December 9, 2011 by Vinnie Leduc
1: The last movie I reviewed was the shamefully sucky new Twilight. 2: Director David Gordon Green’s last mainstream movie, Your Highness, was a huge disappointment after the critical and commercial success of Pineapple Express. These two things had to be setting up Green’s new film, The Sitter, for an experience that’s at least mildly enjoyable… right?
Wrong. The Sitter is about as crappy as Your Highness. However, because it lacks the Oscar-winning/nominated star power and intriguing premise that Green’s previous movie fumbled, I guess you could say The Sitter isn’t as big of a letdown. Still bad though.
Just because it features a usually likeable comedy staple (a pre-skinnier Jonah Hill), misbehaving children, plenty of F-bombs (really the only reason this truly PG-13 movie got slapped with an R rating), and a wild night in the big city (sounds like Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist so far… ugh), we’re supposed to accept this as comedy? Oh, and give a small supporting turn to Method Man and throw in a healthy soundtrack of rap and hip hop (before it became pop) to automatically score some street cred and cool points.
Don’t be fooled. The Sitter may occasionally have some funny moments, but nothing as vividly memorable or uproarious as the best jokes in Your Highness. Despite quickly jumping into the story, Jonah Hill’s short little adventure starts slowly in terms of the laughs, gets some much needed help here and there from a couple of the kids his character babysits, but not much else from the rest of the cast, including Sam Rockwell in a miscast role.
If not for Zookeeper, either of Green’s movies this year could be considered the worst comedy of 2011. If you wanna check out a far better creation of his this year, I’d go with his new animated MTV series, Good Vibes, which usually airs right after revived Beavis and Butt-head episodes. Don’t waste your time and money on The Sitter. Instead, save it for next week. The Sitter gets 1.5 out of 5 stars or D+ or Bad.
