Hit Man parents guide: Glen Powell stars in this adults-only murderous rom-com

After a brief theatrical run, Hit Man is now on Netflix. Starring Glen Powell and Adria Arjona in the sort of true life story of Gary Johnson, a college professor who pretends to be a Hit Man for the cops. This uproarious and sexy rom-com is comedic perfection. But will it be the hit (man) of family movie night?

In the movie, Powell is Gary, a nerdy professor who can’t quite connect with other people. That is until the guy who regular pretends to be a hit man in order to entrap prospective clients, played by The Walking Dead’s Austin Amelio, gets put on suspension – so Gary steps into his shoes. And in fact, Gary is pretty great about stepping into a lot of different shoes, up until he meets a woman named Madison (Arjona) who wants to kill her husband.

Gary talks her out of it, and what follows is a whirlwind, screwball romance that gets crazier as it goes. I won’t spoil any of the twists here, but it’s the most laugh-out-loud funny movie Richard Linklater has directed since School of Rock.

That said, this is definitely for adults, and we’ll explain why.

Hit Man Parents Guide: Explaining The R Age Rating

Hit Man is rated R on Netflix for “language throughout, sexual content, and some violence.” But how extreme is all of it? Are we talking Basic Instinct, or… Not Basic Instinct?

Sex & Nudity: There’s no explicit nudity in the movie, but there is side-boob and side-butt. And that ties into the pretty frequent sex scenes in the movie, as Madison and Gary get, um, closer. While we’re not even talking as explicit as Powell’s other recent hit, Anyone But You, they’re still very much adult sex scenes, and happen with some frequency.

Violence: Surprisingly, despite the title, there’s not a ton of violence in the movie – though plenty of discussions of dismemberment, murder, etc. There are some guns that get pulled out, and – big spoiler here – someone gets poisoned and then suffocated with a plastic bag. But Gary isn’t a real hit man, so he isn’t actually killing anyone. Mostly.

Language: Pervasive. The cops, the other characters, everyone curses, and you get all the varieties of words. F-bombs, S-bombs, B-bombs. All the bombs.

Drinking & Drugs: There are definitely discussions of drug use, and at one point Madison and Gary smoke what looks like pot. There’s also some drinking throughout, though nothing too extreme.

Overall Verdict: What Age Is Hit Man Appropriate For?

The R Rating is definitely correct here, this is for 17 and up. That said, as usual it depends on your teenager… The sex scenes aren’t explicit, but are extremely sexy, so if you’re comfortable with that sort of subject matter you can potentially skew a year or two younger. But I certainly wouldn’t let my 14-year-old watch this. They can wait a few years.