MOVIE REVIEWS - Parental Guidance

Well the Christmas comedies keep on coming out, and this time it's Parental Guidance with Billy Crystal, and Bette Midler.

PG is an old school versus new school comedy where the older generation meets Gen X.  With all of the other comedies this holiday tanking with both critics, and movie goers, Hollywood needs a comedic hit.   Well this may not be a huge box office smash, or the funniest movie in years, PG has its moments.   But don't believe the one quote I heard, that this is one of the best movies of the year. Immensely overstated.

Crystal stars as Artie.  He is married to Diane (Midler).   He is a sportscaster for a minor league baseball team in Fresno.   He gets fired from his long time job, and has to deal with that heartbreak at 59 years old.   Diane is a retired TV weather girl, and they both are looking for the next big challenge in their lives.   Well, bring in the 3 grand kids they have in Atlanta that are the children of their only daughter, Alice (Marissa Tomei).   Artie and Diane travel across country to baby sit for a week for their daughter and you can see quickly this is not going to go well.

The children Harper, Turner, and Barker are being raised by Gen-Xers that are really out there.  Of course this is all very much parody of the modern parent with just as much being completely over the top.  But as in all good comedy, a certain amount of this is based on truth, and that makes it funny.  Artie and Diane can not understand any of the weirdness.  From the way the kids are talked to, fed, and the games they play and lives they lead.  Artie is old school, and this world that his grand kids live in is new school.   And the battle is on.  Can they develop a good relationship with the three kids, and start over again? 

This is an interesting movie.  Some of this is extremely well done.  There are real heartfelt moments, and a bit of this will bring a small tear to the eyes.   Some of this is really targeted at the heart, and speaks equally well to both generations.  That's why it's really hard to believe that some of this is so bad, and sophomoric.   And that's a shame.  There's a bunch of sellout moments in this picture that could have been reworked to make this really solid. 

Crystal is who he is.   Over the years, he kind of does one kind of  East Coast shtick in most of his movies. Midler is fun to watch, and is pretty funny at times. I really liked the character they wrote for her, and she ran well with it.  They are clearly the stars of this movie and at times show nice chemistry, when the writing allows it.

But there's just too much temptation to show grown men getting hit in the groin, singing toilet songs, and of course people peeing.  Oh, and don't forget the numerous scenes where these kids are shown in a really horrible light. But the movie does bring the blame back from them, to the overprotective parents.  But the ratio of really good, funny, and nice moments is about square with the tasteless ones.  That equates to a slightly tolerable movie

Parental Guidance.   50/50.