Parents' Guide to

Three Men and a Baby

By M. Faust, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Dated '80s comedy has sex, stereotypes, cursing.

Movie PG 1987 102 minutes
Three Men and a Baby Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

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

Community Reviews

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age 14+

Based on 7 parent reviews

Jennifer F.
Jennifer F. Parent of 11-year-old
November 29, 2021
age 17+

Offensive

I remember this movie as funny, but when I started screening for my preteens found that you couldn’t watch the first 30 minutes without obvious casual sex, cheating, and offensive terms for sex being used about every 2 minutes. I couldn’t recommend for any age group.

This title has:

Too much sex
Too much swearing
Mcegabby
Mcegabby Adult
September 11, 2020
age 13+

Unappealing

Honestly, I’m rating it 13+ because I just can’t see anyone under the age of 13 finding this story compelling whatsoever. I’m in my teens and just felt so bored watching this movie. I had such high hopes thinking this was going to be like full house or some family comedy. It’s not. It would definitely be PG-13 using today’s standards (which I expected since most PG movies from the 80s turn out to be PG-13 anyway.) Another thing I hated about it was the end message; the mom abandons the baby on the doorstep only to come back and drop the bomb that she’s taking the kid that she left on a doorstep WITH ONLY A NOTE that she’s taking her back to England??? No way. Normally stupid messages like that in movies don’t bother me, and I can just shrug it off, but this was just flat out ridiculous. The mom was not questioned one bit. It could have been that era, but regardless it sends an awful message that you can run away from responsibility and come back without consequences. It’s not worth the watch but more like a waste of time. The only reason I watched it was because it came with my streaming service. I would never pay for this movie alone. I’m glad that I watched it before presenting it at family movie night.
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What's the Story?

Three swinging bachelors deal with and learn to love an infant left on their doorstep in THREE MEN AND A BABY. A gorgeous apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side is shared by three bachelors, architect Peter (Tom Selleck), actor Jack (Ted Danson) and comic book artist Michael (Steve Guttenberg). Their world is turned upside down when they find baby Mary in a basket at their door. She has been left there for Jack by her mother, who had a fling with him a year earlier. Because Jack is out of town shooting a movie, Peter and Michael try to learn about parenting as quickly as possible. While they think they will be happy to hand the task over to Jack when he returns, they find that they have enjoyed being fathers. When Mary's mother returns to reclaim the baby, all three men are unwilling to go back to their old lives without Mary.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (7):
Kids say (6):

A huge hit when it was first released in 1987, Three Men and a Baby really doesn't get as many laughs as it should from its premise. In 1987, Selleck, Danson and Guttenberg were major stars, and familiarity with their usual personas (Danson is simply playing a variant on his character from television show Cheers) was a major factor in the film's success. But the film hasn't aged very well. The time-consuming subplot pitting the three dads against a heroin smuggling ring completely clashes with the rest of the film. Nor does Leonard Nimoy's flat direction add anything.

Parents may enjoy watching these three self-confident guys crumble when faced with the demands of childcare, and kids could laugh at their unsuccessful attempts to keep a clean diaper on baby Mary, but there are too few such moments spread out over the course of the film. Surprisingly, the sequel Three Men and a Little Lady is a bit better.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about this movie's premise. Do you think it is correct -- men must learn to parent and women are born knowing how? Did you question that assumption while watching the film? How do such assumptions and premises affect viewers' perceptions?

  • How does the movie's premise -- and the assumptions behind the premise -- reflect the time when the movie was released?

  • What do you think has changed (if anything) in the years since this movie was released in terms of parenting, sex, relationships?

Movie Details

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