The Kid (2000)

In Disney's The Kid, we see Bruce Willis' adult character as a boy, where an incident of his father's "tough love" (or maybe it's just verbal abuse) becomes the traumatic experience that determines his life's course as well as the (anti)philosophy that becomes his career trademark. (For good or for ill, you probably won't forget that one line in the entire movie.) Now all grown up, Bruce Willis is an "image consultant" -- a consummate professional who not only tells his business and political clients how to dress and speak and act but esp. how to pick themselves up when everything melts down. Just as they begin blubbering, he stops them dead in their tracks by screaming at them like a child -- "WAAH! WAAH! Somebody call the WAAHmbulance!" before browbeating them into cleaning up their own mess like an adult who holds their position of responsibility. Of course, this character's ever-smooth exterior is just a mask for his childhood pain -- setting him up for the magical premise of the movie as he faces his inner child, for real. The movie works for me without being too maudlin and the younger version of himself (Spencer Breslin) shows adequate chops in the role. 3 stars.