year: 2011
cast: Jonah Hill, Sam Rockwell
rating: *
During the opening credits, the name David Simkins doesn't appear anywhere... He's the writer of ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING, the 1987 comedy starring Elizabeth Shue as a reluctant, frustrated teen who takes the kids downtown to help a friend; then gets chased by bad guys and... Everything else that this movies imitates. Jonah Hill wields his usual mellow guy with stunned sarcasm but his signature dry humor's all dress up with nowhere to go. Most of the time he's putting up with each child's annoying personality: the little girl wears makeup, sings dirty lyrics, and sprays perfume in his mouth; her neurotic older (but still young) brother takes pills to feel normal; and an adopted Puerto Rican boy blows up toilets. From one dull situation to the next, it never seems the characters are in any real danger, even though a maniacal drug dealer, overacted by Sam Rockwell, wants them all dead. And the biggest (unintentional) laugh occurs when an extremely gorgeous girl admits she's had a crush on Hill since high school, and even acts nervous around him. Makes you wonder, is the overweight actor playing himself: a millionaire movie star? This is perhaps one of the worst comedies in a long time, going in one ear and out the other: like a bullet from a shotgun. And a particular scene where Hill gives one of the kids advice on life is so politically-correct, you'll long for days when comedies were meant for laughs, not agendas.
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