Park me in front of 'The Sitter,' please!

By Sarah Sluis

I have rather nostalgic memories of my babysitters, those too-cool teenagers who played with my brother and myself while we ate kid-friendly food like mac 'n cheese and watched a movie. I adored Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead and some of my friends swore similar allegiance to Adventures in Babysitting. And when it came to books, The Babysitter's Club series took up shelves and shelves in the school library--the "Gossip Girl" of my generation. So it's only natural that I would be excited to see the revival of the babysitter movie.

Jonah Hill will star in The Sitter, with David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) directing. The spec script was good enough to spark a bidding war between 20th Century Fox and Paramount (Fox won). Described as Adventures in Babysitting meets Superbad (which Hill starred in), the story follows a suspended college student living at home who gets roped into babysitting three crazy children next door. It's a nice angle: having the rule-breaker be the enforcer for once. The story also brings to mind Hill's upcoming summer movie Get Him to the Greek, which also involves babysitting--except his charge is a rock star. From the trailer, the movie appears to have the right mix of Hill going along for the ride and freaking out about what is going on, so reprising this persona should be a pretty sure thing. Every generation deserves a good babysitting movie, so I will be pleased to see Hill and Green take on the timeworn genre.