Parental Guidence

[Barry]

David will tease me and tell me I’m getting too old to watch new movies. I never should have told him that I was at the premier of “The Jazz Singer” and wanted to experience sound in movies for the first time. 😜

On Blu-ray, I saw the 1992. movie “Parental Guidence” which had an outstanding cast of Billy Crystal, Bette Midler and Marisa Tomei. So I thought it would be good.

Well, I knew the entire plot of Parental Guidance 10 minutes into the picture. It had a great cast what they needed was a new script. Crystal and Midler play grandparents, Tomei and Tom Everett Scott played the parents of three children. 

The picture opens with the parents needing someone to watch their kids for the next five days. Of course they were alienated from her parents for no apparent reason. And the grandparents were sad that they hadn’t seen their grandkids for over a year. So Tomei reluctantly calls her parents to babysit her difficult three kids.

Just like every other movie of this type, you know that the people who have conflicts at the beginning are going to get together at the end in love with each other.

So you immediately see that the parents are using very exaggerated, to the point of ridiculousness, “modern” methods of raising their children. At this point, I know the entire screen play.

• And what’s supposed to be funny situations, the grandparents are going to see how badly the children are coping having been raised this way.
• The grandparents are going to try to use these methods with funny but unsuccessful results.
• The kids are going to have real problems and the old-fashioned methods will not only work, but bring the grandchildren closer to the grandparents.
• At the end, everyone is part of one big happy family.

And that’s exactly what happens in this movie. 

It wasn’t funny. It did have a couple of nice moments, but everything seem contrived and formula. I give this movie a “bad” rating.

Surprisingly, the Blu-ray looked terrific. It had very good color and very good skin tones. Both indoor and outdoor scenes look very good. The sound was fine also. 

If you want an example of the exaggerated modern way the kids were being raised. Crystal takes his grandson to play in a baseball game. At this game, he learns that they don’t keep score, the kids just play. That’s really fine for kids that are less than seven years old, but not for older kids. They go with step further. They don’t count balls, strikes or outs either. It is basically batting practice, not a game at all.




Video Projector.............. JVC DLA-RS4100
Video Screen............Stuart StudioTek130
Amplifier (center) .........McIntosh MC-611
Amplifier (lt/rt) .......McIntosh MC1.25KW
Amplifier (5 channel) ............Krell S-1500L&R Speakers ..........Revel Ultima Salon 2
Center Channel .Revel Ultima Voice 2
Rear & Back....................Revel W 990
Atmos Ceiling (2).............Revel C763L
Sub-Woofer ....................SVS SB-13 Ultras
4K Disc Player ............ Panasonic UB9000P1K
CD/SACD Player ............ Esoteric K-01XD
Controller.......................McIntosh. Mx 170
HDTV Receiver............................. Verizon
TV Tuner............. Mediasonic HW-150PVR
Streaming TV............................. Roku
Wall Treatments...........ASC Sound Planks
Wiring:...................................... Shunyata

[David Vaughn]

Barry, when have I given you a bad time about your age?

[Barry]

Barry, when have I given you a bad time about your age?

At my age I can’t remember.😵‍💫