Parents' Guide to

Larry Gaye: Renegade Male Flight Attendant

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Forced, unfunny comedy has tons of sexual content.

Movie R 2015 99 minutes
Larry Gaye: Renegade Male Flight Attendant Poster Image

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

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What's the Story?

Larry Gaye (Mark Feuerstein) is the best male flight attendant in the business. Once, he longed to be a pilot, but he couldn't pass flight school because of a medical condition. So now he does the best he can, enjoying all the perks of his position -- i.e. a woman in every port. One day Larry discovers that the woman who came closest to tying him down, April (Jayma Mays), has a son, and Larry is the father. The son, Donnie (Griffin Gluck), mistakenly thinking his father is a pilot, runs away to join Dad on a flight. Larry's also competing with a robot flight attendant (Rebecca Romijn) to save his job. And then something goes wrong with the plane's engine, and only Larry can save the day. But will he give up flying to become a family man?

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say Not yet rated
Kids say (1):

Though it definitely has Airplane! on the brain (Julie Hagerty has a cameo and repeats some of that movie's famous dialogue), this movie lacks just about everything that made its predecessor great. Above all, LARRY GAYE: RENEGADE MALE FLIGHT ATTENDANT is very simply unfunny. The jokes are forced and uninspired, ranging from cheap slapstick to cheesy innuendo. The characters are too flat to be sympathetic, and it's impossible to care.

The best that can be said for Larry Gaye is that it manages to be less offensive than it might have been, avoiding deliberately disgusting or button-pushing humor. The sex jokes, though not very good, at least aren't based on fear (although, as the title might imply, it does have more than its share of dumb "gay" jokes). And somehow a huge roster of decent actors agreed to appear in small roles, including Marcia Gay Harden, Stanley Tucci, Henry Winkler, Jason Alexander, and Molly Shannon.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about Lary Gaye's use of sex humor. What is the movie's viewpoint toward sex? What's funny about sex in this movie?

  • The movie makes an argument for settling down with a family over having many sexual partners. How effectively does it make this argument? What are the pros and cons? Is this movie really intended to have a strong message?

  • The character gets very drunk in one scene. Why does he start drinking? How does it affect his life?

  • What's the difference between lowbrow and highbrow humor (or even middlebrow)? Which one appeals to you most? Why?

Movie Details

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