Dangerous Child (2001) Online

this film addresses an issue which we do not often hear about, when the child is the abuser. We do hear of elder abuse in the news, but only the most extreme cases. What is valuable about this movie is that it also encompasses the societal problems, what Delta Burke(the mother) may or may not have done to cause the problem, and the reasons why the behavior is occurring.

Vito Ruginis portrays the father, who is re-married and treats his son (well played by Ryan Merriman) as his friend/buddy. Many parenting issues are explored, such as when Burke covers up for her son when the police are at the door, after he has hit her, and she has fallen on the floor. There is also a disturbing scene where he abuses the family cat.

Delta Burke gives an excellent and touching performance as a divorced mother, struggling to raise two sons. She has no idea why Merriman has such uncontrollable rage, and initially thinks he is just in a phase that he will grow out of. There is also the fact that she has no support or help from the ex-husband and father (Ruginis) who has the attitude "boys will be boys".

The point of this film is to show that behavior occurs for a reason. When Burke attends therapy, she realizes that she has allowed her ex-husband to verbally abuse her, and the son may have picked up on this attitude. She also realizes that her ex-husband's behavior has negatively influenced her son.

While there are never easy answers, this film has at least three different perspectives: the mother,trying to do the right thing; the son, who is angry and does not know why; and his father, who is in complete denial. Highly recommended. 9/10.

This is an interesting movie starring Delta Burke, one of my favorites, and Ryan Merriman, who does an excellent job as a teenager who turns on his mother. Burke is divorced from a verbally abusive and belittling man, and she has custody of their two children. The older boy becomes less and less able to cope with his emotions and begins to act violently against his mother. He's jealous of a man she's seeing, he has anger issues over the divorce, and in his father, there's an excellent role model to blame his mother. She can't handle him so she covers for him by lying. This leads to a near fatality.

Merriman plays a boy who's obviously a good albeit extremely troubled kid, and Burke is excellent as a frustrated and helpless mother. It's an all too typical situation today, unfortunately. The film handles the issues well, especially by pointing out that the boy's behavior was not learned overnight, and it won't go away instantly either. Fairly absorbing, and I always love seeing Delta.

What would you do if your child was a danger to you? This is the question that Sally Cambridge (Delta Burke), a divorced mother, must face when her 16-year-old son Jack who is very violent. Sally lives in fear, should she turn Jack in before its to late, or dose he accidentally hurt his younger brother badly while fighting with his mom? Dangerous Child is a WONDERFUL movie and the acting was great, I think everyone should watch this move on Lifetime TV.

Someone had better give Ryan Merriman a frickin' Golden Globe or something for his performance as Jack Cambridge. WOW!!! What a diverse and very powerful performance. This kid is an excellent actor, and it is way, way past time someone realizes this! You can feel the anger his character feels. Especially anyone that has been a 16 year old boy (Merriman is 18 in real life). Icicle are evident with every angry stare, or sneer he give to his mother (Delta Burke). I don't know if enough can be said about Ryan Merriman. His acting is such a powerhouse, he upstaged Delta in my opinion. He electrifies the screen with his presence, and could send a small animal running with that stare( chills)!!!! Unfortunately, this movie does play very formulaic to a made for tv movie. Especially one on Lifetime. Delta Burke does give a very emotion and excellent performance of a battered mother. Protecting her son from the world, knowing that he would be taken from her if it came out that he was the abuser. Very believeable! There is defintely no room for Miss Susan Sugarbaker here. One thing I really liked about the movie is how much Ryan and Delta look like mother and son. It was perfect casting. Set in Illionis, filmed in Canada, this movie is standard made for TV, but the performance by Delta and more so by Ryan make this movie more than it really is.

Dangerous Child is a Made for TV-Movie that deals with the subject of domestic abuse. However, with the 100's of movies about child abuse, this well made drama focuses on what happens when the child is the abuser of the parent. The film is very well acted and directed. I was especially impressed with Ryan Merriman's acting.

Ryan's character Jack will keep you second guessing as to what he might do next, as his moods change from withdrawn to hostile, often in the blink of an eye. The coldness in his eyes and the anger that he feels towards his mother over small things that gradual build to where Mom because totally fearful of her son is both powerful and painful in viewing. This film leaves very little material sugar coated.

It even tries to establish the cause of why the son would become so violent? A strong subplot is that the Mother, excellently played by Delta Burke, still has conflicts with her ex-husband who has since remarried. In addition to this, Mom has a new boyfriend who seems to trigger most of her son, Jack's ranges. Therapy sessions, toward the end of the movie, seen from the perspective of both Mother and son, show that Mom herself was the pattern of domestic abuse from her ex-husband, and Jack's loneliness and resentment towards his Mother since their divorce, in addition to her boyfriend Frank may have triggered a lot of Jack's anger and outrage.

Jack seems to almost suffer from bi-polar disorder. In a disturbing scene where the family cat is injured. (Thankfully, the abuse of the cat is not shown on camera, but you can see Jack in a darkened room holding the cat, breaking into tears.) It seems that at this troubling moment in the film, Jack and his Mother, Sally, realize that the help he needs is so severe that he must be committed to a behavioral clinic for a minimum of six months.

The time goes by in flashbacks as the two come to grips with the pain they have caused each other. The reconciliation of the two of them back together playing the piano gives the film an upbeat ending, which seems to be the only downfall in this movie. It's a memorable ending, but it was almost certainly used as a needed prerequisite for this being a TV movie. The downfall in this movie is not the upbeat ending in itself, but for realism, it seems a bit too upbeat. A younger son is critically injured in the cross fire while Jack and Sally are having a fight and knocked unconscious. We do not really know what happens to him.

However, Ryan Merriman and Delta Burke are wonderful in this story. The fast-pace and quality presentation of very serious material keeps "Dangerous Child" from being just another "TV Movie of The Week." I highly recommend this film!

It's good to finally start seeing ole Delta again after all those years after "Delta" flopped. And with all the comedic roles she's had since she's seriously started acting again, I really enjoyed seeing her dramatic side. The movie itself isn't Oscar quality, but it's about average for "Made-For-TV." The thing that sets it apart is that focuses on an all too frequent problem these days: parental abuse. Now I am not a parent, myself. However I do watch my mother deal with my brother and it scared me at some points during this movie to see some of the same things happening and what they can turn into. The character of "Jack" is a far too accurate portrayal of teenagers today. Anytime he does something wrong, he is able to either talk his way out of it by changing the subject, or let's his temper get out of whack and throw things across the room. His mother doesn't know what to do about it, so she's passes it off as a phase and moves on, which even I know is a big no-no in parenting. But then, what is she supposed to do? She's the only one who really sees the extent of what he is actually capable, so nobody knows what to tell her, as far as what to do. She could defend herself, but, even if she could bring herself to do that, the law would look at it as child abuse since "Protect the Children" is the main thing these days. At any rate, this is a good movie to watch, moreso as research and warning than anything else.

Sally is the single mom of two kids, living in a quiet suburb. She has a great realty/decor job, a caring boyfriend... but her older son, Jack, gets something out of slapping her, kicking her and throwing her into the walls, behind closed doors.

Dangerous Child is similar to Lifetime's "Child of Rage", but Jack is almost an adult, and his poor ragdoll cat Gus and his little brother Leo don't stand a chance against his violent behavior. With help from an old family friend (also a cop), her ex-husband and his girlfriend, her boyfriend Frank and the receptionist at a woman's shelter, Sally has to stop Jack before it's too late.

Dangerous Child is a typical Lifetime movie, but the soundtrack isn't bad, the acting is decent and there are some truly disturbing and ad scenes in it such as Jack's regretful apology to his beloved pet cat that he beat up, that make it one of the more shocking Lifetime movies. I highly recommend it.

The thing that struck me about this TVM were the two leads . Delta Burke looks like Monica Lewinsky`s older sister while Ryan Merriman looks like David Duchovny`s kid brother . It`s uncanny it really is.

The problem I had with this issues based TVM is that it pulls its punches . Jack doesn`t actually come across as the twisted tortured youth that lyricists like Roger Waters or Matt Johnson write about , nor does he make a convincing mother beating thug . And being a TVM you just know it won`t be ending in a graphic and senseless murder

And there seems to be an element of people coming onto this IMDB site in order to give a DANGEROUS CHILD 10 out of 10 . Almost a quarter of people who voted for it gave it a ten . It`s by no means the worst TVM ever but it`s not LORD OF THE RINGS either . I gave it a four out of ten

I have this movie taped!! Little miss Sugarbaker did an excellent job, and Ryan was amazing. I didn't know he could act so well! It's about a 16 year old boy who turns violent towards his mother. I didn't think Ryan was capable of such a role, but I guess I was wrong!

I just have to agree with all of you - Ryan's play in the movie is just brilliant. All the rage and violence in one moment, and the regret and tears in the other, all very strong and pure. As a whole it is interesting to see how the story goes, but there isn't even the slightest shadow of impatience, because you just don't know what he'll do next. and the look, his eyes, filled with such hidden anger and even evil... just makes you shake...it's so real...

besides, you can almost feel the confusion that's happening in that boy's mind, just by the look on his face.

a great movie no less than 10 out of 10

i really enjoyed this movie it was great i really liked ryan merriman in this more serious roll i have to admitt when he knocked out his brother and ryan started to cry also this is a very powerful movie and i defintently suggest u watch it!! thanx 4 ur time!!

Psycho-babble nonsense! It's not YOUR fault that you beat up your Mom, beat a 9-year old kid into a coma, and threw the pet cat down the stairs? It's your DAD's fault? And your MOM is required to get counseling? Granted, divorce is hard on children; they will harbor bitterness and anger. But this teenage son is a violent criminal who should be tried as an adult, and sentenced to hard time in prison. To end the movie with a scolding, and group therapy sessions, is absurd.

Ryan Merriman gave me goosebumps every time he look menacing towards Delta Burke, you just didn't know when he was going to snap and hit her mother, he also had like a bi polar disorder cause after he would flip at her mother, he would just go to a corner and started to break in tears or in front her in some cases like the window punch scene. It is very good story, all the issues concerning parent abuse were addressed, and it shows you it isn't always the child to be the abused one. Ryan is such and amazing and talented actor and he got to prove it in this movie. I recommend this movie to everyone I know. Watch it people you wont regret it at all.

This movie, a Dangerous Child, staring Ryan Merrimen, has just become one of my favorite movies! Ryan looks so hot in it, the point of this movie is the fear of a son being violent....but he's anger was really sexy in a guy like him! Now I have a HUGE crush on him!! I loved this movie so much that i hope its on again.