 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
The Incredible Shrinking Woman
- Review Date: September 21, 2005
- PG
- Genre: Comedy
- 1981
Common Sense Media says
Excruciatingly bad Lily Tomlin comedy.
Parents say
Kids say
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that kids will hear allusions to the sexual frustrations of being married to a tiny woman. There are one or two moderate curses and some potty-mouth talk: A cereal box's ingredients, read aloud, include "synthetic spermatozoa" and "bull scrotum." The shrinking woman is in perpetual danger of being squashed or worse. She falls in a garbage disposal and is nearly ground to death.
What's the story?
Perfume, glue, cleansers, aerosol-propelled cheese -- so much chemical exposure takes its toll on unassuming housewife Pat Kramer (Lily Tomlin), who begins to shrink. She suspects her condition might have something to do with the products her ad exec husband (Charles Grodin) brings home but is too demure to speak out about it, even when her dwindling size makes her a world-renowned celebrity and provides her with a (very small) soap box to stand on. But sleeping in a dollhouse and the ever-present danger of being squished are only the start of Pat's problems. She's been targeted by the insidious Organization for World Management, which wants to make a serum from her blood that, when added to worldwide water supplies, will shrink all but a select few down to subservient proportions.
Is it any good?
How awful is THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING WOMAN? Let's start with Jane Wagner's witless script, which uses elements from the sci-fi classic The Incredible Shrinking Man to say something about the plight of the suburban American housewife, the responsibility of chemical manufacturers, and the moral character of the advertising industry. But the story only begins to articulate these points before abandoning them for a fake-looking ape and yelling people slipping on banana peels. The plot generates a few madcap laughs but in general it fails to be funny or compelling. Frequent references to a married couple's sex woes are in poor taste.
Lily Tomlin and Charles Grodin never looked more bored in their lives, and the special effects are cheap and completely unconvincing. For family appeal there are a couple of loud, obnoxious kids, and some cutesy stuff with the shrinking woman living in a dollhouse and wearing doll clothes. But if this is a movie for kids, what's with the repeated allusions to the couple's unhappy sex life? What about the gratuitous reading of a cereal box's ingredients, which include "synthetic spermatozoa" and "bull scrotum"?
What families can talk about
Families can talk about this movie's message. Do many comedies have messages? What, if anything, do you think was the filmmaker's point?
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AGE
Nothing but a silly movie
It is an old comedy. Set your expectations at crude slapstick. It is just silly funny, nothing more, nothing less.
Kids think it is silly. There isn't anything educational or to gain. Again, it is just a big joke.
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Kid, 12 years old
July 7, 2010
AGE
OFF FOR 7 and UNDER???? SILLY. THIS IS FOR ALL AGES!
Rated G, theydn't have most bad words or most violence like shotguns or somethin ... ?
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AGE
Iv'e Never seen it but it doesn't seem terribly innapropriate. I think they Should of rated it PG 13 but, Whatever. It seems like one of those movies that could go either way. It seems to me that it would be iffy for ages 12- 14. but ok for ages 15+
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| Topics: | magic and fantasy |
| Studio: | Universal Pictures |
| Director: | Joel Schumacher |
| Cast: | Charles Grodin, Lily Tomlin, Ned Beatty |
| Genre: | Comedy |
| Run time: | 88 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | January 30, 1981 |
| DVD release date: | July 13, 1994 |
| MPAA rating: | PG |
| MPAA explanation: | Parental Guidance Suggested |
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