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Avg. Critic Score: 26 out of 100 Generally unfavorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
14 Iffy for 14+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 63
    Boston Globe | Wesley Morris

    I laughed at the Wayanses' movie, and I don't even hate myself for it. Read full review

  • 63
    Philadelphia Inquirer | David Hiltbrand

    An extremely broad and sometimes crude comedy. Read full review

  • 63
    USA Today |

    Almost in spite of itself, Little Man manages to deliver big laughs. It's not enough to make it a consistently funny movie, but this one-trick pony from the Wayans brothers has flashes of humor and sincerity that almost save it from its disastrous ending. Read full review

  • 30
    The Hollywood Reporter | Michael Rechtshaffen

    Once the initial round of breast-feeding and rectal thermometer bits is fired off, the picture starts to give off the funky whiff of unattended Pampers. Read full review

  • 30
    Los Angeles Times | Kevin Crust

    Devoid of verbal wit, instead relying on a relentless stream of Looney Tunes-inspired violence. Read full review

  • 30
    Variety | Justin Chang

    There are probably some moviegoers who can laugh at the sight of a groin-punching, breast-grabbing baby, possibly even find it cute. Everyone else should steer clear of Little Man, which welds Marlon Wayans' head to a diminutive body double, offering up the creepiest bigscreen dwarf since the last David Lynch movie. Read full review

  • 25
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    Tedious. Read full review

  • 25
    San Francisco Chronicle | Peter Hartlaub

    A bunch of gags, most of which you've seen in the trailer, strung together by any means necessary. Read full review

  • 20
    The New York Times |

    Somewhere within all the crude slapstick and crass stereotypes, Little Man operates as a vulgar burlesque on the crisis of African-American manhood, particularly the relationships, or lack thereof, between fathers and sons. Read full review

  • 12
    New York Daily News | Elizabeth Weitzman

    Well, it was bound to happen: The Wayans brothers have made a movie that's even more two-dimensional than a cartoon. Read full review

View more reviews for Little Man on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 14+ Crude, rude one-joke failed comedy.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this film is filled with sexual allusions pushing the PG-13 envelope (visible tongue-kissing, foreplay under covers, references to penis sizes and sperm counts, bouncing breasts, comments about women's bodies). Characters commit frequent, loud acts of violence (hits, falls, collisions, and kicks), resulting in brief bruising and pain inflicted on small children. A character tricks another into having sex with him. The film includes vulgar bodily-function jokes alongside the sex and violence, including a dog urinating on Cal dressed as a baby in a basket, flatulence in a bathtub, spitting up/spraying breast milk, a thunderous bowel movement, and the "baby" rubbing Pops' bedtime cookie on his crotch and bottom to make it stinky.
  • Families can talk about the film's seeming reinforcement of good father-son relations through a premise that involves deception, selfishness, and adultery. When Darryl and Cal finally bond "as adults," why is it significant that this involves violence and then drinking? They can also talk about the appeal of gross-out comedies and where the line is between silly and offensive.
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Lies, thievery, coarse sexual humor, and "comic" violence against kids.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: Cal sneaks into Vanessa's bed and has sex with her (she believes it's her husband); Percy hits Cal with his car door; Cal hits Percy and others in the head (he uses a frying pan to knock out Darryl); characters carry guns; Cal throws a dog out a car window; cops tackle and beat suspect; car crashes; repeated whomps to men's crotches; football game involves father smacking young boys in their heads; fathers attend violent hockey game (a player comes into the stands to stomp Cal); Cal fights with man in dinosaur suit.
  • sex false5 Sex: Barrage of jokes about penis size, sperm counts, sexual "satisfaction," and Viagra; Cal sits on Brittany's lap and grabs at her large breasts; Brittany's "cheers" for football game are sexualized; Cal offers to show at end. pictures of "naked girls" to four-year-olds and they run away ("Ewww!"); very brief homophobic joke.
  • language false3 Language: Lots of profanity and crude language.
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Brief reference to Starbucks.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Cigar smoking; references to "crackheads" and getting out of "rehab" at the end, Darryl offers to put liquor in Cal's milk.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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Dave White

2.0

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