User reviews

Parental Guidance is a pretty decent family comedy about bridging the generation gap, and the process of re-building relationships that have been neglected for a very long time.

It is obvious to me that neither Billy Crystal or Bette Midler get too many good movie roles nowadays, and I think you can clearly see their joy at being back in the limelight in starring roles. They deliver strong performances and have great timing, and it is a pity that the source material is so weak to begin with. The basic plot is okay with me, but some of the comedy is far-fetched and grandchild Barker's bizarre behavior is used as an excuse for comedy too many times.

I liked a couple of scenes, which deal with the pressure of constantly keeping up with the technological advances of this day and age, with Artie losing his job because he doesn't tweet or know what an app is. This is a very relevant issue and unfortunately it is lightly dealt with.

All in all, the plot is thoroughly predictable and the points the movie wishes to make are obvious to all without any hint of subtlety, but the strong acting performances saves it from being a train wreck.

Alice Simmons (Marisa Tomei) is somewhat estranged from her parents (Billy Crystal, Bette Midler). When her husband Phil (Tom Everett Scott)'s work takes them away, she's forced to ask her parents to look after her kids (Bailee Madison, Joshua Rush, Kyle Harrison Breitkopf).

I like Billy Crystal and Bette Midler. I like their chemistry. I like their 'old fashion' ways. But some really stupid scenes destroy any chance this movie had. Grumpy Billy Crystal has some funny moments. Bette Midler is likable as the peacemaker. But by the middle of the movie, they just piled on one too many ridiculous premise to accept, and the movie falls apart.

The plot of the movie was nice, the characters were funny. The movie was rated "PG" so, the jokes were not that funny (because the movie was destined for kids, too). Anyway, I think comedy movies they usually depend on who funny jokes they have or not. In that case, that movie didn't succeeded that. The ending was kinda emotional. By the way, I think the worst part of the movie was the opening scene, because it was so irrelevant and boring (which would probably make many viewers to quit the movie from the beginning).

'Parental Guidance' has at least 3 really funny jokes within the first 10 minutes. A story of a couple in late middle age who re-engage with their aspirational children (and grandchildren), the promise is of a highly perceptive movie; but subsequently, the film dumbs down, into a fairly bland tale with a predictable message that real happiness is to be found by striking a middle course between alternative approaches, all you need is love, and that a clichéd picture of American family life is pretty much unbeatable. The result is not unwatchable, and Billy Crystal is actually quite good, but there's an absence of tension, both economic (this is a world where no-one is short of anything material) and emotional. Once the well-written opening is completed, expect little further insight into the life of any real world family.

Parental Guidance

The most difficult part of being a parent today is getting the Internet to raise your children up to be polite, considerate adults.

Thankfully, there are grandparents around to rear them, as this comedy corroborates.

When overprotective, helicopter parents Alice (Marisa Tomei) and Phil (Tom Everett Scott) desire time alone, they are forced to call Alice's estranged parents, Artie (Billy Crystal) and Diane (Bette Midler), to baby-sit their three kids (Kyle Harrison Breitkopf, Joshua Rush, Bailee Madison).

But battle lines are quickly drawn, when Alice disapproves of the old-school disciplinary methods that her parents employ.

Conversely, Artie feels his daughter's micromanaging is detrimental to her brood's enjoyment of childhood.

Perfectly capturing the hypersensitive disposition of modern parents, this lighthearted look at the parental gap fails when it comes to laughs and chemistry.

Incidentally, this generational disconnect is why no one includes grandparents on their vehicle's stick figure family portrait.

Red Light

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¨You gotta shape up Artie! You know what grandparenting is? A second chance! ¨

To be honest I knew I wasn't going to like this movie before going to see it and didn't expect much from it. I decided to go so I could spend some time with my family, and I knew it was a film my parents and younger brother would enjoy (and they did). This is a very family friendly film with several cheesy moments. This is also entirely predictable and the plot is one you could see over and over again in any sitcom on TV if you wanted to. The film was directed by Andy Fickman (Game Plan and Race to Witch Mountain) and if you've seen any of his previous movies then you kind of know what to expect. You either enjoy these types of movies or you don't since the style and jokes are pretty similar. The film had some sweet and intentionally emotional moments, but it really failed to connect with me. Billy Crystal hasn't made a lot of movies in the past decade and I know he is really funny, but this just wasn't the right film for him. There is not much I can say really about the rest of the cast since they didn't have much to work with considering they all played clichéd characters. Parental Guidance is a film that some might enjoy, but the truth of the matter is that you will forget all about it a few hours after you leave the cinema. It won't stick with you and you won't get anything out of it either, which is pretty sad considering the film tries to be a sort of social commentary as how differently we raise our kids in today's society.

Artie (Billy Crystal) has been working as a baseball commentator for a minor league baseball team for several decades and is happily married to Diane (Bette Midler). His life dream has always been to be the announcer of the San Francisco Giants, but when he's fired from the little leagues for being old school he is brought down to reality. They receive a call from their daughter Alice (Marisa Tomei) who wants them to babysit her three kids while she and her husband Phil (Tom Everett Scott) go on a work vacation trip. Artie and Diane don't really see their grandkids much so they accept the challenge. The kids aren't really thrilled about having their grandparents over since they have been raised in a very different way, and the truth of the matter is that Alice is really worried about leaving them with her parents (apparently she feels that they didn't do a good job raising her) as well. Harper (Bailee Madison) is the oldest, a violin perfectionist, then there is Turner (Joshua Rush) who is taking voice lessons, and finally there is Barker (Kyle Harrison), the youngest who has an imaginary kangaroo friend named Karl. Artie and Diane's methods of parenting don't seem to connect with the way the kids have been raised by their type-A parents and things are about to get really interesting.

This family friendly film is really light hearted and doesn't seem to take sides here as to which is the correct form to raise kids, because as Billy Crystal's character says ¨being a parent doesn't come with instructions.¨ The film makes fun of both extremes of parenting. There are some emotional moments, especially near the end of the film where Alice and Artie have a conversation about the way he raised her and why she has become so estranged towards them. No answer is really provided. The grandparents made several mistakes but in the end they did help out the kids a lot, but it seems that there was some sort of issue between Artie and Alice that never really got resolved. There are several funny moments involving the kids, but I really didn't find it very amusing. I think Bailee Madison is one of the cutest child actresses and the rest of the kids were also all very cute. This is a light film that some kids and adults will enjoy, but like I said before it's nothing groundbreaking at all and you will forget all about it as soon as it's over.

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After all the success Billy Crystal has had, he's not exactly in dire need to make movies like he used too, but he has dropped out of the limelight a bit to say the least aside from some parts here and there. How did his venture back into movies go? Not bad, not bad at all. This manages to squeeze all it can out of its two charismatic leads in Crystal & Bette Midler. The kids themselves do what kids do; they tend to be spoiled brats on a lot of occasions. I had trouble relating to any of them except for Barker (Kyle Harrison Breitkopf) It does manage to have a fair amount of laughs, and watching Crystal & Midler chase after kids was actually rather fun. Favorite moment of the movie has to be the cake scene involving the kids. I howled at that one. Billy Crystal is funny as per usual. His chemistry with Midler is on, and he had some great lines. Nice to see you back Billy. Bette Midler is classy and very entertaining to watch, I dug her just as much as Crystal. Marisa Tomei has aged with grace, and she did well in her role, despite being slightly unsympathetic at points.

Final Thoughts: It was decent for a family film, and it is innocuous enough for the whole family to watch. Worth a look

5.5/10

I actually enjoyed the movie despite its low rating.it's really light hearted comedy.you really feel that whoever contributed to the movie had a strong bond with it.the story though,a little clichéd is actually entertaining.the moments between the family and those little memories are very touching and realistic.it leaves you with this weird yet wonderful "happy to be with family" feeling.i was extremely impressed with the script.it really helped the movie a lot.the jokes were also hilarious and like all other family comedies there was a character for everyone in the family to relate to.it was a good enough family movie and for the audience it was made for(families) it does really well but families are usually not judge mental of movies they watch together it's more for the fun of being together that's why plenty of users have given it a fairly decent rating.

i enjoyed it too but only as a family movie.after re watching on my own I realize there is stuff that bothers me.firstly I have to say the acting was terrible.i'm usually a fan of Marisa Tomei but I must say I hated her in this role.she tried to hard to be a stressed out parent and it was really over acted same goes for Bailee Madison.but I thought she pulled it together towards the end.the script as I mentioned earlier is very well written and very touching and with a little better casting this could have been much better but that does not mean it's a bad movie it just had more potential so as my final verdict i'd say its a really good family movie.great script,touching story,appropriate for kids and has very relate able characters(for everyone).for the type of audience it's for it thought it was wonderful.the acting which bothered me most is not a big enough reason to stop you from watching this....so have fun with your family or friends it ought to cheer you up :D

The aim of a family film needs to be the analysis of the relations. The ambitions, the next generation, the generation gap, the parental aspirations, the learning on the job for parenthood, the triumphs and of course the laughs.

The film successfully fails on all these parameters. The topics are touched but never analyzed. The important issues aren't delved into but just mentioned and the textbook cliché is copied and pasted. It clearly looks like a film made using a template where somethings were changed but the original formula is the same.

One reason i picked up the film was because I'm a huge fan of Billy Crystal. A script which cant make the best of Billy Crystal, is a failure.

This film isn't simply worth the time spent. There is nothing new in it.

"Parental Guidance"'s plot serves solely as means of giving Billy Crystal a platform for riffing about modern parenting. His daughter and son-in- law may be caricatures but not wild exaggerations of today's "trophy-for- participating", overly indulgent helicopter parents. The couple, including the always compelling Marisa Tomei, take orders from the kids and the technology upon which they are dependent and the plot plays out as you expect with Crystal and Midler's neglectful grandparents learning to connect and the parents learning to disconnect to some degree. The performances and narrative fade into the background against the onslaught of Crystal essentially doing an observational stand-up routine conspiratorially working with Midler in precisely the way long-married grandparents do. Admittedly, a smaltzy and fairly stupid ending, nondescript child characters and predictability keep this from being a good film but, despite the critical reaction, it is a perfectly watchable one. In short, catch it for free on cable.

Parental Guidance can be seen as a sit down family movie on a beautiful Saturday morning or a struggling sitcom trying to get off a Friday timeslot, don't go rushing to the cinema expecting a masterpiece just be patient for the DVD release. The movie is predictable, sloppy and at times out right outrageous to be taken seriously. Parental Guidance suffers also from lack of creativity, as some scenes and elements can be said to be taken from other family oriented movies like Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), which from my opinion is just lame.

The movie is directed by Race to Witch Mountain (2009) director Andy Fickman, and it stars Billy Crystal and Bette Midler. (who were the only reason I got up to go see the movie, and due to the box office performance of the movie I guess some people also fell for it, thinking their presence was a recipe for a good movie) Both Crystal and Midler play married grandparents who are called upon to babysit their grandkids for some days. Ironically, you will expect Marisa Tomei who plays Crystal and Midler's daughter to shine along with the two classic actors, but she fell short.

The movie plot is as I said is about two grandparents called upon by their daughter Alice (Marisa Tomei), to come babysit her kids as she and her husband plan a getaway together. Artie and Diane (Crystal and Midler) show up to find out their grandkids are raised in the most awkward way, as their parents practically allow them to do what they want, never saying no to them or correcting them.

Diane (Midler) wants to connect with her grandkids as she and Artie seem to be left out of their grandkids life, so she begs Artie to be at his best, but Artie who was still chasing a dream selfishly ignores Diane's warning and almost wrecked what was left of the family bond.

As far as acting go, Crystal and Midler were head and shoulders above everybody else, they were a fun couple and wonderful to see on screen, they did their portrayal pretty well enough, but their others counterparts in the movie were just below standard.

Parental Guidance had a bad rating from critics, holding a 19% rating on Rotten Tomatoes although 66% of audience enjoyed it, I enjoyed seeing Billy Crystal and Bette Midler but that is not a good enough reason for me to suggest to anyone to go watch this movie, but as I said wait for the DVD release and have fun watching it together with your family, because for me this movie should have been a TV movie or a B movie.

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