Anders Family Review of “Parental Guidance”

We were compelled to see this this movie for several reasons among those being:

• It was filmed in Dunwoody at the home of friends of ours
• I heard many reports from friends that
  Bailee Madison, who plays Harper Simmons,  is a great young lady and made many friends while in Dunwoody.
• I’ve seen Kyle Harrison Breitkopf who plays Barker at a baseball game in Roswell and saw how adorable he is in person

Plus, it’s so hard to find a movie appealing to our whole family.  When the kids were little we could either take them to see a great Disney Pixar Movie like Toy Story that mesmerized the kids and had plenty of humor to entertain Kirk and me.   Or, we hired a sitter and went to see whatever we wanted to see!  Now that we have a pre-teen and a full-fledged teenager we spend a lot of time worrying about what the “13” is for in the PG-“13″s.   Whatever team rated The Perks of Being a Wallflower PG-13 instead of R ought to be fired (right Polly and Patty!?)…but I digress…..

Parental Guidance is basically about grandparents (Bette Midler and Billy Crystall) who come to Atlanta to take care of the grandkids while the parents (Marisa Tomei and Tom Everett Scott) are away on a business reward trip.  Much of the humor is based on the difference in the parenting style of the grandparents and the parents.   My husband and I laughed hysterically throughout the movie and enjoyed it immensely.

My 11 year old and his friend giggled a lot and both declared that they really liked it.   My 8^th grader and his friend needed more action.  They admitted that some of it was funny to them but my son asked afterwards if I would take him to see Jack Reacher over the break.

In summary, it’s hard to find a movie that is appealing to our whole family but this one gets an A in my book.  Plus,  it was fun seeing Atlanta sights and having the “connection” to Dunwoody!  From a Mom who LOVES to go to movies WITH my kids…..it is a great choice for a family movie outing!

Rated PG for some rude humor.  (For example, the youngest grandchild calls his Grandpa “Fartie” instead of “Artie”)