Parental Guidance review: Their jokes aren't funny, but you'll warn to these grandparents

By Chris Tookey

PUBLISHED: 20:02 EST, 20 December 2012 | UPDATED: 13:07 EST, 3 January 2013

Parental Guidance (PG)

Verdict: Harmless family comedy Rating:

Billy Crystal and Bette Midler star as not terribly doting grandparents in Parental Guidance, an innocuous family comedy in the tradition of Meet The Parents.

Marisa Tomei plays their daughter, who needs a break from her three children to go with her husband (Tom Everett Scott) to a business awards.

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Warm and fuzzy: Billy Crystal goes old school in this family comedy that's hard to dislike

Comic misadventures, disputes about parenting and generation-gap issues abound, with everyone leaing life-lessons.

It’s not quite funny enough and I could have done without the lavatory humour, but it’s so warm and fuzzy that it’s hard to dislike. And  U-certificate comedies these days are a rarity.

Safety Not Guaranteed (15)

Verdict: Noir is satisfaction Rating:

Aubrey Plaza stars in flaccidly-written film

In Safety Not Guaranteed, an obnoxious magazine joualist (Jake M. Johnson) and two routinely insulted intes (Aubrey Plaza and Karan Soni) track down a seemingly deranged supermarket worker (Mark Duplass) who has advertised for a companion to time-travel with him.

Slightly to her own surprise, and very much to mine, the grumpy Ms Plaza becomes attracted to him.

Time-travel becomes a metaphor for having a second chance in life.

Unfortunately, the characters never develop beyond caricature, and poor picture and sound quality means it’s hard to become deeply involved. Lethargically directed by Colin Trevorrow and flaccidly written by Derek Connolly, this film starts off as intriguing, a sci-fi romcom with a brilliant premise, but fails to take it in any interesting direction.

It’s so busy being hip, edgy and metaphorical that it forgets to be funny, real or exciting.

And because it never gets anywhere, it feels like an hors d’oeuvre that takes ages to arrive, and is never followed by a main course.

It may not make you walk out, but it certainly left me unsatisfied.

Both films released on Boxing day.

VIDEO Parental Guidance movie trailer