Parents Rating: Release Date: 25 May, 1999 Retail Price: $24.98 Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: Randy Quaid Mary Beth Hurt Warren Hermanas Huerta Complete Cast (5 total)

Parents Reviews

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Silliness that could have been, but was not, inspired.
Parents (Bob Balaban, 1989)

TV director Balaban makes his feature debut with this little comedy about which I can't quite figure out what to say. I know I was unimpressed with it; I simply can't figure out why.

The story concerns Michael (Bryan Madorsky, in his only screen role), a schoolboy who comes to believe that his parents Nick (Brokeback Mountain's Randy Quaid) and Lily (The Exorcism of Emily Rose's Mary Beth Hurt) are cannibals. This, obviously, messes with his head, which puts him on contact with school counselor Millie Dew (A Hatful of Rain's Sandy Dennis, in one of her final screen appearances). Is it all in his head, or are his parents really cannibals?

There is nothing terribly wrong with this film, per se; the acting is competent if nothing special, the script is predictable but decent, and at times amusing, the direction is solid without being notable, etc. It's average to the point of being innocuous-- which is a problem in a film about a kid who thinks his parents may be trying to feed him parts of other human beings.

And you know, for some reason, I just fgured out what's been nagging me this whole time. So how did it take this kid until he was ten, or thereabouts (I don't remember his age ever being specified), to start wondering what it is he's eating? And why does he stop? It makes no sense-- and as it's the basis of the movie, it undermines everything else. **

dark........twisted..........sick..........disturbing.........creepy......
you'll never want to eat meat again.
set in the 1950's suburbia, think of
"the 'burbs" on acid and you'll get
the idea of what you are in for.

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