Parental Guidance

Initial Thoughts

            The whole idea of the movie appeals to the earlier generation, because they can relate to the overprotected kids. Although the parents may be a little too protective, that merely drives the point home even farther, and the older generation, who may or may not have treated kids that way, can’t miss it.

            And besides that aspect, we have the fantastic actor Billy Crystal, who played the voice of Mike in Monsters, Inc. He adds so much comedic possibility to the movie.

Comedy: 19 out of 25

            The jokes in Parental Guidance tend to centre around either the grandparents interactions with the kids, or the kids interactions with the world. This, of course, leaves room for many comedic possibilities.

            The writers attempted to add some comedic dialogue and such to the parents, but the actors don't do a very good job delivering, and the parents tend to overact. Even though overacting is part of the parents’ character, it almost destroys any good comedy that could come from them.

             Don’t expect too many laughs when the parents are in the scene. Their comedy is just sloppy and almost clichéd.

            In conclusion, the movie definitely gets lots of laughs from me, thanks to the hilarious Billy Crystal, who plays the grandfather, and to the grandmother, played by Bette Midler. The comedy has its flaws, but over all, it’s well written, and well delivered.

Story: 9 out of 15

            Now let me make one thing perfectly clear, the story is nothing new: grandparents (or significant others) have lost contact with their son/daughter (or significant other) and then the son/daughter needs a favour; they get close together again blah, blah, blah. The morals of the story, which I will address later, are fairly new; in a nut shell, they address parents and basically how they should not overly protect their children, and how letting your kids get away with too much is also a bad thing.

            Now that we have that out of the way, how does the story itself hold up?

Well outside of the fact that it is full of clichés, it is okay. Like I mentioned before, the story is a very generic drama/comedy.

            Although the story doesn't give us anything new to see, the story doesn't drag anything else down either. (In fact, because the story isn't very interesting, it lets the viewer focus on other aspects of the movie, such as the writing and characters). Because of its generic nature, many audience members will probably fail to notice the story’s lack of imagination. This is why the story score isn't very high.

Morals: 30 out of 30

            One of the main points in Parental Guidance is the moral that you shouldn't overprotect your kids; that it is wrong to excommunicate them from the outside world, and for the most part, I agree with this moral. You shouldn't shield your kids from everything evil; if you did that, then the child would have no idea how to take care of him/herself when s/he gets out on his/her own.

            On the other hand, should you let them do anything they want? Even though this may seem like a no-brainer to many of you, this is still a very sensitive topic in today's society. Personally, it’s all a matter of balance; you shouldn't shield them too much, and you shouldn't let them walk all over you either. This movie shows both of these opposites. 

            The parents represent the overprotective parent, and the grandparents represent the open-to-everything parent. In both scenarios, the viewer sees why it doesn't work out if you go too far either way. Because of this consistent battle between the parents and grandparents, Parental Guidance shows how difficult being a parent really is and that making those tough decisions to balance the child’s experience is very important in their growing up.  

Writing: 20 out of 30

            The writing was very well done, for the most part. There weren't too many main characters, and by the end of the movie, you feel like you personally know each one of them (meaning they were fleshed out and developed). Because of the genre, the writers added clichés into the characters, even into some of the secondary ones. Sometimes they went a little overboard, but overall they did a fine job.

Final Verdict

78/100 - Good

With the new and interesting morals given in the movie, the big named actors giving hilarious physical and social comedy, along with two rivalling couples and chaotic kids, you've got one heck of a drama!

Not number one, but it’s definitely worth the watch!