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I'm... not really sure why I watched 'The Babysitters' (and looking at the poster, I'm practically embarrassed to admit that I did). Maybe for the same reason that I occasionally watch Lifetime movies when I feel like devoting 90 minutes or so to something easy-to-follow and mindless.
'The Babysitters' isn't all that different from your typical Lifetime film -- meaning that, in this movie, the women are portrayed as more powerful and in control than the men. Only the women here are actually high-school girls -- who happen to run a call-girl service, which they operate under the guise of "baby-sitting". (Classy.)
The girls enjoy making money for awhile. Eventually, however, things start to go very wrong with their little business, causing their (vaguely creepy) supposedly 17-year-old founder/"madam" Shirley's life to spiral out of control. (Katherine Waterston, who plays Shirley, was well into her 20's when she filmed this movie, and... looks it.)
Meanwhile, almost all of the male characters in 'The Babysitters' are really sleazy -- with the possible exception of a brother of one of the call girls (his reward for attempting to protect his sister is a beat-down by some masked thugs in one particularly silly and hard-to-swallow scene).
At least Lifetime movies are (I think) *intentionally* mindless and formulaic in most cases; I don't believe that was the intent with 'The Babysitters'. I could be wrong, but I got the sense that the director was going for something "clever" or "mysterious". Maybe not. Mostly, I just found the movie pointless and dull.
I should have known not to expect much when I saw that John Leguizamo was the top-billed star. (2/10)
2/10
