Unfunny dark comedy leans on cursing, molestation jokes.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 16+?
Any Positive Content?
Language
a lot
Frequent profanity, particularly every variation of "f--k." Other language includes "ass," "a--hole," "balls," "bastards," "bitch," "d--k," "goddamn," "hell," "p---y" (to mean "weak"), and "s--t." Young teens use profanity and consistently speak disrespectfully to adults, including repeatedly calling their dad a "douche" and saying they're teaching a baby the "N" word. The phrase "come on" is giggled at as having a sexual meaning. "Jesus" is used as an exclamation. Lots of name-calling and put-downs.
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Baby Ruth candy bars figure prominently. Château Latour is featured as an expensive, aspirational wine. Wealthy characters drive a Volvo. Spanx is a recurring joke. Ebay is mentioned as business idea inspiration, and Marlboro cigarettes are seen. Entitled teens complain about what their dad isn't buying them. Rich people have lots of material goods; it's seen that their financial difficulties started with buying expensive things they didn't need.
Drinking, Drugs & Smoking
a lot
Characters drink when they're miserable, to celebrate, to socialize, and in the course of doing business. Quite a bit of smoking: A main character starts smoking when life gets tough. A drug smuggler is transporting bags of cocaine (which are seen) and is made to be subject of sympathy.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.
Two men catch on fire and scream while covered head to toe in flames. A couple is kidnapped and threatened at gunpoint by a group of men. Attempted sexual assaults are played for humor. One character attacks another, choking him. A character is hit with a shovel. A character is pepper-sprayed in the face. Shouting, frequent physical threats.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.
A woman dresses in tight clothes and uses her sexuality to secure a business deal. A married couple kisses often and, when planning to have sex, is seen in their underwear -- although mostly covered up. A convicted sex offender is a major supporting character and "pervert innuendo" is a running joke, including the fact that he ends up with an 18-year-old girlfriend.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.
Movie is an example of how quickly things can spiral out of control when you start to fudge your ethics. Quotable messages, for good or bad, are: "Grass can grow through concrete" and "a drunk man's actions are a sober man's thoughts."
Positive Role Models
very little
The only admirable characters are two supporting characters who help boost the movie's representation quotient (one has a disability, the other is Latinx). A Caucasian man speaks with several stereotypical and offensive minority accents.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Drunk Parents is an intentionally offensive comedy starring Alec Baldwin and Salma Hayek. As the title indicates, the characters make a bad decision while under the influence but then double-down on both the poor choices and the alcohol consumption. Smoking and swearing ("f--k," "s--t," and much more) are also constants. The over-the-top comedy includes characters making fun of a young man in a wheelchair, characters speaking in stereotypically "ethnic" accents, and a woman acting drunk/using her body to get male business investors. Pedophilia is a recurring joke, including a convicted sex offender (Jim Gaffigan) being portrayed sympathetically and a young teen setting up his relatives to look like they molested him. Will Ferrell makes a cameo as a foul-mouthed bum who tries to sexually assault Hayek's character. Materialism is off the charts, and a couple steals from their friends and scams others to keep up their facade of having money. We're supposed to feel good that the couple fosters a little girl whose drug-trafficker dad is in jail, but considering how vile these characters are, it's no reward to the child -- or the audience. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.
In DRUNK PARENTS, after Frank and Nancy Teagarten (Alec Baldwin and Salma Hayek) drop off their daughter at college, they tackle their financial problems -- or rather, their financial problems tackle them. While drunk, the two launch a scheme to make money while keeping up appearances that they're still rolling in dough. But that "solution" leads to more problems, which leads to more deception, which multiplies their issues.
Drunk Parents tries to be offensive comedy, but it's just offensively bad. The film boasts an ensemble cast of seasoned comedic actors, but they make all the bumbling, unforced errors of a beginning improv troupe. It's so humorless and out of touch with today's comedy boundaries -- cringey in a terrible way, with elements like pedophile characters and making jokes at the expense of the disabled -- that viewers' jaws are likely to be left on the ground in horror. Those who watch will be left with one question: How did a film so bad get so many big stars?
Answer that, and you'll garner the one positive lesson that this mess could pass on to a teen: In real life, business gets done through building relationships. Drunk Parents writer-director Fred Wolf is a former head writer of SNL; by following his IMDb page, you can see where the yesses fell into place. While Wolf also directed the successful comedy The House Bunny, Drunk Parents has issues on every level: the script, the directing, the editing, the sound quality, and even the acting. Baldwin can portray an irascible elitist in his sleep,but Hayek plays her upper-class housewife as so over the top that it constitutes bad acting. Skip this irredeemable movie, even if it's playing for free and there's nothing else to do for two hours.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how Drunk Parents is meant to show the slippery slope of engaging in an illegal/immoral activity. While the story is an exaggeration, do you think there's truth to the domino effect of troubles piling on? Do you think desperation leads to bad choices?
How is compassion displayed in the film? Which characters are deserving of the audience's compassion? Which aren't?
How is drinking portrayed in the film? Do you think the filmmakers are trying to project a message about drinking? If so, where did they hit -- and/or miss -- the mark?
Why do you think audiences find "over-the-top" comedy funny? Is there a line beyond which the comedy goes too far? In a society that's increasingly learning to be sensitive to typically suppressed communities, can this type of comedy continue to thrive? Do you think it works here?
MPAA explanation:
language throughout and crude sexual references
Last updated:
May 20, 2024
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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
By Tara McNamara
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