Quiz Call: Mr Nanny

Our next film to be an answer on Quiz Call is Mr Nanny, which, somewhat remarkably, a caller successfully responded to the question “Films beginning with ‘M’“.

Sean Armstrong (Hulk Hogan, whose real name is Terry, apparently) is an ex-pro wrestler who’s recruited by the CEO of a tech firm (Austin Pendleton) as security for his two children, Alex and Kate (Robert Gorden, Madeline Zima). But when the unruly children keep scaring off their nannies, Armstrong goes from bodyguard to childminder in this kindergarten copy.

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Like Kindergarten Cop, the lame-titled Mr Nanny seeks to re-market its tough-guy lead to a family audience. But where Arnold Schwarzenegger went on to have reasonable success with such daft comedies as Jingle All the Way, Junior and…er…Batman and Robin, Hogan went on to star in Jordan Belfort produced Santa With Muscles and a sequel to another Quiz Call answer, 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain.mr nanny

In spite of this, he’s not as bad an actor as you might expect, nor are the two children, with the scenes he shares with daughter Kate some of the best in the film, not least because of their hilariously mismatched statures. It largely goes through the motions with a scheme of his longtime adversary Thanatos (David Johansen), a campy psycho with a metal skull, plotting to steal a computer chip which powers a missile which looks like something from Flash Gordon.

The comedy is mostly cartoony slapstick in the form of GBH-causing pranks by the children, as Armstrong is hit in the head with a bowling ball, crushed by dumbells and electrocuted in the shower. This does not result in the required hilarity, and combined with the daft plot and an outdated black housekeeper character (Mother Love) this is proof that Hogan doesn’t always know best.

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