I was a big fan of the TV show when I was a kid (I think I watch/DVR’d all of the episodes on SciFi over the last two weekends – drove my wife nuts ).

I’m also generally a fan of Ferrel – so I was looking forward to this.

My kids are all in their mid/late teens – so I don’t keep as close an eye on what they see as I used to, but I would have been totally thrown by what I EXPECTED – and what apparently IS.

As a general parenting rule – many times, what they see and hear isn’t as important as how YOU react to it. You can’t very well take a too-young son/daughter to a movie with coarse language, then get all upset when they think its OK to use that language.

I am quite certain that all three of my kids are familiar with the use of many swear words – and yet not one has ever dropped an F-bomb (or even something like sh*t) around me or their mother.

Needless to say it was a nightmare. There was so many instances where i should have just gotten up and left, but I didn’t, maybe hoping it would turn around.

This has to be the worst piece of drivel I have ever witnessed. I can’t believe any reputable production company took this on. I have never liked Will Ferrel and i should have know this was going to end up like this. I blame the advertise for leading me to believe this would be something other that what it truly was…

No worries, I can understand your reaction to my statement. It’s just a sore spot for me.

Vic

Ok, so maybe that was a bit of a blanket statement. But I’m sick to death of hearing “parenting advice” over and over and over again from people still in college, without much real life experience, wagging their fingers at those that have been in the trenches for years and have been around twice as long as them.

Vic

It’s ridiculous to think that only a parent can talk on behalf of children everywhere. Morals and values will vary just as much amongst parents as they will amongst non-parents.

Thanks for your thoughts.

I will say though, that I don’t care if my comment came across as condescending (that wasn’t the intent, btw). I’m just calling it like I see it. I continually refer to that scene from Star Trek IV where Spock tells McCoy they can’t discuss life after death without a common frame of reference.

Vic

Actually, without re-reading the older comments it may be that I was mis-interpreting something out of context. It’s hot and I get wound up too easily!

So yes, of course, when a parent has done all they can but still ends up watching a movie with their kids that they find unsuitable, then there’s obviously a problem. But that problem is really a regulatory one, and a whole different debate.

My main point was that people shouldn’t be surprised when they are lied to in advertising… we all just need to keep our wits about us, and not just blindly take our kids to see films and then moan because the trailer made it look like a kids film. Advertisements have an agenda, and ethics don’t come into it.

Incidentally, the whole argument that non parents can’t comment is extremely condescending. If anything it puts you in a position of bias and makes being rational less likely. I’m expecting my first and I sincerely hope I don’t turn into the type of smug, holier than thou parent that currently annoy the hell out of me.

If a kid sees a film under a parent’s supervision, and that parent doesn’t check the rating then they can’t complain if it wasn’t suitable.

Posts like this help to research suitability, and that’s commendable… but it really is down to the parent alone to do that research and make their decision accordingly, and no amount of finger pointing at evil companies can change that.

Also, the idea that 10 year old girls are all giving head to their classmates is quite preposterous to say the least. I’m a fairly liberal chap, but if we really do get to that state of affairs I’ll have to concede that maybe values have declined a bit!

In this case Farrell is getting a long deserved payback for his work, or lack of,,,