There comes a time in an action star’s career when he must decide what kind of future he wants. Will he continue to play the tough guy even as he ages out of a physically demanding genre, or will he diversify, trying his hand at other genres to find something to comfortably shift into when stunt work is better left to the young guys? Enter the action star babysitter movie – the perfect vehicle to try on a career in comedy. It’s a simple premise – you take an action hero, best known for kicking ass and taking names and give them between one and twenty kids to look after. Chaos, and varying degrees of hilarity, inevitably ensue.
The genre was born in 1990 with Kindergarten Cop. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a tough cop who goes undercover as a kindergarten teacher to find and protect a dangerous criminal’s young son. All the elements of the genre are laid out here: Arnie is hopelessly, hilariously inept at taking care of children – faced with an adversary he can’t scare or beat into submission – but he soon learns to adapt his tough guy skills to the task at hand, allows himself to soften slightly and forms a lifelong bond with his young charges. There’s visual humor from Arnie’s massive frame looming over a gaggle of 5-year-olds, and endless situations where a guy who’s used to violence and intimidation has to manage a child’s irrationality with more patience than he possesses.
The action star babysitter is the next step from the standard “man takes care of the baby” films such as Three Men and a Baby, Mr. Mom, and even Kramer vs Kramer. These films also involve hapless men taking on childcare roles but without the shot of steroids which the action star babysitter film uses to push the contrast even further. These men are not just untrained in the art of childcare, they are made for the complete opposite. They are destroyers not nurturers, built and trained to fight not comfort, they are hunters, not caretakers. We watch as they learn to adapt their special set of skills to their new task at hand and come to realize they have more to offer as caregivers than they would have ever expected.
Chances are your favorite action hero has done at least one of these films. Vin Diesel played a Navy SEAL tasked with protecting five unruly kids in 2005’s The Pacifier. Dwayne Johnson was a football player with a surprise daughter in The Game Plan, John Cena was a smokejumper whose crew rescued three kids from a forest fire in 2019’s woeful Playing with Fire, and Dave Bautista did his turn as a spy with a pint-sized stalker in My Spy. It’s not only muscle-bound behemoths who get the chance to be disarmed by some kids on-screen – but martial arts superstar Jackie Chan also flexed his comedy chops in 2010's The Spy Next Door.
These later additions to the genre lean further into making their stars look ridiculous, whether it’s Vin Diesel performing a song and dance to lull a toddler to sleep, Dwayne Johnson taking ballet lessons with his daughter, or John Cena donning a tiny white unicorn tee for a birthday party, these films now require at least one scene where the toughest guy in movies has his macho image torn to shreds. Of course, all is restored by the end of the film, where inevitably our hero uses his action star skills and his newfound parenting abilities to save the kids from mortal danger, showing us all that he’s still a man, though perhaps a more evolved version than he was 90 minutes ago.
These films are all about masculinity and the identity crises that can occur when our culture’s concept of male identity is shifting. These characters are, much like their actors, used to being praised for their physicality, their ability to solve problems with violence, and their coolness under pressure. When cast as a caregiver, all these attributes become hindrances and reasons for ridicule.
The kids in Arnie’s kindergarten class are initially terrified by the giant who’s taken over their class, but instead of his immense muscular form intimidating his class into obedience it just makes them cry and act out more. Vin Diesel’s strict navy training which gave him a successful career in The Pacifier gets him no respect from his new wards who just find his uptight nature funny and delight in trying to get him to lose his cool. These films mine humor from these men realizing that their macho identities are no longer useful in their new situations. After about half-an-hour of panic and amusing chaos, we see them learn that adapting and growing doesn’t mean losing who they are.
As we watch these characters allow themselves to expand their senses of self to include sensitivity and kindness, we are also seeing the action stars behind them develop their careers beyond their usual scope. Arnold Schwarzenegger had already tried out comedy in Twins, but Kindergarten Cop proved he could lead a funny movie by himself. Since The Game Plan, Dwayne Johnson has built half his career from comedies, including Tooth Fairy which though not a bona fide action star babysitter movie, does share significant overlap.
These films aren't often very well-made and frequently fall into the trap of cliches and slapstick that is perhaps to be expected from big-budget family comedies trying to appeal to all ages. It is nonetheless entertaining to see our favorite action stars adapt their skillset to a new genre, and it is undeniably funny to watch a very large man be broken by a very small child. Plus, sometimes one of these films shows us a different side to an actor we thought we knew and opens up a whole new path to their career.