The Sitter

Starring: Jonah Hill, Max Records, Ari Graynor, Landry Bender, Kevin Hernandez
Directed by: David Gordon Green
Rating: I Loved It

I was kind of leery about this movie when I first saw the previews for a couple of different reasons.

One, I'm a Hill fan, but I was kind of worried that he wouldn't be able to carry the lead role.  He's done a great job in movies where he's had small roles (i.e. Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Knocked Up) or shared the lead (i.e. Superbad with Michael Cera & Christopher Mintz-Plasse), but taking the lead all on your own is a totally separate thing, especially when a lot of your comedic style comes from responding to the characters around you and the jokes they set up.  I was wrong to worry.  He did a great job, but he wasn't alone either.  I'll get to that.

Two, Adventures in Babysitting was a great 80s flick, one of the classics, and I thought this was basically going to be a really bad reinterpretation of that movie.  Don't get me wrong, this was totally a throwback to Adventures, but it was it's own movie and wasn't really bad at all.

With those two things being proven wrong, I have to fully endorse this movie.

The Good:

• As mentioned above, Hill did a great job as the leading man here.  I was more than pleasantly surprised.
• Hill's supporting cast, particularly Graynor, did a great job with their roles.  The weakest was Hernandez, but even he still did a pretty good job.  
• The laughs just kept coming.  I laughed all through this one, and that's a feat to accomplish.  None of the laughs were long lasting, but they were definitely plentiful.  
• Though the story (crazy night of encounters for an otherwise, usually boring character) has been told more than once in many different ways, the writers found a way to keep it pretty fresh here.  
• I felt like I was watching a great 80s flick, except for the current pop culture and events.  That's always a good thing.  

The Bad: 

• There is one instance that wasn't resolved involving some police officers.  I didn't care for the lost plot point.  
• I would've like to have seen more with Kylie Bunbury.  I think she wasn't featured as the "new girl" nearly enough.  

The Ugly: 

• As with most movies I give good ratings, I can't say anything about this one was ugly.