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Bad Words | 2014 | R | - 6.3.6

Jason Bateman stars as a 40-year-old, eighth-grade dropout that works as a proofreader and exploits a loophole to enter a kids' spelling bee. He ventures into adult and crude language and actions as often as he can, while an online journalist (Kathryn Hahn) pays his entry fees and expenses all the way to the spelling bee finals in California. Also with Rohan Chand, Allison Janney, Rachel Harris and Philip Baker Hall. Directed by Bateman. [1:28]

SEX/NUDITY 6 - A man and a woman have sex on a mattress in a supply room closet (they are shown clothed from the chest up); we see them thrusting and hear them groaning as the woman shouts, "Don't look at me" several times and calls out, "Yep, yep, yep" and she shouts and the man grunts. Sexual groans are heard coming from a bathroom shower behind the curtain and a man leans out and onto the nearby closed toilet (we see his bare shoulders, arms and chest) and he says, "Don't look at me" as a joke.
 A man takes an overweight prostitute wearing a clingy micro-mini skirt and halter-top to meet a 10-year-old boy on a dark street (we see most of her bare thighs and lower legs and her breasts bounce in her halter-top); when she meets the boy, she pulls the sides of the top to the middle and exposes her breasts and the boy looks stunned as he stares while she counts to 10 and bounces her breasts twice at the end of the count, pulls her top back in place, accepts some money from the man and walks away; the man suggests getting ice cream and the boy says he'd rather have ketchup (the prostitute) so the man and the boy run after her; the camera cuts to a hotel hallway where the man tells the boy they needed one more dollar for the boy to have "gotten some skin" (i.e. sexual action). A man asks a woman at dinner in a restaurant if she wants anything solid (implying an erection); she says no and runs away from the table.
 A man stumbles out of a washroom stall with his pants at his ankles, his long shirttail covering his genitals, and a lobster hanging onto his genitals with one claw (the lobster was placed into the toilet by someone).
 A 10-year-old boy tells a man that he wants a girlfriend with nipples; he looks at girls at school and some of them have nipples that are evident through the material of their blouses and some don't. A man finds a pair of flowered panties on the floor in his room after a female friend leaves and stuffs them into his jacket pocket; later, at a spelling bee, he gives the panties to a boy and says that the boy's mom had sex with him last night; the boy imagines the man and his mom smoking as if after sex (please see the Substance Use category for more details) and the boy throws the panties angrily at his mom in the audience. A man squirts ketchup on a girl's chair seat at a spelling bee and when she sits in it without looking, the man gives her congratulations for having her first period; she looks down at the seat and refuses to get up to go to the microphone for her turn, then shouts that she cannot do it and runs off stage.
 A man tells a female friend that his father was a door-to-door salesman who had a one-night stand with his mom and never contacted her again. A boy tells his father that another man, "Showed me my first boobs" and the father looks incredulous. A man tells a boy that if he says "soda pop" instead of "soda," he will be raped. A man tells a woman that he bought pornography and ice cream for a little boy (we see no pornography). A man berates a woman, saying that she must be blindfolded to have an orgasm. A man asks a woman if she straps on a hard one (prosthetic genitals) to celebrate with a friend on special occasions and she ignores the comment. A reporter says that a man should provide his favorite female breast size. A man tells a mother that her vagina is probably like a stretched out old sweat sock and as big as an elephant's trunk. A woman stands up and yells during a spelling bee that a man made crude anatomical remarks to her and she adds that her vagina is full and beautiful, while cops carry her away.

VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - A boy and a man have several loud arguments on stage during a spelling bee; the boy kicks the man in the groin (this is repeated in slow motion) sending the man to the floor, grimacing and groaning in pain; the boy swings a chair at the man, but hits an elderly man (we see cut on his forehead) who then gets up and tells everyone in the auditorium to come to order and finish this spelling bee.
 Men and women chase a man out of a school building to his car, waving their arms and shouting at him; a woman spits a glob of slimy white spittle onto the passenger side window where the man has taken a seat and a man throws a wooden chair onto the hood and windshield of the car, causing a leg to break from the chair (the windshield is undamaged).
 A man burns a boy's spelling bee study book at night on a small table beside a motel pool and as the boy looks from his window the man squirts lighter fluid on the book to make the flames grow taller; later that night, the boy calls the police and says the man pulled a teen girl into the man's room to rape her and three police officers break his door down and roust the man, but release him. Three older boys hassle a 10-year-old boy, calling him a name and making him drop his books; an adult friend of the boy drives up in a black and white former police car, places a red flashing light on the roof and chases the boys, who pedal off on their bikes as fast as they can. A man squirts ketchup on a girl's chair seat at a spelling bee and when she sits in it without looking, the man gives her congratulations for having her first period; she looks down at the seat and refuses to get up to go to the microphone for her turn, then shouts that she cannot do it and runs off stage.
 A rude man consistently insults and humiliates nearly everyone he meets, of all genders and ages. Parents boo a man taking part in a spelling bee and the leader of the organization tells them angrily to quiet down and show respect for the competition. A man argues briefly with an older man who runs a spelling bee competition, refusing to drop out as the older man requests; later, the younger man writes the older man a long note and hands it to him, but the older man tears it up without opening it and throws it to the ground.
 A man squirts ketchup on the bumper of his car and over the face of a young boy who lies down in front of the car; the man stops a male driver passing by, asks for help and drags the boy away by the feet, as the male driver looks confused and angry. A man chases a boy through a grocery store with a lobster that is waving its claws.
 A man says that at age 13 he stole his school counselor's bike and shaved the man's cat; when he was younger, his mother set his dictionary on fire. A man tells a female friend walking to the washroom on an airplane that since her bladder is full she should get away from him.
 After a man is assigned a supply room as his motel accommodation and receives no answer about bathroom location, he places a white trash bag (implied feces inside) onto the reception counter the next morning as he walks by.

LANGUAGE 6 - About 18 F-words and its derivatives, 3 obscene hand gestures, 4 sexual references, 15 scatological terms, 31 anatomical terms, 11 mild obscenities, name-calling (weirdo, weird, loser, idiot, lunatic, liar, hijacker, marble mouth, potholder, slimy, bum, slop, Queen Bee, Quaker, smarmy, samara, Slumdog), stereotypical references to men, women, mothers, stage parents, overachieving children, bloggers, door to door salesmen, Indians, professors, spelling bee officials, prostitutes), exclamations (shut-up), 5 religious profanities (GD), 7 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh God, As God Is My Witness, God Bless His Soul, Geez, Jesus Christ, God).

SUBSTANCE USE - A man goes to a boy's motel room and drinks all the tiny bottles of alcohol from the mini bar leaving the empty bottles on a table, a man chugs three double-shots of whiskey at a bar and gives a fourth one to a boy sitting on the floor beside him and the child drinks it, a woman orders two cocktails and a man drinks a glass of whiskey at a motel bar, and a man and a woman drink large glasses of wine at a restaurant dinner table. A man and a woman smoke cigarettes in the seats of an auditorium.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Academic competitions, cheating in contests, families, absent fathers, friends, relationships, integrity, responsibility, justice, redemption.

MESSAGE - Don't let a painful past ruin your future.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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