apparently "abandoned" him. Luke, under house arrest and with a

homing device In the distribution and logistics of many types of products, track and trace or tracking and tracing concerns a process of determining the current and past locations (and other information) of a unique item or property. This concept can be s ...

attached to him, receives advice from an online friend, Mongoose12, on how to escape the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

and meet him at a local mall. Luke agrees, but it is revealed that Mongoose12 was in fact former agent Woods, who abducts him. When Luke goes missing, Simms is given another chance to protect him. With the help of his friend and former colleague Harold (a

paraplegic Paraplegia, or paraparesis, is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek () "half-stricken". It is usually caused by spinal cord injury or a congenital condition that affects the neural ...

who owns a spy shop), he quickly tracks Luke to the mall. In a standoff, Woods says he was originally planning on returning Luke to the President so he could be a hero and get his job back, but now he wants to kill him instead, blaming Luke for making him lose his job, and even his wife. Woods tries to shoot Simms, but he takes cover and once Woods is out of bullets, Simms brings him down with a right

uppercut The uppercut (formerly known as the undercut; sometimes also referred to as the ''upper'') is a punch used in boxing that travels along a vertical line at the opponent's chin or solar plexus. It is, along with the cross, one of the two main pun ...

. As other agents arrive, Woods tries to shoot Luke with a back-up revolver, but Simms jumps in front of Luke, causing him to take the intended bullet in his arm. Woods is also shot, subdued, and arrested by other arriving Secret Service agents for abduction, assault, discharging a firearm in a public place unlawfully, and attempted murder. Simms is offered Presidential duty which he declines in order to stay with Luke full time, and so he can also spend more time with Luke's biology teacher, with whom he has formed a romantic relationship.

Cast

* Sinbad as Secret Service Agent Sam Simms *

as U.S. First Son Luke Davenport *

James Naughton James Naughton (born December 6, 1945) is an American actor and director. He is best known as Michael Bower on '' Who's the Boss?'' (1984-1992) and was also notable for his earlier role as the astronaut Pete Burke in the 1974 single-season telev ...

as U.S. President Paul Davenport *

Timothy Busfield Timothy Busfield (born June 12, 1957) is an American actor and director. He has played Elliot Weston on the television series ''thirtysomething''; Mark, the brother-in-law of Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) in ''Field of Dreams''; and Danny Concann ...

as Secret Service Agent Woods *

Art LaFleur Art LaFleur (September 9, 1943 – November 17, 2021) was an American character actor and acting coach. Life and career LaFleur was born in Gary, Indiana. He played football in 1962 as a redshirt at the University of Kentucky under Coach Char ...

as Secret Service Agent Morton *

Robert Guillaume Robert Guillaume (born Robert Peter Williams; November 30, 1927 – October 24, 2017) was an American actor and singer, known for his role as Benson DuBois in the ABC television series ''Soap'' and its spin-off, ''Benson'', as well as for voici ...

as Secret Service Agent Wilkes *

Lisa Eichhorn Lisa Eichhorn (born February 4, 1952) is an American actress, writer and producer. She made her film debut in 1979 in the John Schlesinger film '' Yanks'', for which she received two Golden Globe nominations. Her international career has includ ...

as U.S. First Lady Linda Davenport * Blake Boyd as Secret Service Agent Dash * Fawn Reed as Susan Lawrence * Erin Williby as Katie Warren *

Zachery Ty Bryan Zachery Ty Bryan (born October 9, 1981) is an American actor and film producer. He is best known for his role as Brad Taylor on the ABC sitcom ''Home Improvement''. He also appeared in the films ''True Heart'' and '' The Fast and the Furious: To ...

as Rob MacArthur *

Bill Cobbs William Francisco Cobbs (born June 16, 1934) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in movies such as Louisiana Slim in '' The Hitter'' (1979), Water in ''The Brother from Another Planet'' (1984), and as Lewis Coleman on ''I'll Fly Aw ...

as Speet *

Tomas Arana Tomas Clifford Arana (born April 3, 1955) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the films ''The Hunt for Red October'' (1990), '' The Bodyguard'' (1992), ''L.A. Confidential'' (1997), ''Gladiator'' (2000), ''The Bourne Supremac ...

as Harold *

Sonny Bono Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono (; February 16, 1935 – January 5, 1998) was an American singer, actor, and politician who came to fame in partnership with his second wife Cher as the popular singing duo Sonny & Cher. A member of the Republica ...

as Himself (Cameo Appearance) * Sean "Oleus" Sullivan as Kid In Shopping Mall Chase *

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

as Himself (Cameo Appearance) * Jonathan Cabot Wade as School Kid This film would turn out to be the final on-screen appearance of

before his death in 1998, who, at the time of the film's release, was serving in the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

. Sonny plays himself as a

Congressman A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...

coming to the White House, to visit the President. Simms bumps into him (literally) outside the

Oval Office The Oval Office is the formal working space of the President of the United States. Part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, it is located in the West Wing of the White House, in Washington, D.C. The oval-shaped room ...

and fawns over him.

Ratings

When ''First Kid'' was rated for video release by the

BBFC The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...

, one minute and thirty one seconds were cut, due to the hostage attack in the shopping mall. At the time, the BBFC felt that this, and the sudden onslaught of violence, were too intense for a 'PG' certificate. In 2002, all cuts were waived for a 'PG' rating.

Reception

Box office

The movie debuted at #3, behind '' The Crow: City of Angels'' and ''

Tin Cup ''Tin Cup'' is a 1996 American romantic comedy and sports film co-written and directed by Ron Shelton, and starring Kevin Costner and Rene Russo with Cheech Marin and Don Johnson in major supporting roles. The film received generally positive r ...

''. It did just over $8.4 million in ticket sales on 1,878 screens.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gives the film a score of 20%, based on reviews from 15 critics. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

it has a score of 48% based on reviews from 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film a grade "B" on scale of A to F.

TV series

In December 1996, following the film's release discussions were held with Disney's TV division about adapting the film's premise as a TV series.

References

External links

* * * {{David M. Evans 1996 films 1996 comedy films 1990s children's comedy films American children's comedy films American political comedy films Caravan Pictures films Films about fictional presidents of the United States Films about the United States Secret Service Films directed by David M. Evans Films produced by Roger Birnbaum Films about bullying Films about dysfunctional families Films scored by Richard Gibbs Films set in Washington, D.C. Films set in the White House Films shot in Virginia Walt Disney Pictures films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films