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Parents' Guide to

Father Figures

By Jeffrey M. Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 16+

Raunchy, unfunny comedy might have been better as a drama.

Movie R 2017 113 minutes
Father Figures Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 16+

Based on 6 parent reviews

age 17+

Not a male version of Mama Mia

I watched this movie with my 13 year old son on the airplane while we were looking for a comedy together. We loved Mama Mia and my son thought reading the description it sounds just like it. Besides the raunchy humor mentioned by other reviews, this is another relationship bonding road trip USA. Owen has not changed in all the comedies he's made, not even his haircut. He is no different from his character in Wedding Crashers. Not interesting, no personal values nor standards, and the movie constantly ridiculed his twin brother proctologist for being a hardworking, school going, responsible parent. What?! Football star Terry Bradshaw makes an appearance that reminded us of Ditka in Will Ferrell's Kicking and Screaming, but with the sex lifestyle of pro football players in the back of our minds, reminiscing the 1970s is not that funny. I unplugged the audio on my son's earphones when Ving Rhames' character remembered Glenn Close's character back in the 1970s. What a waste of a great actor when my son had watched his magnificent performance in Master Harold and the boys. We didn't finish the movie. There could've been potential for more humor if they were clever enough to see the differences between the 2 brothers rather than celebrating the loser and putting down the doctor's responsible routine lifestyle.
age 16+

Couldn’t make it to the end

Very raunchy and tasteless comedy. I was even embarrassed to watch with my fiancée. Definitely not for children.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (6 ):
Kids say (2 ):

This almost totally fails as a comedy, with broad, unfunny, dumb jokes (such as Wilson and a young boy urinating on each other), though it's marginally better during the goopy, heartwarming parts. Father Figures relies on the narrowest, laziest definitions of characters imaginable, and the humor that springs from them always seems forced, as if the jokes had been shoehorned into place. One so-called running gag is that Bradshaw constantly ignores Kyle and pays attention only to Peter. The movie never explains why, nor why that's supposed to be funny.

As Father Figures goes along, however, it seems to start caring about the two brothers. Some of the characters' exchanges without jokes come fairly close to sounding real and heartfelt. The climax is, impressively, not an easy solution, and it makes for a couple of very nice moments while the brothers process it. Perhaps this could have been better as an indie drama? (À la Jeff, Who Lives at Home, also with Helms.) Unfortunately, the movie blows its encouraging ending with an embarrassing, insulting "one year later" epilogue.

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