Out West with the Peppers

The first two films of the series, "The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew" as well as "Five Little Peppers at Home" were very enjoyable and well made B-movies. "Out West with the Peppers", the third of four films, is unfortunately a huge disappointment...and misses what made the first two films so charming.

The episode begins with the Pepper family returning home early from a trip to Europe. It's because the world's most cursed family has yet another problem...Mother is ill and needs to go out west to recuperate. What exactly she has is vague...and she certainly didn't act as if she had TB...which was the common reason for people to head west back in the day. So they head out to a boarding house run by Mother's sister...and it turns out to be a pretty craptastic place. Why? Because the uncle is a nasty drunk who hates kids! But you cannot completely blame him, as the Pepper kids are amazingly bad in this film!!

The first two films in the series were delightful and charming...mostly because you liked the Pepper kids so much. Inexplicably, however, in "Out West with the Peppers" the kids are much more like little Dennis the Menaces...always causing trouble. For instance, they shred some feather pillows during a pillow fight and the mess is amazing. Later, they go to the store and practically destroy the place (such as pouring gallons of molasses on the floor). So, while the uncle was a jerk...the kids were also little jerks. This jerkiness really made the film anything but charming. What's worse, the delightful Mr. King and Martin the Butler were barely in the film...if at all.

Overall, watchable but a film that is a huge disappointment over the previous films. Hopefully, the final movie was a lot better.