The Sitter (2011)

A college student on suspension is coaxed into babysitting the kids next door, though he is fully unprepared for the wild night ahead of him.

Director:

David Gordon Green

Writers:

Brian Gatewood, Alessandro Tanaka

Stars:

Jonah Hill, Max Records, Ari Graynor

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jonah Hill	...	Noah Griffith
Max Records	...	Slater Pedulla
Ari Graynor	...	Marisa Lewis
J.B. Smoove	...	Julio
Sam Rockwell	...	Karl
Landry Bender	...	Blithe Pedulla
Kevin Hernandez	...	Rodrigo
Kylie Bunbury	...	Roxanne
Erin Daniels	...	Mrs. Pedulla
D.W. Moffett	...	Dr. Pedulla
Jessica Hecht	...	Sandy Griffith
Bruce Altman	...	Jim Griffith
Method Man	...	Jacolby (as Cliff 'Method Man' Smith)
Sean Patrick Doyle	...	Garv
Alex Wolff	...	Clayton

Storyline

Noah, is not your typical entertain-the-kids-no-matter-how-boring-it-is kind of sitter. He's reluctant to take a sitting gig; he'd rather, well, be doing anything else, especially if it involves slacking. When Noah is watching the neighbor's kid he gets a booty call from his girlfriend in the city. To hook up with her, Noah takes to the streets, but his urban adventure spins out of control as he finds himself on the run from a maniacal drug lord.

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Plot Keywords:

babysitting | subway | chinatown manhattan new york city | stolen car | woman punching a man | 

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Taglines:

Need a Sitter?

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Genres:

Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for crude and sexual content, pervasive language, drug material and some violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 December 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Un niñero sinvergüenza

Filming Locations:

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$9,851,435 (USA) (9 December 2011)

Gross:

$30,538,669 (USA) (9 March 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Michael De Luca Productions, Rough House Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

81 min 87 min (unrated)

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The character Garv, played by Broadway actor Sean Patrick Doyle, is based on an eccentric roller-skater Jonah Hill met in Venice Beach. The role was added to later drafts of the script.

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Goofs

At the beginning of the movie when Noah first walks into his house, his mom is making tea. The kettle whistles but the lid is open so it would not make a whistle sound.

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Quotes

Noah Griffith: [to Rodrigo] I know you're a little kid, and I know I'm not supposed to say this kind of stuff to you, but fuck you. Fuck you so much. You're a douche.

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Connections

Featured in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #2.22 (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Creepin'"
Written by Grant Dekernion
Performed by FBruce

User Reviews

Predictable, cliché, and unfunny

So let's get this straight: The Sitter is about to be released featuring the round and portly Jonah Hill we've become familiar with over the years, but he's lost a considerable amount of weight and almost looks like a completely different person these days? That won't be confusing to some people at all. Truth be told, I liked Jonah Hill there for awhile. I laughed really hard at Superbad, Grandma's Boy was a lot better than it first let on, and Get Him to the Greek was pretty solid as well. Not to mention How to Train Your Dragon being spectacular. The problem is outside of films like Moneyball, Hill basically has Vince Vaughn syndrome and plays the exact same character in everything. It could come down to character acting, but it gets to the point where you see somebody do the same shtick a dozen times and you just want to see if they're capable of anything else. Director David Gordon Green is on the same boat. I keep hearing how solid his first directorial efforts are and Pineapple Express is one of the best R-rated comedies in recent years, but everything since has just been so disappointing. The Sitter won't be the film to shatter what you've come to expect from Jonah Hill and David Gordon Green either.

You pretty much already know the basic story of the film: a guy who hates kids has to babysit three of them and everything you could possibly imagine to go wrong does in the worst ways imaginable. Blithe (Landry Bender) is a little girl who's obsessed with becoming a celebrity and just wants to go to clubs, dress up, wear make-up, drink and eat whatever famous people consume, and sing along to songs a girl her age probably shouldn't. Rodrigo (Kevin Hernandez) is the adopted kid of the family and likes to destroy things for no reason while having a particular fascination with cherry bombs. Then there's Slater (Max Records) who is convinced he can't function without the medication in his fanny pack since he thinks he's beyond repair.

The Sitter becomes very predictable. The three kids constantly clash with their babysitter throughout the film until they eventually warm up to each other and go from there. Jonah Hill spits out a few semi-entertaining one-liners amongst all the mayhem. There are several weird bonding scenes between the kids and Noah though. Noah has a heart to heart talk with both Blithe and Slater, but Slater is the one to step in and try to set Rodrigo straight. The scenes come off as a little awkward because they feel kind of forced. There's a drug dealer named Karl (Sam Rockwell) chasing them and Noah is trying to get to a party to try and get lucky with his sort-of girlfriend Marisa (Ari Graynor). Would you take a time-out to make a kid feel better if you owed a drug dealer ten grand by midnight with your life on the line? The entire adventure becomes incredibly cliché and is basically an R-rated version of most of the babysitting movies you've seen previously. Despicable Me, Mr. Nanny, Bebe's Kids, and The Pacifier are probably a few that come to mind. This is another movie whose unrealistic qualities snowballed as it progressed. It continued to get more and more ludicrous as it went on. About halfway into the movie, most of the theater was in hysterics but the entire press row was just not laughing at all. Realizing this made me laugh harder than any material in the movie.

The Sitter is just bad from all angles. It uses a recycled and overused storyline, isn't funny, is unrealistic, and is basically an embarrassment for all of those involved. How in the world did Sam Rockwell become a part of this and what the hell happened to David Gordon Green? The Sitter is the type of movie that lets you know several talented people are involved in the project and yet they still churn out run of the mill garbage to try and make a buck. This is hands down one of the worst movies of the year.