Rating: PG
Genre:
Comedy
Release Date: 11/13/2001
SubTitles: English/French/Espanol/Por/KO/TH
Dubbed: English/French
Run Time: 102 Minutes
Flags: Questionable for Children, Adult Language, Profanity
Distributor/Studio: Columbia TriStar
In
The Toy, director
Richard Donner and screenwriter
Carol Sobieski update the 1976
Pierre Richard farce
Le Jouet as a vehicle for comedian
Richard Pryor.
Pryor stars as out-of-work journalist
Jack Brown, who's hit with the sudden realization that his idle book writing won't pay a 10,000-dollar sum necessary to keep his house from going to auction. Desperate, he is improbably hired as a cleaning lady in the offices of rich businessman and newspaper magnate
U.S. Bates (
Jackie Gleason). Running afoul of
Bates' quick temper,
Jack gets the axe, but is later spotted goofing around in a
Bates-owned toy store by
Bates' bratty son,
Eric (
Scott Schwartz), who's spending his annual week together with his estranged father. Taking his father's offer that he may have "anything in the store" quite literally, the spoiled kid asks for
Jack as his personal toy for the week. Initially unwilling to be treated as a possession,
Jack soon agrees after
Bates offers to pay him enough to climb out of debt. When
Eric's idea of fun includes dumping buckets of booby-trapped oatmeal on
Jack's head and riding down the stairs of his father's mansion with
Jack riding shotgun in a miniature car, it tests both
Jack's patience and his resolve. But
Jack discovers that
Bates is ignoring
Eric, which strengthens the bond between them and prompts them to seek revenge on the big jerk.
~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide