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Parents' Guide to

Funny Farm

By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 12+

Tired '80s slapstick comedy has cursing, drinking.

Movie PG 1998 101 minutes
Funny Farm Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

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

Community Reviews

age 9+

Based on 3 parent reviews

age 5+

REALLY FUNNY MOVIE!!!!

it has mild violence and mild sex and modrete language and mild drinking drugs and smoking
age 13+

Chevy Chase at his very best for teenagers and adults only

This is my favorite Chevy Chase movie after the first Vacation film. The scenery is beautiful, there are lots of very funny gags and dialogue, direction and script are both great and this movie has lots of warmth and heart. However despite those things and a PG rating this is not a film for small children. Lots of typical 80's PG-rated language like the s word, more uses of GD than I would care to count, ass and others. Chevy Chase even says the f word at one point in a mumbled manner. Chase also eats lamb fries at a restaraunt which are later revealed to be sheep testicles. Although a very funny joke it is highly inappropriate. It is a very funny, underrated movie that shows Chase at his very best but only teenagers and adults will understand the humor and that is the target audience of this film overall. Watch and have some big laughs but this is not the best choice for anyone under 13 in my opinion and this really should be PG-13.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (3 ):
Kids say (5 ):

This movie isn't especially funny unless you love watching Chevy Chase repeat schtick that by 1988 was pretty tired. He falls out of a moving motorboat. He catches a snake and, out of unconvincing fear, wraps his fishing line around himself. From the earliest moments, it feels utterly predictable that Elizabeth will finish her own book and have it accepted by a publisher before the self-satisfied Andy can even finish a first draft, and the fact that Funny Farm's plot actually does go there feels disappointing and cliché-ridden.

Once the pair decide to divorce and sell their place, the final 18-minute sequence comes out of nowhere. Andy and Elizabeth offer to pay the townsfolk to act friendlier. What they really want is for the locals to act like characters out of a Hallmark greeting card, full of neighborly concern, false warmth and coziness, and unearthly Christmas spirit, in order to lure unsuspecting prospective buyers to clinch a deal on the house. This feels strained and stupid. One good scene comes out of this plot twist, in fact -- the only funny moment in the whole movie: The maniac postman (played with fiendish delight by an uncredited Kevin Conway) knocks on the door at a crucial moment and frightens Andy with his unpredictably good behavior. Still, this isn't enough to save this tired comedy; there are far better comedies out there.

Movie Details

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