synopsis : a small town thug convinces a dimwitted high-school student to spy on his girlfriend , who is babysitting three unruly kids for their alcoholic parents on a friday night . 
while this is going on , the thug , the father , the boyfriend , and a kid reaching the onset of puberty all have fantasies about the babysitter . 
comments : to say this movie is bad would be quite an understatement . 
i'm not sure what writer and director ferland was hoping to accomplish with the babysitter . 
suspense ? 
family drama ? 
humor ? 
erotica ? 
elements of each of these genres exist in the film , yet it fails to successfully achieve any of them . 
instead , the babysitter is a dull , lifeless movie which manages to bore and ultimately irritate its viewers . 
i suppose this film could have been watchable if it weren't for the fact that the characters are universally unappealing . 
alicia silverstone is completely wasted playing jennifer , the babysitter . 
her character has absolutely no depth at all , and her sole purpose in the movie is to be the object of the other characters' fantasies . 
everyone else in the film seems to be in a competition to see who can stoop to the lowest level by the time the film ends . 
the parents are alcoholics who become increasingly obnoxious as the movie proceeds . 
the father ( played by j . t . 
walsh ) fantasizes about the babysitter ; the mother fantasizes about her husband's best friend . 
none of these fantasy sequences , trust me , are things that need to be seen , but we see them anyway , complete with cheesy , make-out saxophone music . 
the thug , in the meantime , proves that he's evil through his annoying habit of smashing half-empty beer bottles all of a sudden and for no apparent reason . 
the most absurd character , however , is the babysitter's boyfriend who seems catatonically brain-dead . 
the thug , in a manipulative , iago-like manner ( though he doesn't really need to try hard ) , manages to talk the boyfriend into binge-drinking , smoking grass , running away from cops , and playing peeping tom on his own girlfriend in a matter of minutes . 
incredible ! 
 ( of course , the boyfriend's original plan for the evening was , try not to laugh , to sit in an empty diner and read catcher in the rye by j . d . salinger . ) 
if the goal of the babysitter was to be suspenseful , then it fails . 
there are surprisingly few tense moments in this film , and nearly all of them come at the final minute . 
by that time , however , the audience is so tired of the inane characters that no one truthfully cares what happens to any of them . 
no suspense occurs in the dream sequences either because every single one of them is obviously a dream sequence from its inception . 
if the goal of the babysitter was to be humorous , then it also fails . 
i found nothing even remotely funny about the boozing parents who seemed , at times , to be played for laughs . 
if the goal of the babysitter was to be dramatic , then , once again , it fails . 
the characters are one-dimensional and uninteresting . 
finally , if the goal of the babysitter was to be titillating ( the type of film destined to be played ad infinitum on hbo at 2 in the morning ) , then it fails as well . 
the dream sequences aren't erotic ; they are too brief and , outside of one very short scene , contain no nudity . 
i can't completely trash this movie . 
the first 10 minutes or so vaguely resemble an interesting film , and the conclusion sports a halfway decent fistfight . 
the other 79 minutes , though , are a drag . 
silverstone's character , at the end of the movie , turns to her boyfriend and asks " what were you thinking ? " 
i asked myself the same question , having spent 99 cents renting this turkey .