A smooth Bette Midler and a even more smoother Billy Crystal try to take your attention of their faces for a few moments in Parental Guidance. They play Grandparents who have to look after their grandchildren when the parents go off for a few days business holiday.
Crystal is a broadcaster who has been fired for being old hat and comes up with corny one liners.
Marisa Tomei is the helicopter mother who hovers over her kids almost to the point of suffocation and at turns spoiling them. She is rather apprehensive about leaving her children with her parents. For a lot of the film she refuses to join her husband who has gone on the trip before her.
The kids of varying ages are spoilt brats who simply have not had much fun in their lives and have issues. One having an imaginary kangaroo, other having communication issues with the daughter about to enter puberty and not enjoying her music with the constant practice and no social life.
However the film comes across as a sit com style clichéd family relationship film you have many times before.
The kids get hyper by eating sugary food, getting into scrapes much to the irritation of their parents.
You do actually wonder if Midler and Crystal are actually Tomei's parents as she is so uptight it seems someone else must have raised her. In that case why were they invited to look after her kids?
The film gives you a few brief laughs but mostly will leave you bored because of the familiarity of the story. Maybe the screenplay needed a face-lift more than its two stars.
Crystal is a broadcaster who has been fired for being old hat and comes up with corny one liners.
Marisa Tomei is the helicopter mother who hovers over her kids almost to the point of suffocation and at turns spoiling them. She is rather apprehensive about leaving her children with her parents. For a lot of the film she refuses to join her husband who has gone on the trip before her.
The kids of varying ages are spoilt brats who simply have not had much fun in their lives and have issues. One having an imaginary kangaroo, other having communication issues with the daughter about to enter puberty and not enjoying her music with the constant practice and no social life.
However the film comes across as a sit com style clichéd family relationship film you have many times before.
The kids get hyper by eating sugary food, getting into scrapes much to the irritation of their parents.
You do actually wonder if Midler and Crystal are actually Tomei's parents as she is so uptight it seems someone else must have raised her. In that case why were they invited to look after her kids?
The film gives you a few brief laughs but mostly will leave you bored because of the familiarity of the story. Maybe the screenplay needed a face-lift more than its two stars.