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

1 win & 4 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 Breitkopf	...	Barker Simmons (as Kyle Harrison Breitkopf)
Jennifer Crystal Foley	...	Cassandra
Rhoda Griffis	...	Dr. Schveer
Gedde Watanabe	...	Mr. Cheng
Tony Hawk	...	Tony Hawk
Steve Levy	...	Steve Levy
Cade Jones	...	Ivan Halloran
Mavrick Moreno	...	Cody
Madison Lintz	...	Ashley

Storyline

The parents of Alice, a controlled mom, agree to take care of her 3 crazy children, Harper, Turner and Barker, because they feel they don't see their grandchildren enough, when Alice and her husband Phil go on a business trip for Phil. But when everything goes downhill, they need to find a way to prove to Alice, Phil, and themselves that they can be great grandparents.

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Plot Keywords:

misbehavior | grandfather granddaughter relationship | fired | grandfather grandson relationship | grandmother granddaughter relationship | 

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Taglines:

This Christmas it's a battle for the ages

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Genres:

Comedy | Family

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for some rude humor

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Andy Fickman's birthday is Christmas Day so he was delighted when 20th Century Fox chose to open the film on that day.

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Goofs

During the ice cream cake fiasco scene, Phil comes on screen with a video chat for Alice. Alice rushes over to turn it off and the screen is clean. When Harper and Alice start playing tug of war over the ice cream cake a few moments later (after the boys went to hide under the counter and are no longer running around), the screen has a frosting hand print on it.

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Quotes

Artie Decker: For the record, I was never going to actually spank Barker.
Harper Decker Simmons: But you said you were.
Artie Decker: But I didn't.
Harper Decker Simmons: But he didn't know that.
Artie Decker: That's *why* it worked.
Harper Decker Simmons: Oh.

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Crazy Credits

There is one final scene, after the end of the credits.

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Connections

Features Saw (2004)

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Soundtracks

Take Me Out To The Ballgame
Written by Jack Norworth and Albert von Tilzer (as Albert Von Tilzer)

User Reviews

Bad source material but decent acting

Parental Guidance is a pretty decent family comedy about bridging the generation gap, and the process of re-building relationships that have been neglected for a very long time.

It is obvious to me that neither Billy Crystal or Bette Midler get too many good movie roles nowadays, and I think you can clearly see their joy at being back in the limelight in starring roles. They deliver strong performances and have great timing, and it is a pity that the source material is so weak to begin with. The basic plot is okay with me, but some of the comedy is far-fetched and grandchild Barker's bizarre behavior is used as an excuse for comedy too many times.

I liked a couple of scenes, which deal with the pressure of constantly keeping up with the technological advances of this day and age, with Artie losing his job because he doesn't tweet or know what an app is. This is a very relevant issue and unfortunately it is lightly dealt with.

All in all, the plot is thoroughly predictable and the points the movie wishes to make are obvious to all without any hint of subtlety, but the strong acting performances saves it from being a train wreck.

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 USA:

$14,554,053, 30 December 2012

Gross USA:

$77,267,296

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$119,772,232

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox, Walden Media, Chernin Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Datasat Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (ACES)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1