Parental Guidance Reviews
Top CriticThis grating family comedy resembles a sitcom in its flat lighting, patronizing music cues, and frames supplying little visual information apart from the actors' mugging faces.
One of those intergenerational embarrassment comedies in the Meet the Fockers line, where children can enjoy seeing grown-ups looking ridiculous.
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| Original Score: 2/4
An extended "in my day" joke intended to convey the superiority of old people over a lot of supposedly contemporary behavior that doesn't actually exist in real life.
After a while it seems to run out of jokes, maybe to make room for all the crying and hug-it-out family redemption in the last half hour.
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| Original Score: C
I can't deny I did feel fonder of my own family afterward, mostly because I know none of them would ever make me sit through Parental Guidance.
It's hard to know who exactly "Parental Guidance" was made for.
Full Review
| Original Score: 0.5/4
It's a shame they didn't choose a stronger project than Andy Fickman's family comedy, but you could certainly ask for worse babysitters.
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| Original Score: 3/5
Thanks to Crystal and Midler playing comfortable versions of the personas we've come to know, it's actually better than you would guess.
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| Original Score: 3/5
Does it work? You betcha. There are smiles and tears, love and affirmations, a few funny jokes and a lot of easy sentimentality.
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| Original Score: 3/5
From a bounty of low, low moments in "Parental Guidance," it's difficult to choose the absolute lowest.
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| Original Score: 1.5/4
Director Andy Fickman opts against subtlety at every turn. A score filled with heavy strings and the occasional ringing of chimes telegraphs all emotional cues, practically willing the water out of your tear ducts.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Parental Guidance is an engaging comedy that bridges multiple generation gaps, making it that rare movie that grandparents, their kids, and their kids can enjoy.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Say what you will about The Guilt Trip, another pairing of a nebbishy comic and a diva of a certain age, that movie at least offers two recognizable human beings of different generations meeting in the middle and learning something from each other.
If you're looking for an all-ages crowd-pleaser, this may be your best bet.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
This kernel of inter-generational farce never pops.
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| Original Score: 2/4
Parental Guidance kicks off with a mean-spirited joke about an overweight woman and heads downhill from there.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/4
Parental Guidance should be rated X - suitable for no one.
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| Original Score: 1/4
The laughs just aren't there.
While its senior stars do a terrific job capturing aging in a youth-crazed culture, Guidance drops the ball, in all departments, in its portrayal of anyone younger than 55.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
The end result should appeal to audiences, including bonding grandparents and grandkids, looking for a little undemanding holiday cheer.
The latest in a long run of 2012 films to confront the indignities of ageing, this one is arguably, if not intentionally, the most harrowing.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/5
The execution, alas, prevents this from being a genuine crowdpleaser, with the better moments (mostly of the schmaltzy variety) more than offset by the irritating and tedious ones.
