“It owes the canon nothing.”
The movie pursues immediacy and audience pleasure without begging institutions to certify its worth.

Dennis the Menace
Family · Comedy · 1993
Mr. Wilson's ever-present annoyance comes in the form of one mischievous kid named Dennis. But he'll need Dennis's tricks to uncover a collection of gold coins that go missing when a shady drifter named Switchblade Sam comes to town.
Dennis the Menace
“He's armed... He's adorable... And he's out of school for the entire summer.”
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
5.7 / 10
69K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
28 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
49 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
5.9 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
Mr. Wilson's ever-present annoyance comes in the form of one mischievous kid named Dennis. But he'll need Dennis's tricks to uncover a collection of gold coins that go missing when a shady drifter named Switchblade Sam comes to town.
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Dennis the Menace?
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their caseThe Big-Idea Head
“You watch with your brain, not your gut.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Watch in your region.
Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.
Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Nick Castle
Written by
John Hughes
Put Dennis the Menace on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
“Easy pleasure, short half-life.”
It moves efficiently through the moment but offers little reason to keep arguing once the credits end.






