Metascore

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 29 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 70 Ratings

  • Summary: A comedy about a college student on suspension who is coaxed into babysitting the kids next door, though he is fully unprepared for the wild night ahead of him. (20th Century Fox)
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 29
  2. Negative: 14 out of 29
  1. Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    Dec 9, 2011
    75
    It's smart, funny, agreeably perverse and simultaneously abrupt and exhausting.
  2. 60
    The Sitter feels slapdash and quick, but you might not want to have it any other way.
  3. Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    Dec 8, 2011
    38
    One of the weaknesses of The Sitter is that Hill doesn't develop much comic chemistry with the children.
  4. 38
    Add up these three intentions – the down-and-dirty tone, the tender and uplifting message, the starring vehicle – and the math ain't funny. Bottom line: This movie is a whole lot less than the sum of its parts.

See all 29 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 25
  2. Negative: 6 out of 25
  1. 9
    The Sitter sets the benchmark for filth. It is gross, disgusting, demeaning, insulting... and that's why I lvoe it. This movie may put off most critics for the sheer vulgarity of it, but I've always found movies like this great. Gross-Out R-Rated Comedies like this and many others are my specialty. I love 'em, even the critically loathed ones (and this just adds to the list). Expand
  2. Jonah Hill is one of the funniest and most underrated comedic actors in all of Hollywood. I am not a huge fan of comedies, in fact, most of the films people consider to be the funniest movies of all time, I didn't like. Hill's films are one of the exceptions. I have to see every movie he is in because he is truly hysterical and makes everything he is in exceptional. The sitter didn't have a very strong plot, but it was a hysterical movie that worked because of Hill. Everyone around him just follows his lead and plays off his energy and it was evident here. Hill along with three kids he's babysitting go on an unbelievable and hysterical adventure in NYC. It's one of those films you don't believe and that initial comes across as stupid, but it's also a film you can't stop watching because you want to see what happens next. Hill was fantastic, the three kids were great, and for once I actually enjoyed a comedy with Sam Rockwell in it. This film isn't going to change any lives or win any awards, but it was damn good and a lot of fun, I highly recommend it. Expand
  3. Not jonah hill's best work, but it was clever to make a raunchy film that basks in its own raunchiness to satirize this age old plot. if you watch it with the mindset that it is making fun of the typical "family high jinks" movie you can get a lot of laughs from it Expand
  4. Some say this is clever and vulgar, but it is not. Once you get outside of its inane plot, this is a generic film attempting to be funny and failing featuring wooden performances, a misplaced soundtrack, and unbalanced direction. I usually am a fan of director David Gordon Green, but I can only see him benefiting from the irony of making a film he grew up loving as a 10-year-old, meant for adults. Unfortunately, I was neither high, drunk, hungover or pre-pubescent, and I wasn't entertained in the least at any point during the movie. Expand

See all 25 User Reviews

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