Parental Guidance (2012)

Artie and Diane agree to look after their three grandkids when their type-A helicopter parents need to leave town for work. Problems arise when the kids' 21st-century behavior collides with Artie and Diane's old-school methods.

Director:

Andy Fickman

Writers:

Lisa Addario, Joe Syracuse

Stars:

Billy Crystal, Bette Midler, Marisa Tomei

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Billy Crystal	...	Artie Decker
Bette Midler	...	Diane Decker
Marisa Tomei	...	Alice Simmons
Tom Everett Scott	...	Phil Simmons
Bailee Madison	...	Harper Simmons
Joshua Rush	...	Turner Simmons
Kyle Harrison Breitkopf	...	Barker Simmons
Jennifer Crystal Foley	...	Cassandra
Rhoda Griffis	...	Dr. Schveer
Gedde Watanabe	...	Mr. Cheng
Tony Hawk	...	Himself
Steve Levy	...	Himself
Cade Jones	...	Ivan Halloran
Mavrick Moreno	...	Cody
Madison Lintz	...	Ashley

Storyline

Old school grandfather Artie (Billy Crystal), who is accustomed to calling the shots, meets his match when he and his eager-to-please wife Diane (Bette Midler) agree to babysit their three grandkids when their type-A helicopter parents (Marisa Tomei, Tom Everett Scott) go away for work. But when 21st century problems collide with Artie and Diane's old school methods of tough rules, lots of love and old-fashioned games, it's learning to bend - and not holding your ground - that binds a family together.

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Plot Keywords:

helicopter parents | corporal punishment | parental discipline | fired from the job | new technology | 

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Taglines:

Here come the grandparents. There go the rules.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for some rude humor

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 December 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

Us & Them

Filming Locations:

Fresno, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$14,554,053 (USA) (28 December 2012)

Gross:

$77,264,926 (USA) (17 May 2013)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Walden Media, Chernin Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Datasat Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz polished the final script.

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Goofs

When Artie is doing play by play for the Braves vs Giants game, he mentions Hudson as the starter for the Braves. When the game is shown on TV it is clearly Derek Lowe who is the pitcher for the Braves.

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Quotes

Diane Decker: Bravo! Oh, wow! Harper, that was wonderful!
Harper Decker Simmons: I stunk.
Diane Decker: You most certainly did not!
[to Dr. Schveer]
Diane Decker: Wasn't she wonderful?
Dr. Schveer: No. This will *not* be good enough for your audition. You must practice more! When my daughter underperforms, I shun her. *This* girl should be shunned!

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Crazy Credits

During the credits, we see pictures of each person listed with their children.

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Connections

Featured in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Episode #21.48 (2012)

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Soundtracks

"Possibilities"
Written by Barbara L. Jordan, Daniel Thompson and William Peterkin
Performed by Pete Peterkin
Used by permission of Heavy Hitters

User Reviews

Would have gotten 10 stars if only . . .

... the suits who fired Billy Crystal at the beginning would have tasted some bad karma at the end.

But everything in between was pitch-perfect - a tremendously accurate (if only slightly over-the-top) portrayal of multi-generational families, their dynamics, and the outcomes that can occur when folks empty their pockets of defense-mechanisms.

The plot is simple: grandparents Billy Crystal and Bette Midler (the "other" grandparents) babysit while their daughter and son-in-law go on a long-overdue mini-vacation, leaving their three intensely over-supervised children in the care of Bette and Billy, who don't much care for that type of hyper-parenting.

The delight of watching this movie is seeing how such a conventional plot will unfold with this superb cast. With humor consisting of both good writing and sight gags, with Bette and Billy and Marissa acting their hearts out, this is B-movie material brought to the top-tier in these very capable hands.

This is a wonderful confection of a movie. Go! And, for those of us from Northern California, it was great to see the San Francisco Giants play a fun supporting role. A pleasant surprise.