Movie review: ‘Hiding Out’

FloridaGator80
A promotional still photograph from the movie “Hiding Out.”

A staple over the years in Hollywood is the back-to-school tale. You can find adults pretending to be teens and going back to high school. Or, maybe like an older Rodney Dangerfield going to college in the aptly named “Back to School” (click here to read my review). Look for it and you’ll find it all. You can even do “21 Jump Street” with cops going back to high school. One in the genre that is done well stars the often-inadequate Jon Cryer, co-star of the retired “Two and Half Men” from TV. Although usually looking like a reject from a high school stage production, Cryer did a very solid turn in going back to high school in “Hiding Out.” The film is creative, has some decent acting and I have no doubt that you’ll like it if you choose to actually give it a chance.

‘Hiding Out’
(1987; 98 minutes; rated PG-13; directed by Bob Giraldi and starring Jon Cryer, Keith Coogan and Annabeth Gish)

IT’S NOT REALLY BACK TO SCHOOL

(NOTE: I expanded this review with some additional opinion and trivia and the updating of links on Oct. 1, 2015. I again expanded it on Sept. 3, 2018. I again expanded it on Dec. 13, 2020. I again expanded it on May 1, 2026.)

You can only say that Jon Cryer is uneven from film to film. Heck, he’s uneven in a single role in a single film. Still, while he had as many ups as downs on his most noted television role, I don’t criticize him for “Two and Half Men” because working such a number of episodes over more than a decade is bound to have uneven times for even solid actors.

Yet, film to film finds him flopping between extremes: Just take his astoundingly horrid work in 1985 in Robert Altman’s stinker “O.C. and Stiggs” (click here for my review), or, the so much better turn as the iconic “Duckie” in “Pretty in Pink” a year later. Both were roles very early in his career, but basically each provide a map to his future performances. You just have to time it right to get a decent one and not one of his awful crapfests.

A promotional still photograph from the movie “Hiding Out.”

Today I’m looking at “Hiding Out” and it’s a good one for him. It’s good news, since the majority of his work can only be defined as “deficient.”

Cryer joined TV’s pantheon of mega-stars with the seminal sitcom “Two and Half Men” – although that iconic sit-com staggered to an undignified death after Charlie Sheen’s leaving brought in the talentless Ashton Kutcher to flush it. In that show, Cryer always displayed individual flaws (such as any time he tries to “guffaw” on the show, he just looks like he’s a dinner theater waiter sent back to bus tables). He even fumbles a guffaw in “Hiding Out,” but it is one of his few stumbles in it.

A promotional still photograph from the movie “Hiding Out.”

Yet, he can be on and good. Not often, but he can … such as with “Hiding Out.”

Cryer turns in a solid performance in “Hiding Out” and it’s a back-to-school story from 1987 where his character, “Andrew Morenski,” who is a stockbroker and must live to testify against a mob boss doing dirty deals. After an abortive attempt by the bad guys on his life, he takes off and decides to hide out by going back to high school.

Cryer was 22 when “Hiding Out” was released … just a bit too young as his stockbroker character and just right for landing back in high school. The casting here is much better than other films with a nearly 30-something who’s cast as a high schooler, much less one pretending to be one. To combat Cryer’s youth, filmmakers stuck a beard on him for his “adult” time – and it, of course, shows off his youthfulness after a shave in a public bathroom.

From the daily work in the financial world and being the target of an assassin, Cryer finds himself back at a place where smoking is banned in the hallways (remember, they “banned” smoking back then for students) and who’s dating whom is the cause of stress.

After a change of appearance with only what’s available at a convenience store (a little Miss Clairol for his hair, a weird t-shirt and, of course, the razor and facility for a shave), Cryer makes his way to his aunt. She works at a school and her son, Cryer’s cousin, becomes his guide through the hallways and teenage personalities.

Cryer becomes flummoxed when asked his name at the school. He can’t use the real one and he spies a coffee can and becomes “Maxwell Hauser.” Soon he runs into the fascist teacher who loves former President Richard Nixon (“Tricky Dick” was betrayed by the country, she believes) and has a funny meeting with his nephew, played by Keith Coogan, who doesn’t recognize him in disguise.

After fooling his aunt, played by Gretchen Cryer (the actor’s real mother), Cryer settles in at school and becomes the flavor of the moment in the heat of a school election, a position he doesn’t choose and will come back to haunt him.

At the same time Cryer’s becoming an instant school legend, Coogan is having his own problems, most specifically in driver’s education where he is more completely hopeless than he is with girls. At one point one of the other students in the backseat says, “I can’t take any more of this.”

Now, for the only three actors who need mentioning, here we go …

  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “Hiding Out.”

    A two-time Primetime Emmy winner and five-time nominee, Cryer takes this one on his shoulders and does a solid job in carrying the film to the end. He’s not a great actor – actually, you’d probably say he’s “mediocre” – but acting is a tough business and he’s mostly watchable and only a minority of actors can be labeled as such. Cryer won his Emmys and nominations for “Two and Half Men” and, oddly enough, he won both best actor and best supporting actor for the same character. He has worked on TV since the disastrous ending of “Two and Half Men,” such as 13 episodes of “Extended Family,” but no more headlining roles in a film.

  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “Hiding Out.”

    Annabeth Gish plays “Ryan Campbell,” who becomes Cryer’s love interest (wow, don’t they send older people to jail for adult-high school student romances today?). She moves away from her existing relationship with the school’s BMOC and into the carefully disguised maturity of Cryer. Gish does one of the best, if not the best, performances in the film. She does her role with the understatement it needs to be as well as solid as it needs to be. A good job by the talented actor. Gish’s resume includes roles in “Shag: The Movie” with Phoebe Cates and Brigit Fonda; “Nixon” (ironic because her character in “Hiding Out” wrote a paper dissing Nixon); “Mystic Pizza;” and “Double Jeopardy.” She also has TV roles on series such as “The X-Files,” “The West Wing” and “Pretty Little Liars.”

  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “Hiding Out.”

    Coogan, who plays “Patrick Morenski,” knows how to “play” a teenager because he was 17 when “Hiding Out” was released. Wow! A real teenager playing a teenager – and this one is a nice entry on his acting resume. Coogan played another youngster in “Adventures in Babysitting” with Elisabeth Shue (click here to read my review). His other credits include “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” and “In the Army Now.” He’s also been on television, including “CHiPs” (click here for my look at the series), “Eight is Enough” and the true benchmark of a star: an episode of “The Love Boat” (click here for my look at that kitschy series).

A promotional still photograph from the movie “Hiding Out.”

Back on the plot, Coogan, while on a drivers-education run, plows into a van full of nuns. I know it sounds lame, but the director pulls the scene off. The only lame thing is that Cryer, as he hears the story about the nuns, does his trademark lame guffaw and, in that moment, appears as if he’s a supporting actor in a high school play.

The most amusing scene is when Cryer goes to pick up Gish for a date and has to deal with her father, played by Rick Warner. He hasn’t had to do this in some time, so when Dad asks him if he can get him anything, Cryer pops out with, “Scotch and soda.” But Cryer wins Dad over when he points up a mistake being made on the father’s income tax return (Cryer’s in finance, remember?) and saves the guy $1,000 (all fathers should be so lucky when some guy comes to date his daughter).

A promotional still photograph from the movie “Hiding Out.”

Like in all this type of movie, the wheels come off for Cryer before spinning out to a happy ending (no spoiler alert here).

While “Hiding Out” is OK, director Bob Giraldi has done mostly video “shorts” as a director. I’m conflicted since “Hiding Out” is OK. Maybe he should have done more, but I’m not sure he could again bring off an OK film. You won’t remember any of his other work.

“Hiding Out” staggered its way to 98th at theaters in 1987 with $7 million in ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. The No. 1 film of the year was “3 Men and a Baby” with $167.7 million. The most recent film from that year that I’ve reviewed is “Mannequin” (No. 27 with $42.7 million – click here for my review). Other films from that year that I’ve reviewed include:

Additional cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Cryer’s middle name is Niven; Coogan’s birth name is Keith Eric Mitchell; and Gish’s birth name is Anne Elizabeth Gish.
  • John Spencer plays the FBI agent trying to keep Cryer alive, but is better known for his roles on “A. Law,” “The Rock” with Sean Connery and “The West Wing.” Spencer, whose birth name was John M. Speshock III, died at 58 in of a heart attack in 2005 on Dec. 16, just four days before his 59th birthday.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “The skating rink used in the date scene was Sunset Skating Rink, located in Wilmington, NC. The original owners (The Carters) can be seen and heard during the announcement of ‘couple’s skate.’ The skating rink has since been renamed Scooters, but looks much the way it did during filming.”
  • “The View’s” Joy Behar has a small role in “Hiding Out.” Joy Behar? An idiot. So, who cares? I don’t and I’m not sure why I’m mentioning it.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “Filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina using the school name of Topsail High School. There is a real Topsail High School near Wilmington and most of the props for the school were taken from there.”

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