History Film / BlankCheck

* AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted: Preston ends up spending most of his acquired fortune in less than a month.

** Quigley is genuinely shocked by how Preston was able to spend a million dollars in a week, despite having just chased the kid through his privately-owned castle and around the private amusement park/arcade he had installed throughout it. Though he probably assume there's still a few thousand at least, unaware he spends some of the money on other stuff besides the party.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Quigley and his goons kidnap the bully who has been harassing Preston for most of the film and give him a HighAltitudeInterrogation to try to find out where the money is. He tearfully tells them about Preston and his "assistant work" for "Mr. Macintosh".

* MsFanservice: If you can ignore her [[PaedoHunt questionable actions]] then Shay Stanley is a very beautiful, curvaceous lady with slick raven hair, smoldering eyes, full lips, long slender legs and [[ContraltoOfDanger a husky voice]] the film isn't hesitant to remind you of. Coupled with her warm, charming behavior, is it any wonder why Preston falls for her?

* MotorMouth: The party organizer talk three hundred miles per minute and does not lets Preston say a word edgewise about her decisions of what to add to the party (which [[AFoolAndHisMewMoneyAreSoonParted turn out to be quite expensive]]).

* MotorMouth: The party organizer talk three hundred miles per minute and does not lets Preston say a word edgewise about her decisions of what to add to the party (which [[AFoolAndHisMoneyAreSoonParted turn out to be quite expensive]]).

* MotorMouth: The party organizer.

** Preston brothers are able to use his bedroom as their business headquarters and steal his life savings to fund their business, they also get away with stealing Preston's money and hit him when he uses their computer to make a joke at their expense.

* BigDamnKiss: Near the end, Shay gives Preston a chaste yet tender smooch on the mouth. Obviously, not everyone will be charmed by this.

* {{Fanservice}}: Shay Stanley for the boys and [[ParentService their dads]] in the audience, if you can look past the fact she [[PaedoHunt technically dates and actually romantically kisses a child!]].

* ShoppingMontage: Preston does this after cashing the blank check to stuff his mansion with toys, while "Money (That's What I want)" plays in the background.

The story begins when bank robber Carl Quigley escapes from jail. Soon after his prison break, Quigley enters a warehouse and recovers $1,000,000 he had hidden there sometime before his arrest. After that introduction the plot switches to Preston Waters, a 12-year-old boy tormented by his brothers and ignored by his hyper capitalist dad. He goes to a bank to open an account, but gets laughed out, while at the same time Quigley is exchanging the bills through a corrupt bank employee using checks. After the meeting, Quigley runs over Preston's bicycle while he was riding it in the bank's parking lot.

* BigDamnKiss: Near the end Shay gives Preston a chaste yet tender smooch on the mouth. Obviously, not everyone will be charmed by this.
* ButtMonkey: Quigley escaped from prison, gave his stolen money to a trusted accomplice only for him to give it all to a 12-year-old boy who promptly spent it all. He tries to exact revenge (and get some of the money back), but just gets humiliated and sent to prison again with charges of laundering, forgeries and everything else that said 12-year-old boy did.
* ContrivedCoincidence: The whole plot happens because Quigley is asking Biederman (a corrupt banker) to launder one million dollars and Preston arrives to the bank with a check signed by Quigley for one million dollars. Biederman just assumes that Preston is Quigley's bag man and hands him the cash. Notably later on Quigley, in a rage, points out to Biederman that he wouldn't have sent a kid for that kind of job.

** Preston's parents. Dad's an ultracapitalist douchebag who only cares about his sons as long as they're trying to earn money and the mother is little better - she seldom initiates the abuse but she does give her support. His parents essentially let Preston's older brothers be complete assholes to him simply because they're starting up their own business and he isn't. Never mind the fact that Preston is only 12 years old. The most jaw-dropping moment, however, is probably when Preston's bike is run over by a car and his parents are [[SkewedPriorities more concerned]] with the fact that he "didn't take care of his property" than, you know, ''the fact that their son was almost hit by a car.'' They then proceed to ground him for saying that the way they treat him compared to his brothers is unfair, totally unaware that they just proved him right. His parents do get better though at the end to him, as do his brothers.

** Preston misused the blank check Quigley gave him, spent all of the money Quigley had stolen in a week, and possibly forged the signature for the castle deed. In the end, Quigley returns to jail on his own charges, but also gets any of Preston's possible crimes pinned to him. Preston gets to go home and return to his quiet suburban life.

* LikesOlderWomen: Preston's school boy infatuation with Shay.

* PapaWolf: Really downplayed and even unearned -- at the climax of the film, before the HomeAloneAntics kick in and after Preston figures out that he only has like $300 left of the million from all the expenses he's done so far, his dad walks into "Mr. Machintosh's" office and talks to the back of the seat where Mr. Machintosh (actually Preston) is sitting in and gives him a speech about how he dislikes that he's taking his son's time away from him with his "assistant" work and how everything he's done so far in the movie is giving Preston some necessary (although admittedly excessive in retrospective) ToughLove before walking out. Preston's response is a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment... but Preston while irresponsible is only 12 and his dad's been a jackass to him through out the entire movie.

* ObliviouslyEvil: Preston's parents, especially his father. They constantly mock their 12 year old child for not having any money, humiliate him in front of his classmates by giving him pennies to spend at a theme park, and allow his brothers to bully and harass him just because they "have a business." When Preston is nearly ran over by a car, the parents are more concerned with his ruined bike. Instead of recognizing how badly they are traumatizing their youngest son, all of this abuse is portrayed as regular, no-nonsense parenting.

* StupidCrooks: Quigley, Biederman and Juice are a bunch of bumbling scofflaws in the vein of ''Film/HomeAlone'' and the whole plot occurs because Biederman (the head of the bank Quigley is using to launder his money) mistakes Preston for Juice when Preston arrives to the bank with a check signed by Quigley [[ContrivedCoincidence that coincidentally is for the exact same amount of money Quigley wants Biederman to launder]]. When a very outraged Quigley asks Biederman why the heck did he gave a kid the money, Biederman says that he thought that Preston had been sent because [[ChildrenAreInnocent being a kid]] [[RefugeInAudacity the cops wouldn't notice him walking away with all that money]], an answer Quigley [[JerkassHasAPoint roars back at with]] (paraphased) "I wouldn't do that! What made you think I would?!"

* TheUnseen: In-Universe: No one has seen Mr. Macintosh in-person. There's a very good reason for that: he doesn't actually exist.
* VillainOpeningScene: The main antagonist Quigley escapes from prison and takes out a suitcase full of one million dollars he hind in an abandoned warehouse before he got arrested.

** Preston's parents. Dad's an ultracapitalist douchebag who only cares about his sons as long as they're trying to earn money and the mother is little better - she seldom initiates the abuse but she does give her support. His parents essentially let Preston's older brothers be complete assholes to him simply because they're starting up their own business and he isn't. Never mind the fact that Preston is only 12 years old. The most jaw-dropping moment, however, is probably when Preston's bike is run over by a car and his parents are [[SkewedPriorities more concerned]] with the fact that he "didn't take care of his property" than, you know, ''the fact that their son was almost hit by a car.'' They then proceed to ground him for saying that the way they treat him compared to his brothers is unfair, totally unaware that they just proved him right.

* MsFanservice: If you can ignore her [[PædoHunt questionable actions]] then Shay Stanley is a very beautiful, curvaceous lady with slick raven hair, smoldering eyes, full lips, long slender legs and [[ContraltoOfDanger a husky voice]] the film isn't hesitant to remind you of. Coupled with her warm, charming behavior, is it any wonder why Preston falls for her?

* UnknowinglyPossessingStolenGoods: Preston gets a [[McguffinTitle blank check]] from [[BigBad Quigley]] after accidentally ran over his bike. Preston uses the check to get a million dollars, unaware that the money was stolen by Quigley.

* ObliviouslyEvil:
** Preston's parents, especially his father. They constantly mock their 12 year old child for not having any money, humiliate him in front of his classmates by giving him pennies to spend at a theme park, and allow his brothers to bully and harass him just because they "have a business." When Preston is nearly ran over by a car, the parents are more concerned with his ruined bike. Instead of recognizing how badly they are traumatizing their youngest son, all of this abuse is portrayed as regular, no-nonsense parenting.
** The villain of the movie is this as well.

''Blank Check'' (released in Europe as ''Blank Cheque'') is a 1994 movie directed by Rupert Wainwright, starring Brian Bonsall, Karen Duffy, Creator/MiguelFerrer, Creator/ToneLoc, Creator/MichaelLerner and Creator/JamesRebhorn and released by Walt Disney Pictures.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Despite treating him poorly, Preston's father's assessment of his son turns out to be correct. Preston gets a million dollars and fritters it away on junk food, a castle, and amusement rides for his backyard, showing no sense of responsibility or altruism with his fortune. That being said, his father certainly didn't help him ''learn'' responsibility. A kid who's only given a pittance to spend at a carnival is going to have trouble realizing just how fast you can blow large amounts of money. Quite simply, Preston acted like he'd won the lottery, having no knowledge how handle wealth--something he'd never had before.

* DoubleStandard: Shay kisses Preston on the lips even though he's a prepubescent boy, while surrounded by police officers no less. If the genders were switched, the movie would likely never have been released and there'd be some real-life arrests.

** Quigley is genuinely shocked by how Preston was able to spend a million dollars in a week, despite having just chased the kid through his privately-owned castle and around the private amusement park/arcade he had installed throughout it.

** Preston brothers are able to use his bedroom as their business headquarters and steal his life savings to fund their business, they also get away with stealing Preston’s money and hit him when he uses their computer to make a joke at their expense.

* PapaWolf: Really downplayed and even unearned -- at the climax of the film, before the HomeAloneAntics kick in and after Preston figures out that he only has like $300 left of the million from all the expenses he's done so far, his dad walks into "Mr. Machintosh's" office and talks to the back of the seat where Mr. Machintosh (actually Preston) is sitting in and gives him a speech about how he dislikes that he's taking his son's time away from him with his "assistant" work and how everything he's done so far in the movie is giving Preston some necessary (although admittedly excessive in retrospective) ToughLove before walking out. Preston's response is a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment... but Preston while irresponsible is only 12 and his dad's been a jackass to him through out the entire movie. ** Also while his father had no way of knowing this Preston was in danger and instead of protecting his son from the villain who wants to kill him, he goes after Preston’s boss who is Preston himself.
* ObliviouslyEvil:

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Apart from the fact that his family is abusive towards him, everything Preston does in the movie: spending a million dollars in a week isn’t seen as a bad thing, not to mention how no one in-universe has a problem with his relationship with Shay.

* PapaWolf: Really downplayed and even unearned -- at the climax of the film, before the HomeAloneAntics kick in and after Preston figures out that he only has like $300 left of the million from all the expenses he's done so far, his dad walks into "Mr. Machintosh's" office and talks to the back of the seat where Mr. Machintosh (actually Preston) is sitting in and gives him a speech about how he dislikes that he's taking his son's time away from him with his "assistant" work and how everything he's done so far in the movie is giving Preston some necessary (although admittedly maybe excessive in retrospective) ToughLove before walking out. Preston's response is a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment... but once more, Preston's been irresponsible and his dad's been a jackass. Neither side comes off well here.
* ObliviouslyEvil: Preston's parents, especially his father. They constantly mock their 12 year old child for not having any money, humiliate him in front of his classmates by giving him pennies to spend at a theme park, and allow his brothers to bully and harass him just because they "have a business." When Preston is nearly ran over by a car, the parents are more concerned with his ruined bike. Instead of recognizing how badly they are traumatizing their youngest son, all of this abuse is portrayed as regular, no-nonsense parenting.

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Apart from the fact that his family is abusive towards him, everything Preston does is treated as right, not to mention how no one in-universe has a problem with his relationship with Shay.

** Preston's parents. Dad's an ultracapitalist douchebag who only cares about his sons as long as they're trying to earn money and the mother is little better - she seldom initiates the abuse but she does give her support. His parents essentially let Preston's older brothers be complete assholes to him simply because they're starting up their own business and he isn't. Never mind the fact that Preston is only 12 years old, the only one of the three who can even use a computer, and that his asshole brothers are using Preston’s bedroom and his life savings to start their business. The most jaw-dropping moment, however, is probably when Preston's bike is run over by a car and his parents are [[SkewedPriorities more concerned]] with the fact that he "didn't take care of his property" than, you know, ''the fact that their son was almost hit by a car.'' They then proceed to ground him for saying that the way they treat him compared to his brothers is unfair, totally unaware that they just proved him right.