Bad Parents

The whole entire movie I was uncomfortable. I cringed the whole movie and was just disgusted.

Just saw this at the Austin Film Festival.

Plot lines are dropped. Narration goes nowhere. Much of the story stutters and starts and does not end. There are lots of plot holes and unexplained and unresolved issues with story lines, characterizations, and the writing was not strong enough to really make me care what happened, it just made me angry that it didn't finish.

The sound mixing and editing was unbearable. The lines recorded in post were so evident and that it was literally blaring in the middle of the character's conversation. Almost no attempt to incorporate them into the prerecorded dialogue.

Characters are not fleshed out and unlikable. No one has a redeeming quality. The casting was misdirected (why does the black/white biracial couple have a child darker than the black parent?). People are introduced into the movie and then never seen again.

There was a lot of potential. Disappointing.

I'm giving this three stars because of a few decent chuckles (and because I'm too darn polite), but "Bad Parents" is sooooooooooo sloooooow. Even with so many decent comedians cast, nobody shines. I considered writing spoilers for this movie, but it was so draggy that I couldn't consistently pay attention enough to write anything worthwhile. Believe me, I wanted so badly to like this. A quarter of the way through, when it hadn't really picked up, I stuck with it against my better judgment (and an almost involuntary urge to sue Netflix for suggesting this movie.) I recently watched "Dealin' with Idiots", which has a loosely similar premise (crazy kids' sports parents), but was much funnier. I don't know, I guess I just fell for good casting, and maybe if I was that sort of parent in real life, I'd "get" this movie more. All-in-all, this movie just doesn't work.

.... in a B grade flick!

With names of the cast alone I was sure this would be a funny movie but it just doesn't come together. It has little to do with parenting and an awful lot to do with soccer and the parents ego.

In other words the soccer game was all. Maybe it should have been titled Bad Coach or Bad Soccer. The current title lead me to expect otherwise.

And the bit part by Ben Bailey ---- what was that for? What did I miss? Maybe my attention drifted but I thought for sure he would be back in the story later. Nope.

If you want a funny movie in the "Bad" series, Bad Teacher is fantastic!

For a comedy, then "Bad Parents" was disturbing devoid of laughs and funny moments. As for the drama, well, this movie is sort of the kind of movie that will cause you to get worked up over the characters in the movie, as they really infuriate the audience with their arrogance, their lack of interest for the kids game, and how it becomes a matter of prestige for the parents to have their kids in the game.

The story is about a small town who puts together a girls soccer team. The coach, which is an arrogant schmuck - to say the least - decides to put the girls into two groups; an A group for the obviously talented players and B group for the less talented group. This has the soccer mom's worked up and struggling to get their girls into the A group. The pressure becomes more and more intense as the girls progress to the semi finals.

I will say that the concept idea for this storyline may have worked well on script paper, but it didn't translate well into physically being on the screen. Or perhaps it was just the directing of the movie that was questionable.

The characters in the movie well nicely enough fleshed out and detailed, though most of them come off a snobs, arrogant individuals and people who don't have any consideration about the well-being and fun of their children in the soccer games, and as people who just want to have a prestigious place on the A team. As such, then you really hate and loathe most of the characters in the movie, and they will ignite a spark of anger and resentment in the audience.

Somewhere along the line, the comedy dropped out of this movie entirely, and there were no laughs at all to be found anywhere.

It should be said that they do have some good actors and actresses on the cast list to portray these annoying characters and roles. I decided to watch the movie solely because of Janeane Garofalo, but must admit that this movie was not among her better movies.

Now, I am not overly familiar with soccer moms and the world that they exist in, but I am sure that this movie took all that and put it to the extreme, because the movie was really over the top.