Welcome to part two of a multi-hundred part series where I boil absolutely every last title on Disney’s hit streaming service down to the essential experience, saving you that tasty, tasty subscription fee.
Today the 1994 comedy directed by Rupert Wainwright… Blank Check.
The movie about a kid suddenly gifted a million dollars and launches a shopping spree provided endless fascination for me when I was younger. One million dollars seemed an unspendable amount of money at an age where I received a $10 per week allowance. At a time where it took me months to save up for the things I wanted (primarily video games), there was Blank Check letting me live vicariously through Preston.
Rewatching it on Disney+, as I near thirty, allows for some self-examination to what I’d do if one million dollars poofed into my existence. I’d pay off debts, invest for my future, buy a house… a car. It’s life changing money, but not enough to be interesting or make a movie about.
Preston, being a kid, blows through his money in six days (really it should’ve been one based on the castle he purchases). He buys a go-kart track for his back yard and a waterslide from the master bedroom of his house to the pool. Things that don’t exist because no one is going to blow their money on non-practical crap.
Thus is the beauty of Blank Check. You get to enjoy a kid buying an insane amount of ice cream and beating up his driver in an inflatable sumo suit. You get immerse yourself in the sheer non-practicality of spending someone else’s money and avoid the consequences by using all the crap you bought as booby-traps to beat the bad guys.
Don’t get me wrong, this movie is terrrrrrrrrrrrible.
Preston’s love interest is an adult woman, the parents are laughably bad at keeping tabs on their child, and adult themes are present in a movie about a kid going on a shopping spree. I understandably missed the plot point where the primary villain was an escaped convict trying to launder his money on my first watch those years ago.
This is nothing that hasn’t been said before. The shortcomings of this movie are well documented.
As of now Blank Check has its place in my head. A fascinating piece of indulgence for me as a kid, and something that should never, ever, be watched again.
Gamer's Daytimer 