Dirty Grandpa

33 Replies

Robert De Niro clearly relishes his role in Dirty Grandpa as, you guessed it, the dirty grandpa. He cusses lots and spikes drinks with Zanex and flirts with Aubrey Plaza and takes his shirt off a lot and clearly is having a ton of fun all the way through.  Zac Efron also takes his shirt off a lot but throughout this movie he looks as uncomfortable as the middle aged, flip-phone owning couple sitting directly in front of us at last night’s screening. Maybe, as Jay observed, Efron is coming to the sobering realization that being shirtless is his thing and the best he can hope for is to be brought back as the shirtless grandpa if this movie is the start of a Rocky-like franchise.

My money’s on there being no sequel. Dirty Grandpa has a lot of laughs and an abundance of dick jokes, but it also seemed unnecessarily long and unnecessarily concerned with plot. I didn’t need to see everyone learn a lesson. I certainly did not need three generations of lessons being taught to De Niro, Efron, and Dermot Mulroney. And we see stereotypes of hippies, lacrosse jocks, and gang members learn something too. The only ones exempt from this rule seem to be the very funny Jason Mantzoukas (a.k.a. Rafi from the League!) as a Daytona Beach drug dealer, and Adam Pally as Efron’s cousin.  At least the writers had the good sense to allow those two to do their crazy guy routines the whole way through Dirty Grandpa.  I wish they had given everyone such free reign.  I was just there to laugh and didn’t need everything to be wrapped up perfectly, or at all.

I thought all the lessons really took away from Dirty Grandpa’s momentum, mainly by taking the focus off dirty De Niro.  That hurt this movie a lot because De Niro as the dirty old guy is by far the best part.  He’s really, really funny, but all too often he’s jolted out of that role when sad Efron calls him the worst grandpa ever (which happens every ten minutes or so).  Take out all the grandpa-grandson make-up sessions and Dirty Grandpa would have been far more enjoyable.

Dirty Grandpa is a decent comedy, much better than I expected, but since the story seriously impedes these characters’ escapades, it seems like an opportunity missed.  I give it a score of seven horny octogenarians out of ten.

33 thoughts on “Dirty Grandpa”

  1. Keith Noakes

    I guess I liked it a little more than you did. I thought the story impeded on the comedy but not as much as you. I thought it stopped the stupidness from getting too stupid except for one instance I won’t spoil.

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  2. Carrie Rubin

    I just heard about this in USA Today this morning. Considering the movie comes out this weekend, and that’s the first time I’ve heard anything about it, I suspected it might not be worth the price of a ticket. It seems stinkers steer clear of any early reviews. Between this and The Intern, I’m wondering what Robert DeNiro is thinking. Then again, it’s still a paycheck, and I’m sure a hefty one at that!

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    1. Sean Post author

      I know you didn’t care for Daddy’s Home, Carrie, and this one’s probably dumber and definitely a lot dirtier than that one. If I had paid, I would not have felt like I wasted my money, but I had absolutely no expectations going in.

      As far as De Niro, I’m sure got paid and in my view he earned it, he is very funny here!

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  3. Christopher

    Having lessons seems to be the only way even a film like this can get funded anymore. If Animal House were made today instead of ending in a riot it would probably end in a Very Important Lesson about respecting differences and balancing youthful joie de vivre and maturity. Excuse me. I’m feeling slightly nauseous.
    It does kind of bother me that De Niro seems to be coasting now, but then I think about Taxi Driver and Raging Bull and I can’t forget Bloody Mama. He went south three months ahead of the cast and crew to learn a southern accent and when production started he would correct the voice coach. So, yeah, I think the guy’s earned the right to do some coasting, and as much as I hate to say it I think there’s a lesson in that.

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    1. Sean Post author

      Good contrast between then and now. It does seem that a happy ending with a moral is required for movies these days and that’s too bad. This didn’t need to be all wrapped up neatly, I enjoyed the craziness by itself!

      De Niro definitely has earned the right to do whatever he wants. I didn’t even feel like he was really coasting here but he’s absolutely capable of a lot more than he’s given us over the last while. Selfishly, I hope we see a bit more from him as his career winds down.

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  4. tubularsock

    Dick jokes? Excuse Tubularsock here but I have to check my calendar. Yep, it’s 2016 all right.
    Some things are just worn out ……. drop it already!

    Oh Tubularsock just remembered their are new 12 year olds to sell shit to!

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  5. Jay

    This comedy definitely earns its R rating.
    I think De Niro is suffering from a lack of offers. There aren’t tonnes of great roles for the elderly, and David O. Russell can only do so many movies per year (yes, he’s in Joy too).

    I was just thinking how we would feel very, very differently about this movie if De Niro had a granddaughter rather than a grandson. The bullying and sexual harrassment are somehow funny when they happen to a young man, but how would we feel if he was doing these kinds of shennanigans to Jennifer Lawrence instead?

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    1. Sean Post author

      That’s a great point, I hadn’t thought of it that way but it would be a major problem if JLaw was in the ZEff role. That movie wouldn’t ever get made. But this one did…

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    2. tubularsock

      Jay, Tubularsock hasn’t seen the movie but Sean’s review has said enough to have Tubularsock save his money (thanks Sean).

      But Tubularsock contends that “bullying and sexual harassment” isn’t really all that funny even if it’s directed as man-o-man-o at the grandson.

      Young men need to be taught and directed and not harassed by some old fucked up grandpa!
      This is such as cheap shot at humor …….. it’s time to stop this shit!

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  6. John Charet

    I have not seen this yet, but it does look hilarious so even If it does not work as a whole, it is bound to at least be entertaining. How much do you want to bet that when this title was announced, everybody thought it was going to be a sequel to Bad Grandpa? That is of course before hearing who was going to be in it because their is no Johnny Knoxville here. Anyway, keep up the great work as always 🙂

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    1. Sean Post author

      I thought the two were related, absolutely! And it’s definitely entertaining, I just went from no hope this would be good to thinking it might be great, but it’s still pretty good.

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  9. Birgit

    I think I would enjoy this flick-I like stupid comedy even if Zac Efron is in it. You know, De Niro doesn’t look too bad without a shirt considering his age…or am I showing mine???

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  10. Sean

    Hey whoever wrote this should read Movie Mutants review of this same movie because the author copied this entire review verbatim only with worse English. Just a heads up lol

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  12. indiefan20

    This movie might not be as bad as it appears, but with all due respect, you couldn’t pay me enough to sit through it. The ads looked so… fucking… bad. But that’s just me; humorless drone that I am, I usually can’t get much pleasure out of modern American comedies. And that includes “Pineapple Express,” “Tropic Thunder,” and “Trainwreck.” I just think they’re awful. Give me more offbeat humor like “What We Do in the Shadows” and “Shaun of the Dead” any day. *sigh* I think De Niro’s losing his touch. This is surely NOT the same guy from “Taxi Driver” and frickin’ “Raging Bull”, for Godssake. But on the other hand, I haven’t seen the movie. I might be surprised 😉

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  15. kmSalvatore

    well im a little late to this party being on vaca. and trying to get back into the swing of things… as much as i like seeing the commercials for this movie… i dont think i can fully wrap my head around De Niro playing this part…. so im gonna pass on this one. and of course you have helped as well Sean.

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  17. Jordan Dodd

    Saw the trailer for this yesterday…. sounds like something I might like. I’d love to see De Niro in that role! Oh, and this cracked me up:

    “the best he can hope for is to be brought back as the shirtless grandpa if this movie is the start of a Rocky-like franchise.”

    hehehe

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