Dirty Grandpa - directed by Dan Mazer
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Zac Efron, Aubrey Plaza, Zoey Deutch, Julianna Hough, Jason Mantzoukas, Adam Pally, Mo Collins, Henry Zebrowski, Dermot Mulroney
Screenplay: John Phillips
Music Score by: Michael Andrews
Cinematography: Eric Alan Edwards
Edited by: Anne McCabe
Running Time: 102 minutes
Rated: R16 - Nudity, frequent profanity, drug use
By now the recognised critics have spoken and decreed that this movie is terrible.
The language that I have read and heard in reviews to describe how awful it is actually made me more curious to see it.
One podcast review that I heard this morning prompted me to finally do that.
Every time he looks at Robert DeNiro in movies like "Goodfellas", "Taxi Driver" and "The Godfather Part 2" the reviewer said, he will think of "Dirty Grandpa" and those great performances will be forever tainted.
I find that statement to be juvenile and ridiculous - ironically two words that accurately describe "Dirty Grandpa".
The story here is young lawyer Zac Efron is engaged to a controlling, self obsessed woman (Julianne Hough) but days before the wedding he must take his recently widowed Grandfather on a road trip to Miami.
The spin is that the Grandfather (DeNiro) is a sex obsessed wild man now that he is on his own.
Dick Kelly is a former military man who clearly has a lot of skills - he can hotwire a golf cart and is very adept in a fight for a start.
You could think of him as the evil twin of DeNiro's "Meet The Fockers" character.
Efron's character Jason is hen-pecked and won't do anything that his fiance doesn't approve of.
She even makes him take her pink Mini on the road trip because she needs the SUV for her wine!
This results in one of the first instances of Dick's blunt, profane mouth.
He describes the car as a 'huge pink labia'.
I say it is one of the first instances of Dick's true nature because right before this comment Jason walks in on the man in a chair with tissue and lotion um... watching porn and enjoying himself.
He calls it 'doing a number 3' and is not at all embarrassed about it.
Very soon into the road trip Jason and Dick meet some young people - one of whom Jason knows from earlier in life.
Zoey Deutch's Shadia is instantly recognisable as a far better match for Jason than his fiance Meredith and not just because the name Meredith is reserved for stuck up ball-busters in movies.
Shadia (ugh- that name) is pretty, down to earth and shares a passion for photography - something that Jason has given up to become a lawyer instead.
One other of the new group is a gay black man - something that Dick gets great mileage out of in teasing him about until someone else does it and he comes heroically to his defence!
And that leaves Aubrey Plaza as Lenore.
Lenore is obsessed with sleeping with a college professor to complete some sort of annual ritual and as Dick has already falsely claimed to be one he is her new target.
Lenore exists in this movie purely to deliver increasingly graphic, slutty come ons to Dick.
Plaza is great and extracts far more from the script than it has earned in its own right but couldn't they have found a better use for this hilarious actress?
You should already know what you are in for with one watch of the trailer to this movie and really all that matters once you've decided to see it is does it deliver laughs?
Not really.
Director Dan Mazer wrote and directed the quite good "I Give It A Year" (review) but with "Dirty Grandpa" he leaves the writing duties to John Phillips.
A first time screenwriter he also has a "Bad Santa" sequel coming up.
I sincerely hope that he does better with that movie because the original is one of my favourite comedies and deserves a worthy follow up.
His script for "Dirty Grandpa" relies almost completely on profanity and smut.
Any novelty in seeing DeNiro speak and behave so crudely wears off pretty fast and this combined with a lack of any killer comedy set pieces leaves the only point of interest what will happen to Jason on this trip?
It should be extremely obvious as everything is hugely predictable, cliched and has been done before many, many times in both better and worse films.
I doubt you'll be bored though- at least I wasn't.
The pace is kept brisk with short scenes leading from crack smoking to street fights to obscene flirting on a golf course and so on.
But I think I laughed out loud only once.
"Dirty Grandpa" is largely a failure.
It isn't funny enough, the characters aren't interesting enough and it isn't even as sexy or outrageous as it thinks it is.
There is limited fun in seeing an acting great like DeNiro deliver lines like "I'd rather have Queen Latifah shit in my mouth from a hot air balloon'.
There are jokes about sex, drugs, child molestation, masturbation, homosexuality... you name it.
Very few are genuinely funny.
Having said that I don't think it deserves the critical vitriol it is getting.
It doesn't work but it is at least well enough acted, shot and directed.
I do like Aubrey Plaza a lot and both Zoey Deutch and Julianne Hough are lovely to look at but that can't be the main point of praise!
I also quite like Jason Mantzoukas but honestly- he plays exactly the same character here that he has played every other time (he is very good in "The League" and "Sleeping With Other People" - review)
Much of your opinion of "Dirty Grandpa" will be based on how open to this sort of humour you are and how high your expectations are.
So.... if you like "Bad Santa", "Something About Mary", "Hall Pass" or "The Change Up" there is a chance that you will not hate "Dirty Grandpa".
There is still a strong chance that you won't like it much either as at least three of the movies I listed are considerably funnier.
It is one note, forgettable nonsense but for what it's worth it was mildly diverting for 2 hours.
RATING: 64 / 100
CONCLUSION: A one joke comedy that doesn't deliver nearly enough laughs at least "Dirty Grandpa" isn't boring. Under-written characters and a plot that makes no sense seem like small issues compared to how few laugh out loud moments there are
Screenplay: John Phillips
Music Score by: Michael Andrews
Cinematography: Eric Alan Edwards
Edited by: Anne McCabe
Running Time: 102 minutes
Rated: R16 - Nudity, frequent profanity, drug use
By now the recognised critics have spoken and decreed that this movie is terrible.
The language that I have read and heard in reviews to describe how awful it is actually made me more curious to see it.
One podcast review that I heard this morning prompted me to finally do that.
Every time he looks at Robert DeNiro in movies like "Goodfellas", "Taxi Driver" and "The Godfather Part 2" the reviewer said, he will think of "Dirty Grandpa" and those great performances will be forever tainted.
I find that statement to be juvenile and ridiculous - ironically two words that accurately describe "Dirty Grandpa".
The story here is young lawyer Zac Efron is engaged to a controlling, self obsessed woman (Julianne Hough) but days before the wedding he must take his recently widowed Grandfather on a road trip to Miami.
The spin is that the Grandfather (DeNiro) is a sex obsessed wild man now that he is on his own.
Dick Kelly is a former military man who clearly has a lot of skills - he can hotwire a golf cart and is very adept in a fight for a start.
You could think of him as the evil twin of DeNiro's "Meet The Fockers" character.
Efron's character Jason is hen-pecked and won't do anything that his fiance doesn't approve of.
She even makes him take her pink Mini on the road trip because she needs the SUV for her wine!
This results in one of the first instances of Dick's blunt, profane mouth.
He describes the car as a 'huge pink labia'.
I say it is one of the first instances of Dick's true nature because right before this comment Jason walks in on the man in a chair with tissue and lotion um... watching porn and enjoying himself.
He calls it 'doing a number 3' and is not at all embarrassed about it.
 |
| Robert DeNiro, Zac Efron and Julianne Hough - paper thin, obvious characters |
Zoey Deutch's Shadia is instantly recognisable as a far better match for Jason than his fiance Meredith and not just because the name Meredith is reserved for stuck up ball-busters in movies.
Shadia (ugh- that name) is pretty, down to earth and shares a passion for photography - something that Jason has given up to become a lawyer instead.
One other of the new group is a gay black man - something that Dick gets great mileage out of in teasing him about until someone else does it and he comes heroically to his defence!
And that leaves Aubrey Plaza as Lenore.
Lenore is obsessed with sleeping with a college professor to complete some sort of annual ritual and as Dick has already falsely claimed to be one he is her new target.
Lenore exists in this movie purely to deliver increasingly graphic, slutty come ons to Dick.
Plaza is great and extracts far more from the script than it has earned in its own right but couldn't they have found a better use for this hilarious actress?
You should already know what you are in for with one watch of the trailer to this movie and really all that matters once you've decided to see it is does it deliver laughs?
Not really.
Director Dan Mazer wrote and directed the quite good "I Give It A Year" (review) but with "Dirty Grandpa" he leaves the writing duties to John Phillips.
A first time screenwriter he also has a "Bad Santa" sequel coming up.
I sincerely hope that he does better with that movie because the original is one of my favourite comedies and deserves a worthy follow up.
His script for "Dirty Grandpa" relies almost completely on profanity and smut.
Any novelty in seeing DeNiro speak and behave so crudely wears off pretty fast and this combined with a lack of any killer comedy set pieces leaves the only point of interest what will happen to Jason on this trip?
It should be extremely obvious as everything is hugely predictable, cliched and has been done before many, many times in both better and worse films.
I doubt you'll be bored though- at least I wasn't.
The pace is kept brisk with short scenes leading from crack smoking to street fights to obscene flirting on a golf course and so on.
But I think I laughed out loud only once.
 |
| Zoey Deutch (left) and Aubrey Plaza (centre and right) |
It isn't funny enough, the characters aren't interesting enough and it isn't even as sexy or outrageous as it thinks it is.
There is limited fun in seeing an acting great like DeNiro deliver lines like "I'd rather have Queen Latifah shit in my mouth from a hot air balloon'.
There are jokes about sex, drugs, child molestation, masturbation, homosexuality... you name it.
Very few are genuinely funny.
Having said that I don't think it deserves the critical vitriol it is getting.
It doesn't work but it is at least well enough acted, shot and directed.
I do like Aubrey Plaza a lot and both Zoey Deutch and Julianne Hough are lovely to look at but that can't be the main point of praise!
I also quite like Jason Mantzoukas but honestly- he plays exactly the same character here that he has played every other time (he is very good in "The League" and "Sleeping With Other People" - review)
Much of your opinion of "Dirty Grandpa" will be based on how open to this sort of humour you are and how high your expectations are.
So.... if you like "Bad Santa", "Something About Mary", "Hall Pass" or "The Change Up" there is a chance that you will not hate "Dirty Grandpa".
There is still a strong chance that you won't like it much either as at least three of the movies I listed are considerably funnier.
It is one note, forgettable nonsense but for what it's worth it was mildly diverting for 2 hours.
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