As Good As It Gets

Absolutely brilliant

The acting in this movie is really good.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Ever since "The Bad Seed" shocked and horrified audiences in the late 1950s', someone, at least once a decade, has attempted to recreate it's murderous mayhem. This was the '90s entry into the race, and it's a pitiful one. I don't get the "R" rating at all. This movie could fit comfortably on Lifetime Movie Network as it is. I suppose I should get to the plot. Well...there's this girl...who loves her adopted Father...a little too much...will kill anyone who tries to tear them apart...and that's about it. While it's professionally directed to look like a TV movie of the week, everything else (the acting, the writing, the atmosphere) is tone deaf and laughable. The guys at RiffTrax could do wonders with this.

So I've been waiting a whole year to watch this movie even if I'm more into the Action-type than I am horror. Last night, I was bored and I was searching through Comcast desperately looking for something to watch. There, I found 'Daddy's Girl.' A movie about a child who murders her teacher, devastated about being taken away. Interested, I had to sit through this movie and see whether I'd like it or not, then I learned that the kid seems to become addicted to killing after a dramatic trauma that happened in her early childhood.As we go on, the child turns into an evil sadistic child killer and starts toying with the people she hates by literally murdering them one by one about almost each day to keep her and her father together. And with that, her friends and family become confused at this disaster as they get constant phone calls about people dying everyday and for what? An addictive child killer! As they began to try to get details out of Jody (the protagonist), she starts acting as though she is innocent to hide her psychopathic behavior.I can give a good reason that I did not like this movie simply because I am not a fan of horror films and especially films where you have a child murderer. So, seriously, people, do we REALLY need another movie where you have a kid going around killing off members of her family for apparently no reason at all a la "The Good Son (1993)"?? And yet, do we also need another film where you have a psychopathic bratty or bullying kid acting as though she was innocent and after killing off all those people, she starts lying about it and hiding her true, dark personality a la "The Bad Seed (1956)"? Simply because this film uses parodies from "The Good Son" and "The Bad Seed", I found this to be boring and uninteresting. I also don't see why this film is rated R, but maybe because most horror and thriller films are rated either PG-13 or R and most other horror films are also rated R hence the child killer movies such as "Children of the Corn", "Orphan", and "The Omen." I wouldn't really give this film an R, I would think it's OK for maybe a 12-year-old child to watch but I wouldn't let anyone younger than about 12 watch it hence the PG-13 rating.As for the acting, it was pretty much about adequate at the most, not what I would expected. In which I heard some people complaining about the horrible acting of the story's protagonist but it could also be that people didn't really give a damn about the character also (as well as I did.) I could say that her acting was average at the most, but not good in any way. The girl can get annoying at times, let me tell you.The directing could've gone away with a better cinematography. It was quite disappointing and could've had a better experience. Seriously, whoever directed this should get out of business. The writing was also quite horrible too, it had too many flaws, although it was suspenseful, but should've gotten less flaws.I wouldn't recommend this film to anyone who likes horror, maybe to those of you who likes evil child movies, but you might as well be disappointed too. It's quite boring, unoriginal and uninteresting. As much as I would describe this film, I'd say "suspenseful" as the best description for this movie and also "The Good Son" too. As much as I didn't like "The Good Son" either, I'd say stick to "The Bad Seed" with Patty McCormak. I can admit that was pretty good.

Daddy's Girl fits the typical horror date-movie mold, although I think there is something especially frightening about a child being the main villain, probably because everyone lets their guard down around a child who is still strong enough to push grandma down the stairs.The movie fits the B-movie mold, but the acting is far better than average. The satanic little girl is played scarily but very precisely by Boni, who is totally gripping in a script that turns a kid into a criminal genius and psychopath rolled into one. Its just really an unusual experience to watch a child carry a whole movie, especially as a villain.The people around her who become her victims or try to uncover the evil little girl's history are also excellently played., as is clueless daddy, by William Katt, the Great American Hero. The explanation of the whole story at the end is credible and a cautionary tale about a child adrift without parents who turns into a pit bull instead of a shrinking violet. Its fairly unrealistic that a child could be this savvy and diabolical, but that's what movies are for.Daddys Girl is very engaging, as well as tightly directed and shot, so all I can dock it for is its genre, though its far more entertaining and effective than the vast majority of b-movies. I also haven't seen anything quite like it, except for the Omen, in which the kid had the excuse of being the seed of Satan. Daddy's Girl has no excuse. She is just real smart, real twisted, and thoroughly dangerous.

So there I was. I'd been trying to get to sleep for nearly two hours, and so I turned on the tv. Grace Under Fire was just ending, and as my clock turned 3, _Daddy's Girl_ came on. I hit sleep/20 minutes on my remote and took off my glasses, expecting to pass out soon. Well, now it's well after 5am, and I'm stillup writing this, so you tell me what that means. Anyhow, _Daddy's Girl_ tells the touching story of young Jody, a girl who has been tossed around foster families for her entire life. Her current family loves her, but she really loves her father. She perceives everyone as a threat to take her away from her father, and, as any girl in the same situation would do, kills them all. Yep, school principal, grandmother, mother, adoption counselor -- she even attempts to kill her meddling cousin. This movie has some of the cheesiest and stilted dialogue I've ever had the pleasure to see. Through all the porno commercials and ads for the psychic friends ("Your husband is cheating on you." "Thanks so much! I'm so glad I called!"... I don't know about you, but if I called the psychic friends and they told me that, I'd be pretty upset and maybe go on a rampage like little Jody!), _Daddy's Girl_ kept me from turning the tv off, and so now I've been up all night, and I'll likely be up for another 20 some hours before I finally go to sleep. Kudos to the cast and crew of this film for making some of the finest garbage I've ever had the pleasure to view on network tv at 3am!