Curly Sue (1991)

14% of critics liked it
(14 reviews)
49% of users liked it
(48,652 ratings)

John Hughes dishes out the sentiment by the ladle-full in Curly Sue. The film stars James Belushi as Bill Dancer, a down-on-his-luck drifter who lives by his wits on the highways and byways of the United States, stealing free meals, slipping into movie theaters, and sleeping in welfare hotels. Bill… More John Hughes dishes out the sentiment by the ladle-full in Curly Sue. The film stars James Belushi as Bill Dancer, a down-on-his-luck drifter who lives by his wits on the highways and byways of the United States, stealing free meals, slipping into movie theaters, and sleeping in welfare hotels. Bill is also the guardian of cute pint-size moppet Curly Sue (Alisan Porter), a cutey pie cross between Little Orphan Annie and Tatum O'Neal's Addie Loggins character from Paper Moon. Bill and Curly Sue are a perfect con team, and they practice their scams when they need money for food. Pulling a knockdown car-accident scam, Bill makes hard-bitten Chicago lawyer Grey Ellison (Kelly Lynch) think that she slammed into him with her car. She buys dinner for the two mountebanks before being taken away by her snotty boyfriend Walter McCormick (John Getz). But the next morning, Grey actually does hit Bill with her car, and she takes the two back home with her. At first, Grey can't seem to get Curly Sue out of her mind, but then she finds herself falling in love with Bill. They begin to form a perfect family until Walter puts in a call to the Department of Children and Family Services. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG, 1 hr. 42 min.
Directed By: John Hughes
Genres: Comedy, Kids & Family

In Theaters: Oct 25, 1991 Wide
On DVD: Jun 1, 2004
Studio: Warner Home Video

Critic Reviews

Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
The film has a desperately cutesy-pie charm that drips with flop sweat.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
A disappointingly sentimental and shallow film from John Hughes about the homeless
Randy White, Common Sense Media
A violent, offensive comedy.
Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com
Reprehensible from start to finish, and utterly manipulative and mindless to boot.
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis
so vacuous it's in danger of suffocating itself and everyone near it. Yet there's no denying it has a certain mindless charm....
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis
Any similarity between Curly Sue and Shirley Temple is practically intentional.
Bill Chambers, Film Freak Central
It's the first film in which Hughes flat-out sentimentalizes being rich--moreover, selling out.
Scott Weinberg, eFilmCritic.com
Is this the same John Huges who wrote "The Breakfast Club"? I don't think so.

Read all 8 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

moon r

Cutesy homeless pair (a man and a little girl!!!) bum around from town to town (!) until they literally run in to a sympathetic lawyer (!!!), and that's just the set-up (unbelievable!). Dated because Hughes intentionally means to conjure up the days and spirit of Shirley… More
Cutesy homeless pair (a man and a little girl!!!) bum around from town to town (!) until they literally run in to a sympathetic lawyer (!!!), and that's just the set-up (unbelievable!). Dated because Hughes intentionally means to conjure up the days and spirit of Shirley Temple's joie d'vivre this only achieves a violation of audience goodwill. 3 year olds will disagree w/my assessment, I grant you that.
AJ V

John Hughes got into making movies with kids in the 90s instead of teens, Home Alone was good, but this one was more mediocre, I think. I saw it a long time ago, I'd like to see it again and rewrite this.
Cassandra M

Excellent film and I really enjoyed it. I agree with all the other people that this is a really great film. I doubt my rating will help matters but we'll see. It's a shame we haven't seen Porter in anything since this film. My only qualm is if they might have cut down… More
Excellent film and I really enjoyed it. I agree with all the other people that this is a really great film. I doubt my rating will help matters but we'll see. It's a shame we haven't seen Porter in anything since this film. My only qualm is if they might have cut down slightly on the comedy, but it was still a great film. I wondered why this hadn't got a higher rating. Just shows, doesn't it?
Nani V

I love curly sue!
danny d

pretty entertaining, belushi was great
Dean M

Worst John Hughes comedy film I ever watched.
Leigh R

One of the cutest little films.
Naughtia N

I don't understand why this movie got such low ratings by the RT critics, I really thought that this movie was sweet and charming. I really love movies from the 90's, and even though I found this movie predictable I still wanted to see what happened to the characters… More
I don't understand why this movie got such low ratings by the RT critics, I really thought that this movie was sweet and charming. I really love movies from the 90's, and even though I found this movie predictable I still wanted to see what happened to the characters involved. Also I think it was fun to see James Belushi in a much younger and skinnier version of himself.
Lee K

cute movie your daughters will enjoy it
Sarah P

A cute movie

Read all 10 featured audience ratings

Cast

            James Belushi as Bill Dancer

            Kelly Lynch as Grey Ellison

            Alisan Porter as Curly Sue

            John Getz as Walter McCormick

            Fred Dalton Thompson as Bernard Oxbar

            Cameron Thor as Maitre d'

            Charles Adams as Prison Guard

            John Ashton as Mr. Arnold (uncredited)

            Gail Boggs as Anise Hall

            James W. Bolinski as Pawnbroker

            Marcus Lyle Brown as Theater Patron

            Nadine Burke as Social Worker

            Burke Byrnes as Dr. Maxwell

            Steve Carell as Tesio

            Carol Chickering as Soprano

            Grace Collette as Foster Mother

            Viveka Davis as Trina

            Ralph Foody as Drifter

            Alonzo Hall as Cook

            Patricia Hooker as 4th Store Clerk

            Tammy Karabas-Brody as 3rd Store Clerk

            Joel Levin as 2nd Store Clerk

            Joe Liss as Ticket Taker

            Edie McClurg as Secretary

            Rocco Pecirno as Father of the Bride

            Cedrick Pipes as Cook

            Ely Pouget as Dinah Tompkins

            Luke Reichle as 1st Store Clerk

            Branscombe Richmond as Albert

            Terrie Snell as Maggie

            Barbara Tarbuck as Mrs. Arnold

            Susan Mayer as Woman with Champagne Glass

            Adele Robbins as DCGS Caseworker

            Jane Jenkins
            
            Janet Hirshenson
            
            Edie Mc Clurg
            
See full cast

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