Baby-sitter malgré lui

College dropout Noah (Jonah Hill) is content doing the bare minimum ambling aimlessly through his life with his only point of pride being a "girlfriend" who only keeps him around to eat her out. When Noah's mother enlists his help babysitting for a friend's kids so she can keep her date, Noah reluctantly finds himself caring for a trio of problematic children including anxiety ridden Slater (Max Records), adopted pyromaniac and borderline psychopathic Rodrigo (Kevin Hernandez), and vain, attention hungry Blithe (Landry Bender) who wishes to be an aspiring club girl. When Noah has a chance to finally have actual sex with his girlfriend he takes the kids with him into the city to score some drugs at her request, but the kids bring all kinds of chaos including spurring the vengeance of insane drug dealer Karl (Sam Rockwell)

Produced in 2011, The Sitter was one of two films by Pineapple Express director David Gordon Green to be released along with Your Highness. The film was a commercial and critical disappointment but its effects on its cast and crew were negligible as Hill also starred in Oscar winning Moneyball and the next year would lead the successful and well regarded 21 Jump Street, and David Gordon Green would return to indie fare before going mainstream resurrecting the Halloween franchise. While it's nice the fallout was minimal, The Sitter is unfortunately a rather by the numbers affair that was standard of films trying to ape the success of the Hangover where crude, gross, and mean is somehow automatically funny.

The movie makes a misguided introduction from the outset establishing Noah as a loser with a sex buddy who doesn't respect him while also making Noah a lazy irresponsible idiot with no aspirations that reach beyond sitting in an armchair in his mother's house. When Noah is saddled with the three kids who are all varying degrees of "quirky" with Max Records' Slater probably being the best performance by default, the movie becomes rather aggravating especially with Blithe's Paris Hilton/Tara Reid persona (I think, it's actually kind of hard to tell what they're going for here) used to rather cringing effect. The movies first half is basically a barrage of scatological, urinary, and gay panic jokes which are set up poorly no sense of comic friction or much in the way of payoff. But then the movie tries to play itself for pathos with its kid characters all having revelations that ring rather hollow especially when it comes to a "coming out" moment that rings rather hollow against the movie's crass humor. The performances are at least decent, with Sam Rockwell clearly having fun playing the unhinged Karl who steals the scene whenever he's on camera.

The Sitter has the same recurring problems of post 2009 comedies in that it goes for shock thinking that will be enough to sustain comic momentum. With unlikable characters and a rather sleazy approach that does a tonal 180 trying to play itself for character growth, The Sitter just doesn't work.

Look, to seriously review a movie like this or rate it with stars is ludicrous unless you're comparing it to others of its kind ...in which case I would have given it 10 stars. This is a goofy comedy in which you must suspend disbelief continuously. That is all it was meant to be. It's just a babysitting movie, get it? Like all the rest, only it tries to bring a little freshness to the table ...and in my opinion, it does.

It showcases Jonah Hill's amazing comedic talents, and we get to see some really good performances by some child actors too. Yes, it's Hill's signature shtick, but look closely and you'll see incredible timing and a guy who is extremely capable of carrying a movie. There are some good jokes written into it, but the film completely relies on the performances, and I doubt anyone associated with it would disagree (well, let's hope they wouldn't).

In my opinion, most of the comedy works the way it was supposed to, and the few half-way serious moments do too. In terms of its edginess, it seems to up the ante on the simple formula flick that it is. It's safe to say that if it suits your sense of humor and you're willing to go for the ride, you'll have a good time. I wish people would quit over-analyzing movies like this. The bottom line is that the jokes are either your cup of tea or they are not.

While I'm not a fan of titles being changed in Germany, this one should have been the original title. I'm sure Bad Santa wouldn't have a problem with that. But Jonah Hill goes from this to his awesome performance in Moneyball? You wouldn't expect that, but the man has talent. This movie is really funny too. And while I am not a fan of watching trailers of movies beforehand, this time it didn't take away too much from the movie (not to mention that there is scene in the trailer, that didn't make the theatrical cut).

Jonah is surrounded by kids and they all have their moments. And while it is anything but PC, it also has its really emotional moments. Most of them may be predictable, but the way it is executed and played really works for the movie and the audience.

As some other reviewers have noted, what we have here is a blatant rip-off of the 1980s movie "Adventures In Babysitting". I wouldn't have minded that fact had "The Sitter" been entertaining, but it isn't for two big reasons:

(1) The characters are extremely annoying. They are foul-mouthed, mean, cruel, and downright stupid at times. I really didn't care if they would succeed in their aims or not.

(2) The movie just isn't funny. There is a mean-spiritness to most of the humor that makes it hard to take. Oh, there are a couple of one-liners that are somewhat amusing, but otherwise the humor is loud and grating.

Although "Adventures In Babysitting" wasn't a great movie, it is Oscar worthy compared to "The Sitter".

C+

I know the majority of the film is predictable, dare I say cliché, but the ride was very enjoyable. That is, after-all, the nature of the comedy genre. How often do I go see a comedy for its intricate storyline, radical character development or enigmatic themes? Close to never, honestly, and so with that reasoning why not go balls-out? Jonah Hill is a very likable character in the film with an understandable ploy. It lacks the in-your-face violence of director previous film "Pineapple Express", but it is definitely hilarious, no doubt about that. The kids are very well played, and thankfully come out as pretty decent characters. Thankfully nowhere near as annoying as the duo of the "Are We There Yet?" films. It's definitely a coming-of-age film that may not be a classic, but it certainly is worth seeing.