History Manchild / LiveActionFilms

* Played with in ''Film/TheFortyYearOldVirgin''; the main character is, as the title suggests, not sexually active, and also dresses in a rather buttoned-down fashion, has a typically childish hobby of collecting comic-book action-figures and is slightly naive and inexperienced, coming across on the surface as being one of these. However, on the whole he's actually managed to get his shit together a lot more successfully than many of the supposedly more 'experienced' men and women around him, and generally comes off as being a lot more mature, well-rounded and wise about life than them.
* The adult villain from ''Film/TheAdventuresOfElmoInGrouchland'''s big deal is that he doesn't like to ever share anything, including a ''blanket'' he stole, for god's sake!

* The title character in both versions of ''Film/{{Arthur 1981}}'', thanks to wealthy upbringing and a multi-million dollar inheritance, has never needed to hold down a job and is now TheAlcoholic FunPersonified TabloidMelodrama shame of his by-and-large humorless family as an adult. While he uses his money to enjoy very adult activities, his townhouse also has various childhood pleasures (a giant model train set, a pinball machine, etc.) in the 1981 original, and in the 2011 remake his EstablishingCharacterMoment is a joyride with his chauffeur in the ''Film/BatmanForever'' Batmobile. His valet has become his ParentalSubstitute on top of all this. Ultimately, falling in love with a working-class woman and the threat of losing his money if he chooses her over an ArrangedMarriage forces him to gain ''some'' measure of maturity to find true happiness (more so in the remake, where the original saved further CharacterDevelopment for the sequel). The trope is more pronounced in the 1981 original because Creator/DudleyMoore was 46 at the time, whereas the remake's Creator/RussellBrand was 34. The ExpositoryThemeTune that appears in both versions discusses this: "Arthur he does as he pleases/All of his life he's mastered choice/And deep in his heart/He's just, he's just a boy".

* [[ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} Selena Kyle]] in ''Film/BatmanReturns'' starts out as a downplayed version of this. Unlike most examples she lives independently, holds down a job and generally acts like an adult, albeit very timid and insecure. However, her home is bright pink and cutesy and she's shown to own dozens of stuffed animals and a dollhouse.
* Chance the Gardener in ''Film/BeingThere''; in the movie version his maid Louise actually says "You're always gonna be a little boy, ain't cha?" when she leaves after the death of the master of the house. It's stated in the book and heavily implied in the film that he is mentally challenged; the twist is that most of the other characters don't recognize this, making the character a TropeNamer for similar mistaken identity situations. Creator/PeterSellers played him in the film; he initiated its making because he identified with the character so strongly when he read the book. For better and worse, he was a RealLife example of this.
* Josh Baskin comes off this way in ''Film/{{Big}}'', he really is a 12-year-old boy in the body of an adult due to a wish he made to become taller so he could ride a roller coaster at the carnival. It gets [[{{Squick}} Squicky]] when, in an attempt to prove to his mother he's really her son despite having a 30-year-old's physique, he [[StealthPun briefly]] pulls down his pants to show her his [[GoofyPrintUnderwear little-boy underwear]] and the birthmark on the back of his left knee, and she [[AccidentalPervert naturally freaks out]].

* ''Film/TheBronze'': Hope is one at the beginning. She mooches off her dad, while living in his house, ''stealing'' from his mail bag (a federal crime, as he notes) and acts generally like a spoiled kid. Her dad enables and tolerates this at first, but finally tries to push her into maturing (which eventually works).

* Wade Wilson in ''Film/Deadpool2016''. He makes goofy crayon drawings of his revenge schemes, proposes to his girlfriend with a ring pop, and generally acts silly. Takes a turn for PsychopathicManchild after his transformation-via-mad-science-torture and subsequent RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

* ''Film/DinnerInAmerica'': Patty is a rare female version. She's 20 years old but dresses and behaves like a young teenager. She lives under the thumb of her parents, asking their permission to attend a concert. It's not exactly clear how she ended up this way, though she takes a fistfull of mind-affecting medication every day for unspecified reasons.
* Buddy from ''Film/{{Elf}}'' is over 35-years-old and still acts like a 6-year-old and has a very infantile view of the world; this is due to [[DeliberateValuesDissonance being raised by elves from infanthood]]; Buddy even notes that he doesn't know many other people who "share my affinity for elf culture."
* PlayedForDrama in ''Film/FallingDown'' as SympatheticInspectorAntagonist Prendergast's wife experienced SanitySlippage after the [[OutlivingOnesOffspring death of their daughter]], forcing him to retire early to take care of her. She constantly whines about everything, forcing Prendergast to give up his work time to deal with her anxieties, and [[WetBlanketWife orders him around]]. Her EstablishingCharacterMoment has Prendergast needing to soothe her by singing a lullaby while she's throwing a fit.

* In ''Film/FearInc'', Joe Foster is an unemployed slacker who sponges off his wealthy girlfriend: lounging around her luxury home, playing video games, pranking the neighbours, and ignoring the list of chores she leaves for him to do.
* In ''Film/FindingNeverland'', James Barrie is (mostly) capable of taking care of himself, but he has an air of immaturity and childlike wonder about him, and he clearly has much more fun playing make believe with the Llewelyn Davies boys than he does socializing with adults.

* Marv from ''Film/HomeAlone'' is very childish at heart, contrasting Harry who's more overtly serious. His [[SkewedPriorities number one priority]] from the stolen houses are the toys and people's snow globes for his collection, and he floods their victim's houses because they're "The Wet Bandits" and "all the great ones leave calling cards". Needless to say he still manages to be every bit as violent and dangerous as Harry as he's fully willing to torture and kill Kevin, to the point he'd be a full-on PsychopathicManChild if he wasn't so AffablyEvil when not otherwise pressed.

* Sam from ''Film/IAmSam'', although he actually is mentally retarded. It's stated early in the film that he has the intellectual capacity of a 7-year-old.

* Clara from ''Theatre/TheLightInThePiazza'' was [[ChildhoodBrainDamage kicked by a horse]] as a child and this left her mentally disabled. She's in her twenties but, according to her mother, has the mentality of a 10-year-old.

* Ben Barber from ''Film/RideAlong'' is engaged to Angela and wants to prove he can be a dedicated police officer, but he's very impulsive and ambitious, has a penchant for comics and videogames so much that he calls himself "[[ComicBook/BlackHammer Black Hammer]]", and always complains like a BrattyHalfPint when things don't go his way. James even calls Ben a "manchild" in the second film.

* Normally he's TheStoic and a genuinely intimidating presence but upset ''Film/TheForceAwakens''[='s=] Kylo Ren (who's like 30) and he'll slash up everything in his vicinity in a violent rage while screaming like a banshee.

* John Bennett from ''Film/{{Ted}}'' is 35 and still acts like a child due to his lifelong friendship with the titular teddy bear that he wished to life as a child. He and Ted often engage in childish fights and [[FearOfThunder are still afraid of thunder]]. However, once John realizes he has to be serious with his girlfriend, he finally begins growing up. He still never gives up on his friendship with Ted, though.
* ''Film/{{Tron}}'' has Kevin Flynn, who seems to have regressed to this state after getting kicked out of his company. When we first see him, he's the owner of an arcade and wowing his teenage customers with his virtuoso game skills. His office overlooks the arcade, Lora (his ex) shouts in frustration "Now, you see why all his friends are 14-years-old!"

* Sam Flynn in ''Film/TRONLegacy'' acts more like a rebellious teenager seeking thrills than the 27-year-old that he is. At the end of the movie, [[spoiler: he [[CharacterDevelopment decides to start working at Encom]].]]
* Owen, the owner of the water park in ''Film/TheWayWayBack''. He [[ProfessionalSlacker walks around the park in his bathrobe]], makes rapid-fire jokes to staff and patrons alike, and takes a lackadaisical attitude towards safety or maintenance.
* Gary King from ''Film/TheWorldsEnd'' is an idiot who still acts and dresses as he did as a teenager. {{Deconstructed|Trope}}. Gary was the coolest kid in school (or at least he thinks he was), and because of this, he hasn't moved away from his teenage persona. His hedonistic partaking of drugs and alcohol is an attempt to move away from the reality of his miserable existence, and his inability to drop his teenage pursuits as he approaches his forties is seen as more pathetic than charming. According to WordOfGod, Gary is meant to draw parallels with people who attend their 20th/25th high school reunions and find that they have accomplished very little with their lives. {{Reconstruction}} in that with his view of himself, [[spoiler:he is much happier as a sword-wielding hero in the post-apocalyptic, pre-industrial world he creates by rejecting The Network.]]

* In another [[Creator/TimBurton Burton]] flick, ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'', is Willy Wonka, who comes off as eerily similar to Pee-Wee Herman in this adaptation. But while Wonka appears to be completely unselfconscious of what a manchild he is (at one point in the film, he argues that he was ''never'' as small as a child, because he remembers being able to reach his head to put a hat on top of it), unlike in Herman's world other people notice and are more than a little {{squick}}ed by him.

* In the American version of ''Film/FeverPitch'' Creator/JimmyFallon's character is called a manchild by his girlfriend, but all-consuming passion for the Red Sox aside he's a comparatively mild example: he's good with women, has a job as a well-respected junior high math teacher, and he has his own apartment.

* Both Sam and Ludlow in ''Film/{{Pixels}}'', although Ludlow is a more severe example: in his thirties, he has no job, lives with his grandma, has a StalkerShrine of a computer game character and spends his time making conspiracy theories over the internet.

* John Bennett from ''Film/{{Ted}}'' is in his 40s and still acts like a child due to his lifelong friendship with the titular teddy bear that he wished to life as a child. He and Ted often engage in childish fights and [[FearOfThunder are still afraid of thunder]]. However, once John realizes he has to be serious with his girlfriend, he finally begins growing up. He still never gives up on his friendship with Ted, though.

* ''Trippin'', a 1999 coming-of-age comedy, has the protagonist's grandfather who at breakfast asks for someone to pass the bacon. The parents object to this pointing out that he has hypertension and is basically living off prescribed medication with it warned he could have a heart attack and die instantly. Nonetheless when refused his bacon Gramps chants "[[TantrumThrowing I WANT BACON!! I WANT BACON!! I WANT BACON!!]]" and proceeds to start spitting on the rest of the family's breakfast before the father finally gives in and gives him bacon just to shut up.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'': In the original timeline, adult Biff Tannen acts ''exactly'' like his teenage bully self from 1955, having no reason to ever mature; he forces George to do his work and takes advantage of him. In ''[[Film/BackToTheFuturePartII Part II]]'', [[spoiler: this crosses over to PsychopathicManchild in 1985-A when he's still just as bratty and immature, but now has the wealth and power to get everything he wants. The original Biff never actually killed anyone (though he did try to run Marty down with his car, ''twice''); 1985-A Biff has no misgivings and demonstrates it.]]

* Brennan and Dale from ''Film/StepBrothers'' are in their 40's and are very immature, they act like they're in their early teens at the oldest, they live with their respective parents with no long term goals in life and are unemployed, when Brennan's mother and Dale's father marry they fight constantly like children, when they finally get along they excitedly run around the house and build themselves a bunk bed using hockey sticks for the wood, and in one scene they allow themselves to be bullied by actual children, they eventually start acting more responsibly after their parents divorce and force them to move out, they even get advice from therapists on how to act like adults.