`Baby's Day Out' Big On Effects, But The Formula's Getting Old

------------------------------------------------------------------ Movie review

XX "Baby's Day Out," with Joe Mantegna, Joe Pantoliano, Lara Flynn Boyle and Adam and Jacob Worton. Directed by Patrick Read Johnson, from a script by John Hughes. Broadway Market, Everett 9, Grand Cinemas Alderwood, Kirkland Parkplace, Lewis & Clark, Metro, Oak Tree, SeaTac Mall. "PG" - Parental guidance suggested, because of mild cartoonish violence. ------------------------------------------------------------------

I once attended a matinee of "Raising Arizona" and was surprised to find a picket line of parents protesting the alleged "abuse" of a baby in the Coen brothers' wacky kidnapping comedy.

Hopefully people will show more movie savvy with "Baby's Day Out," a routine comedy written by producer John Hughes with his lucrative "Home Alone" formula. It spares no expense in showing an adorable 9-month-old toddler in a variety of perilous situations. You almost expect to see a disclaimer assuring us that "no babies were injured or killed during the making of this film."

It's all in good fun, of course, and nobody's having more fun than Baby Bink (played by identical twins Adam and Robert Worton), the adventurous child of wealthy Chicagoan parents who is kidnapped and then proceeds to foil his would-be abductors while taking a joy-ride tour of the Windy City.

Anyone familiar with Alexandra Day's popular series of "Good Dog Carl" books for young children will recognize "Baby's Day Out" as a rip-off of Day's delightfully illustrated stories (though it should be noted Hughes owns the film rights to Day's books). Baby Bink has no canine companion along for his exploits, but he's acting out the events in his favorite bedtime book.

It's a simple idea, but Hughes and director Patrick Read Johnson ("Spaced Invaders") keep things going by turning most of the adults into hapless morons, especially the harmless villains played with amusing Three Stooges idiocy by Joe Mantegna, Joe Pantoliano and stand-up comedian Brian Haley. As Baby Bink's worried mom, Lara Flynn Boyle provides some fine moments of sincere sentiment, but she's a tiny island in a vast sea of lunacy.

There's a vaguely cynical calculation behind this epidemic stupidity, and when a TV news reporter tapes a segment about the missing child - while failing to notice Baby Bink crawling between her feet - it's clear that Hughes has pushed his brainless grown-up strategy a bit too far.

"Baby's Day Out" is undeniably a marvel of technical achievement. It employs state-of-the-art techniques (courtesy of - who else? - Industrial Light and Magic) and numerous mechanical toddlers created by makeup wizard Rick Baker, all used to put Baby Bink on heavy-traffic streets, rickety fire escapes, rooftops and, most impressively, floating in and around a high-rise construction site. These scenes are executed with utter perfection.

Indeed, so seamless are the effects that they highlight the weaknesses of the film itself. While watching Baby Bink crawl on girders hundreds of feet above ground, the laziness of the Hughes formula makes one wonder what a cinematic master like Hitchcock would've done with today's magical movie technology.

If nothing else, "Baby's Day Out" offers a few good laughs and whets the special-effects appetite for next week's visually tricky "Forrest Gump."