Movie Review: 'The Sitter' has some moments but not many

By Sam Bauman
"The Sitter," billed as a black comedy and currently flickering at Heavenly Village Cinema at South Shore Lake Tahoe, is mercifully only 81 minutes long, but that's long enough to spell disaster to any discriminating movie goer.

It stars comic actor Jonah Hill as college failure Noah forced into baby sitting three of the most repellent child actors in living memory. He is also pursuing a blonde who is suggesting intimacy that night.

However, Hill as Noah, who is living with his mother, is pressed into service to baby sit the three young terrors. They are Slater (Max Records), aloof and serious; Blithe,(Landry Bender) who is obsessed with adult makeup; and Rodrigo (Kevin Hernandez) a surly exchange student that is part of the household. And there's the sexy girlfriend of Noah (Art Graynor) who is insistent on getting it on.

Also lurking about, in the the most improbable drug dealing den in history, a body building gym, are a couple of dealers who become involved in chasing Noah for $10,000 in spilled dope.

So we've got some sloppy movie making here. That means we can look at it simply from an entertainment point of view for the average audience. And as such, it has some moments, but not many. There's the usual kid stuff, such as Rodrigo peeing on the ballroom floor. There's car chases of sorts, and there's bogus sentimentality to give a sheen of thoughtfulness to it all.
But it just doesn't hang together in any sensible way. Hill is professional funny man with his bulk and seriousness, mixed with wild incompetence. But it isn't enough for even 81 minutes.

There's some interaction between drug dealers and Hill's collection of black friends. There's a pretty black girl that winds up with Noah. And there's a wholly jammed in joke about a couple of gay LA cops that is snide.

The dialog is jammed with as many four-letter words as the script writers could dredge up said in as mean a way as possible. And the sound track is perhaps as bad as your worst rock concert.

Kids may laugh at the innocent stupidity of all actor and writers involved here, but most adults will probably wish they had bought a bigger bag of popcorn to get them through the night with something mildly tasty.
Let's set up a code for reviewing movies. Divide them into classes — meaningful, average or dreck. Meaningful is something like Scorese's "Hugo." Dreck is "The Sitter." Drek is not to be reviewed with the same rigor as meaningful movies. Dreck is simply Hollywood out to make a quick buck with little interest in any kind of meaningful content. Not serious movie making under any guise.

Cast

Jonah Hill as Noah
Ari Graynor as Marisa
Sam Rockwell as Karl
J.B. Smoove as Julio
Method Man as Jacolby
Max Records as Slater Pedulla
Landry Bender as Blithe Pedulla
Kevin Hernandez as Rodrigo
Kylie Bunbury as Roxanne
Erin Daniels as Mrs. Pedulla
D.W. Moffett as Doctor Pedulla
Sean Patrick Doyle as Garv
Alex Wolff as Clayton
Lou Carbonneau as Maitre' D
Sammuel Soifer as Benji Gillespie
Alysia Joy Powell as Suzy

Directed by David Gordon Green
Produced by Michael De Luca
Screenplay by Brian Gatewood, Alessandro Tanaka
Music by Jeff McIlwain