Waiting

  • Review Date: June 15, 2006
  • NR
  • Genre: Comedy
  • 2005
 Review

Common Sense Media says

An undercooked, overdone raunchy comedy.
greenON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
yellowPAUSE: Know your child; some content
may not be right for some kids.
redOFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
not for kidsNOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age.

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Quality
 
Sometimes media can be age appropriate but a real waste of time. Our star rating assesses the media's overall quality.

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Parents say

Kids say

Not yet rated

What parents need to know

Parents need to know that this film is full of teenage sex, gay jokes, and references to male anatomy. The main characters play a game where they expose themselves to one another and call each other gay for looking. A teenage girl is manipulated into sex with a much older man. Two busboys spend the movie getting high. The main characters also act antisocially toward their customers.

  • No real role models in this film, except perhaps for Dean, who's trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life. He's kind to his girlfriend, but participates in mean tricks.
  • Just humilating games.
  • An older man manipulates a teen girl into sex, much discussion of deflowering an underage girl, a guy and girl are shown in bed together.

What's the story?

WAITING is about Dean (Justin Long) and his buddies at a TGI Fridays-type theme restaurant. While Dean, a high school honors student turned future restaurant assistant manager, struggles with what to do next with his life, his friend Monty ( Ryan Reynolds) is busy cruising underage girls, insulting a girl he used to date, and showing the ropes to the new kid (John Francis Daley). Among the other stock characters are the hilariously burnt out Amy, the lecherous older cook Raddimus, the contemptible customers, the pothead suburban pseudo-gangsters Nick and T-Dog, the ineffectual boss --and set pieces. There's the prissy customer who keeps sending her food back until, stepped on and otherwise defiled by the kitchen staff, the food finally returns to her in a way she can stomach. There's the tempting deflowering of an underaged hostess. There's the attempt by the boss to become friends with his employees.


Is it any good?

 

Waiting tries to be everything -- a coming-of-age movie, teenage sex farce, romantic comedy, and worker angst flick -- and sticks it together with the, er, glue of "pervert" jokes and politically incorrect humor. Unfortunately, it doesn't do anything particularly well.

If there's any reason to watch this movie -- and that's a big if -- it's for Justin Long's sympathetic rendering of a guy in the throes of his quarter-life crisis. When his former honors class peer comes in to rub Dean's nose in his success, you want to punch him just as much as Dean does. And when Dean finally makes his decision about his future, you cheer him on.


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What families can talk about

Families can talk about what they would do in Dean's situation. Would you stay with your friends or start a new job? Also, what attracts teens to these kinds of gross-out sex comedies? Is the raunchy humor necessary?


This review was written by Heather Boerner
Adult
January 11, 2010
 
Guy's will think this movie is hilarious.

Flag as inappropriate 
Teen, 17 years old
April 9, 2008
 

Flag as inappropriate 
Adult
April 9, 2008
 
stupid but really funny
This movie is really bad and it is probably the stupidest thing ever made but it is hilarious. i dont recommend it to kids under 15

Flag as inappropriate 
Parent of 14 year old
October 17, 2009
 
not for kids

Flag as inappropriate 
Adult
September 27, 2009
 
Very funny
Very funny It plays on Comedy Central all of the time and thats apretty good place to watch it at because al it does is bleep out the words they can't play on network tv but all the jokes are still funny and everything.

Flag as inappropriate 
Adult
November 4, 2011
 
This funny movie is not suitable for kids.
I find this movie hilarious, but it's definitely not for kids or young teens. Tons of drug use, lots of sexual references and sexual behavior, and non-stop profanity. It really does depict the life of a server very well though.

Flag as inappropriate 

This review was written by Heather Boerner
Studio:Live Entertainment
Director:Rob McKittrick
Cast:Anna Faris, Justin Long, Luis Guzman, Ryan Reynolds
Genre:Comedy
Run time:92 minutes
Theatrical release date:February 7, 2005
DVD release date:February 7, 2006
MPAA rating:NR
MPAA explanation:explicit sexual discussion and adult situations

This review was written by Heather Boerner
 

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About our rating system
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.
Learning ratings
BEST: Really engaging, great learning approach.
GOOD: Pretty engaging, good learning approach.
FAIR: Somewhat engaging, OK learning approach.
NOT FOR LEARNING: Not recommended for learning.

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