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"&lt;p&gt;With Danny Devito playing a widower father who also hosts a TV horrorthon in California during the Sixties, you expect sass to conquer sentiment. But &lt;em&gt;Jack the Bear&lt;/em&gt;, adapted from Dan McCall&amp;apos;s 1974 novel by Steven Zaillian (&lt;a href=\"../../../movies/reviews/awakenings-19901220\"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Awakenings&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;), is pure marshmallow. Director Marshall Herskovitz, cocreator of TV&amp;apos;s whiny &lt;em&gt;thirty-something&lt;/em&gt;, presses all the easy buttons.&lt;/p&gt;\r\n&lt;wm:embed type=\"related\"&gt;&lt;/wm:embed&gt;&lt;p&gt;DeVito&amp;apos;s John Leary is trying to raise Jack (Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.), 12, and Dylan (Miko Hughes), 3, after the death of his wife, played by the captivating actress-singer Andrea Marcovicci. Leary&amp;apos;s a cutup when he&amp;apos;s not drowning his sorrows in booze, leaving Jack to play grownup. It&amp;apos;s only after Dylan is kidnapped by a crazed neighbor (Gary Sinise) that Leary starts to take charge as a father.&lt;/p&gt;\r\n&lt;p&gt;DeVito has a few telling moments that suggest what might have been if the film hadn&amp;apos;t turned the Leary house into a trauma center. But Herskovitz applies a ham fist to a story that needs the subtle touch of Robert Mulligan&amp;apos;s &lt;em&gt;To Kill a Mockingbird.&lt;/em&gt; He&amp;apos;s packaged a small film of big emotions without digging nearly deep enough to make us believe them.&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/jack-the-bear-19930402>