It’s a pretty typical lighthearted family comedy from the late 90s—perhaps that's why it has faded into obscurity. This is one of those familiar family movies from the 90s that found its way onto television, only to vanish once it was off the air. I don’t think many people will recall this film. I watched it when it initially came out, promptly forgot about it, and rediscovered it recently by chance while looking for something to watch. The script is as predictable and full of clichés as you might expect, but there are some elements that prevent it from being entirely unpleasant. It attempts to create a family story, a gentle comedy about someone struggling to fit in, centering on a boy raised in the Venezuelan jungle who travels to New York to meet his recently discovered biological father. There are secondary storylines woven throughout, needed to add substance because the central plot is too flimsy on its own. These include things like trading coffee futures with mobsters and an unpleasant character who happens to be the boy’s father’s intended bride. We also see scenes illustrating the boy's difficulty adjusting to city life and modern society. The film isn't good, and it shouldn't have left a lasting positive impression on anyone involved in its creation. However, Tim Allen delivers some truly awful comedic moments as the main actor and central figure of the story. He overacts, he’s cartoonish, and he tries to be funny—sometimes succeeding, but often not. Martin Short isn't much better; he’s simply less intelligent, but these kinds of movies seem to require the lead character to have a foolish sidekick who can do even more ridiculous things than they would on their own. Sam Huntington felt like a miscast choice. Even if his parents were Caucasian, he would likely be significantly darker from growing up in an equatorial climate, and the young actor is very pale. His romantic subplot with Leelee Sobiesky, while containing all the usual hallmarks of a teenager’s first crush, doesn't entirely ring true. From a technical standpoint, the film is completely unremarkable—exactly what you would expect from a lighthearted family comedy released in the late 1990s. The cinematography, the sets, the costumes (even those used for the jungle scenes, where indigenous women were asked to cover up their traditional nudity), everything is perfectly ordinary and offers no surprises.

Source on TMDB