alexander and the very bad no good horrible day

There's also some mild language (butt jokes, 'crap,' 'idiot,' 'sucks,' etc.) and inappropriate behavior (cyberbullying, the suggestion that party performers are going to start stripping, etc.), but ultimately this is a sweet, entertaining movie with positive messages about finding humor in adversity and coming together as a family.

Additional mayhem also ensues, but amidst the chaos, Alexander's family manages to support each other and ends up even stronger than they were before. During 11-year-old Alexander's very bad day, his 13-year-old sister ( Kerris Dorsey) drinks cough medicine from the bottle and ends up drunk, his dad ( Steve Carell) accidentally sets his shirt on fire, and his 16-year-old brother ( Dylan Minnette) picks up his cell phone during a driving test, then gets into a car accident. Parents need to know that Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is loosely based on the classic children's book of the same name.

Dad Ben drinks at a restaurant and accidentally sets his shirt sleeves on fire.ĭid you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide. Suffering from a cold, Alexander's 13-year-old sister drinks cough medicine straight from the bottle (in front of her dad) to get through a school play and ends up drunk on stage she eventually throws up. And Anthony's girlfriend is self-centered and materialistic, but she's clearly not intended to be a positive role model. There’s some brief cyberbullying when a classmate takes a picture of Alexander and puts his picture on the face of bikini-clad women and spreads the photo around school. They demonstrate perseverance and teamwork when things get tough. Really, the terrible day helps them all admit and face up to their weaknesses and become stronger as a family.

But ultimately they all support each other when the chips are down, and there's no question that they're a loving, caring, hardworking, down-to-earth group. During the terrible day, the worst in all of the Coopers comes out: Parents are distracted (dad Ben ignores the baby during a job interview and lets him eat a marker), important responsibilities are ignored (mom Kelly ignores her job for a long time after she creates a catastrophe at work), teens make big mistakes (texting while driving, drinking enough cough medicine to basically get drunk before going on stage, etc.), etc.

Alexander and the very bad no good horrible day