Grown Ups Review

Messages: The movie explores the impact of middle age, depicting it as a time when people start coming to terms with who they are instead of who they thought they would be. Part of that realization process is that people still have time to change if they want to -- though some of the people who try get discouraged because it can be tough. The movie presents childhood as a time for imaginative play and adventure seeking, rather than texting or playing video games. Amid the broader messages are a fair number of potty-humor gags (peeing in the pool) and jokes based on issues like weight.

Role models: The five main characters are extreme archetypes of middle-aged men. None of them has their act completely together, but some are worse off than others, and while some grow during the course of the film, others don’t. (That said, all are trying to do right by their families.) Their kids are shown acting up; in one family, they boss their nanny around via text message, expecting to be waited on. Affluent and entitled, these kids are put off by the rustic fun offered at a lake cabin and long for the technologies -- Wii, flat screens -- to which they’re accustomed. Female characters are thinly drawn and often the butt of jokes.

Violence: Lots of slapstick humor, but no real violence. Friends play a game in which they shoot an arrow into the air and then run away, hoping to avoid it as it crashes down. Kids are shown playing a video game in which they shoot and kill other characters.

Sex: One male character is seen from behind, naked from the waist down. Also lots of innuendo and suggestive dialogue/sexual references, but no on-screen sex. Several scenes show the male leads ogling scantily clad women's cleavage and behinds.

Language: “Ass” and “s--t” are used once or twice; other words include "dick," "damn," "crap," "hell," and "oh my God." A child’s ringtone includes the word “bi-atch.” Plenty of scenes include pseudo-curse-words like “shiz-nizzle.”

Consumerism: Many brands are mentioned by name and/or appear on screen, including Cadillac, Dunkin' Donuts, Wii, Voss water, and Budweiser. One character wears a KFC bucket on his head in several scenes.

Drinking, drugs and smoking: Adults make jokes in front of children about “getting wasted" (the kids then start using this term, thinking it means something else). One adult character is buzzed or drunk most of the movie. He drinks shots and encourages others to join him and cradles a bottle of liquor.