This is one of the few "themes" Hollywood knows - the others are "dumb military", "stupid fathers", "virtuous sluts", and "compromised people of faith". Oh, sorry, forgot "bad cops" and "powerful interesting crooks". Go eff yourself hollywood - we're tired of movies being written by drug addicted creeps with authority issues. Get some grown ups involved.
I saw the movie, and I had a few reactions.
First, I was recommended by a co-worker, who said it was one of the funniest movies he'd ever seen. He and I have shared laughs over movies we'd both seen and liked, so I thought it was a safe bet that I'd feel the same about this one. I had only the vaguest idea of what the movie's premise was heading in to it.
During the movie, I thought there were several funny scenes, and that the acting was really well done. I really like the guy who played the motivational speaker (also plays Dick Vermeil in Invincible - his name escapes me, atm). And the guy who was in 40-year-old Virgin made me laugh in this one too.
I was particularly fond of the character Olive. She reminds me so much of my daughter, whom I miss terribly and is just a couple of years younger than Olive, but they physically resemble each other, and her character really reminds me of what I imagine my daughter's will be when she matures to that age. My daughter lives away from me now, and I only get to see her for about 4 months out of the year, so seeing this character was particularly cathartic for me in that regard.
Leading up to the grand finale scene (the striptease number), I wasn't particularly bothered by anything. Oh sure, I wasn't overly fond of how "normalized" the movie portrays aberrant behavior (aberrant,in my opinion), but I can still get past that in a movie to enjoy it.
But the last part left me uneasy. I was bothered by it, but in talking about the movie w/ my fiancee afterwards, we both talked about how we liked it, the acting was good, there were some funny parts (the drive-by whisking away of Olive at the gas station), etc. But I was still left with a feeling of unease after that last scene.
Although I don't agree completely with this reviewer (for one thing, wasn't the gay guy the wife's brother? not the husband's brother?), he did somewhat encapsulate my problem with the movie in that final sequence. I felt better once the family was on stage, and they turned it more into a familyi dance number -- but the whole time Olive was up there shaking her moneymaker, I kept imagining my own daughyter doing that, and it made me extremely uncomfortable. And I suddenly reflected back on the scene in the hotel room w/ grandpa and Olive; and also the fact that grandpa had been coaching her on her routine, in private, away from everyone else's eyes--- and all of that made me uncomfortable. Grandpa was, after all, a heroin addict.
So, in closing -- a generally funny movie, good acting, but some bothersome scenes and situations, for me personally,.