Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Parental Guidance (2012)

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-26-2013, 08:42 PM:

This movie seems transplanted from the 1970s when there were a lot of these "family comedies" that weren't very good, but were a good diversion for families for a couple of hours.

I wasn't expecting this to be a great movie but I thought it would at least be a good-ish one. We haven't had a decent family comedy in quite a while, and the cast seemed bulletproof. Unfortunately, it doesn't even reach the good-ish plateau.

The writing is terrible, the acting is forced. The guy who plays Dad in the movie is basically invisible and given hardly anything to do. The kids (except for the girl) are beyond annoying. Marisa Tomei, in particular, has kind of a smarmy presence in the movie. She and the Dad character have zero chemistry -- which is fine, since they spend almost no time together during the show.

These movies quite often include some kind of a high-tech background gimmick, to make you think the film-makers are really in touch with the modern world. In this case it's a "smart house," invented by Dad, which has all the typical features (found only in the movies of course) which would be annoying in the extreme if employed in real life -- such as a voice that says "Door closed!" when you close the door. The whole smart-house thing had some comedy potential but none of it is realized; they could have made the whole movie without it and not lost anything except an irritating Siri-type voiceover.

The movie has all the typical family comedy cliche scenes, such as:

- The obligatory 'meet the interlopers' scene where the kids meet and immediately misbehave for the (in this case) grandparents who have come to take care of them

- The obligatory auditorium scene, where one of the kids disrupts the performance

- The obligatory mom-comes-home scene, where the kids have made a travesty of the house (followed immediately by the obligatory mom-and-kid tug of war where Mom wins and gets covered with a sloppy food mess)

- The obligatory tear-jerking scene where one of the kids expresses hate for Mom (followed later in the movie by the obligatory make-up scene where the kid admits she was wrong and really loves Mom)

- The obligatory come-to-Jesus scene where the parents realize they have been doing it wrong all along and you assume their NEW parenting methods will be much better for all concerned

One of the rare good things about this movie is, it really makes fun of the idiocy that often passes for "good parenting" these days. It drives that point home quite effectively in a couple of spots.

Another good thing is Bette Midler, who gives a typical (for her) performance. She is quite funny and her comic timing, considering the weakness of the source material, is spot-on.

Special mention is due Bailee Madison, the girl who plays the 9-year-old daughter in the movie. She was the only likable kid in the movie and appears to have some good acting chops. If she stays on track and doesn't go down the Lindsey Lohan career path, she could have a good future in the movies.

Overall, I would give this show a 2 out of 5. I would have given it a 1, but it's drawing good crowds so that is worth something.

Posted by Steven J Hart (Member # 2340) on 01-26-2013, 09:54 PM:

I've only watched bits of this film as it plays at our theater, but the photography appears really dim with soft focus on our DC screen. We are also playing a Blu-Ray copy of Its A Mad Mad Mad Mad World this weekend for a matinee in the same auditorium and it looks spectacular in comparison to Parental Guidance. (I previewed them at the same time and was switching the projector between the two)

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-27-2013, 08:43 PM:

Steve, I agree. The Fox logo looks spectacular but the movie itself looks like it has a bad straight-to-video lighting job.