Parental Guidance 2012

Crystal and Midler play a pair of second-favourite grandparents, tasked with looking after three grandkids exposed to a super-liberal upbringing. The oldies struggle to adapt to this ‘updated’ form of parenting, confusing Chinese food with ‘Pan Asian’, using politically correct ‘acceptance terms’ in place of ‘don’t’, and suffering the consequences of feeding sugar-deprived kids ice-cream cake.

The film’s at its most amusing when it highlights these pros and cons of both generations’ styles of parenting, which makes it even more frustrating when it drifts away to worn-out gags. For every pleasantly droll observation on parenting tactics it offers, the film returns three scenes of embarrassing lameness equal to your dad doing Gangnam style. I can appreciate a good baseball-bat-to-the-groin joke, but it’s hard to credit the comedic value of a child urinating on live television or singing about doodies in a public bathroom.

With an underdeveloped resolution that ties everything up all too neatly, Parental Guidance is family fluff at its fluffiest. It may work for some, but you’ll find smarter and more ambitious humour in an episode of Modern Family. Hide