The Sitter

Expectations:
Well, it seems like the movie industry is never satisfied with the amount of R-rated comedies in the world. I guess I probably shouldn't be talking though, because I do watch most all of them. Anyway, The Sitter looked like another mediocre comedy that probably wouldn't pull in much cash. It is Jonah Hill's first film as the one and only lead character. Also, this is probably his last film before he will start looking unhealthily skinny and no longer funny. I do love a good laugh, and usually kids are way funnier than adults, so I was looking forward to see how raunchy and funny these kids were actually going to be. Jonah Hill is usually very funny and has come a long way in his acting career. With all that being thrown in the hat, I expected to laugh a little, but not too much. Unfortunately, there isn't much else in the theater at the moment, so I chose to watch The Sitter...

Plot:
Well, it was interesting to say the least. As is obvious in the previews, Noah Griffith (Jonah Hill) ends up baby sitting these three children. Noah goes on an adventure of the insane kind and, of course, brings the children along with him. I really thought the idea was awesome, but the execution was awful. Honestly, the movie just progressively became boring as it went along. There were certainly many funny parts, but I never really felt like the plot was organized. I believe random and repetitive are the words that should be used to describe this film. To cap off the poorly written body of the film, the end was probably one of the worst since No Country for Old Men (and we all know how horrid that was). The movie got all emotional and started teaching me lessons about life. Excuse me? I thought this was an R-rated comedy in the 21st century???

Best Scene: Noah goes to a bar to retrieve his stolen minivan, which leads to much hilarity.

Characters:
The truth is that it is nearly impossible to go wrong with child actors. You can't blame their acting, because they are only children, which means they will either be great or ok (never bad). The kids in The Sitter weren't that great, but they were put in funny situations. They certainly provided many laughs, even though they contributed a good bit to the "life lessons." Noah Griffith was just the kind of guy that you hope your kid never turns out to be. His quest for his whore of a "girlfriend" was extremely unrealistic and kind of dumb, but we needed to laugh. Also, the villain, Karl (Sam Rockwell), was extremely annoying and very very strange. I don't believe he was meant to be understood, or I hope not at least.

Best Character: There was this gang of black folks that Noah meets at a bar. Every single one of them cracked me up, and they actually became a big part of the plot, which was awesome.

Worst Character: Julio, played by J.B. Smoove, was just awful. J.B. Smoove is one of the funniest men alive, so I don't have any clue how they managed to ruin him in this movie.

Conclusion:
The biggest problem with this movie was that it couldn't decide whether it REALLY wanted to be an R-rated comedy. It starts off in a very dirty manner, but, from then on, it really never felt like it was a bad movie. Sure, there was some language, but the emotional lessons ruined any hope of this receiving a high rating from me. I don't enjoy the dirty comedy solely because it is dirty, but we all know that dirty=funny, whether you are a college kid or a soccer mom. I thought Jonah Hill did fine in his first lead role. It just was unfortunate that the film wasn't better. I think I may be coming off a little harsh on this movie,becasue it really wasn't THAT bad. It just wasn't what it should have been. I give The Sitter 2.39 out of 5 stars and remind you to be careful who you leave your child with!