Giving it a 9 to bump it up a bit. It is a 7,5 otherwise. I really like this film, when i was a kid i loved it. But even now when i am old i def can c the charm in this movie. It has great humor , nice environments , small town genre that i like. It makes you feel like you want to live there.Just a nice enjoyable film.

Nick Castle's directing is amazing. The timing, the perfect camera angles, the rapport between the cast, and much more, are just remarkable. This little boy, Mason Gamble (who won the Young Artist Award for Best Youth Actor Leading Role in a Motion Picture Comedy in this film) is amazing at such a young age. This movie brings the comic strip alive MUCH better than the old TV show ever did. Jerry Goldsmith's music is perfect, Walter Matthau perfectly portrays the grumpy old Mr. Wilson in a way he couldn't even achieve in Grumpy Old Men. In fact, I have no problem proclaiming he has never been funnier. Christopher Lloyd is pure genius as an evil thief. I won't spoil it at all, but trust me when I say that Dennis the Menace manages make life miserable for Mr. Wilson and others, and comes out squeaky clean, as a child hero like him must. WATCH IT, BE IN A GOOD MOOD, AND YOU WILL LLOOVVEE IT! (Of course, if you naturally just don't like one of the actors in the movie or come with some other sort of bias, I can't help you.)

you know how switchblade sam rolls into town? on steel rails, leapin' off the locomotive at full speed and dustin' himself off. then he scopes out the town and says, "i bet they don't even lock their doors." this is the happiest man in the world. he walks into people's houses, eats their food, jacks all their cash and jewelry... shoot, he even steals candy from a baby. cops try to give him guff, but he don't sweat it. he'll cook up a whole pot of beans, even when he isn't hungry. he eats his apples off of his switchblade. he got some tight threads. he probably gets laid all the time too, but they ain't showin' that in this movie. he drinks his whiskey straight out the flask. he kidnaps kids and holds them for ransom. mr. Wilson is kinda cool too.

Dennis the menace, as the last word points it out right away, is a menacing movie.It is supposed to be for kids, but I remember that I was pretty scared of the movie and I thought that Dennis was just an utter crazy boy, scary in his way. I know that he is kind of supposed to be scary for adults, but as a kid I couldn't really identify myself with anybody in the movie; you're not really involved.Furthermore, a lot of the cuts are directed in a way to submit horror, but in a gentle way. That is like showing us a dangerous car accident but underlining it with cheery music. Something is awfully wrong, it does not feel right. Kids will be frightened by the villain, Mr. Wilson, the girl with the dolls and by the way the director Nick Castle brought the ideas to the screen (only Mrs Wilson is a charming, nice person). This movie simply is not for kids.You might think then this is for adults, for moms and dads, to watch with their children... nnnnno. You see, the problem is that, while you actually are capable of feeling of how much Dennis is a menace for retired men, you never really think that he's an interesting kid; he's very naive, over the top naive which is basically it.The movie then is not for children, nor their parents or anybody else. Especially not for teenagers, nowadays they watch films like Matrix at the age of thirteen. The result is that this movie is probably for no one.4/10