Dirty Grandpa (2016)
5:11 PM
Lose Your Way. Find Your Manhood.
Dirty Grandpa is directed by Dan Mazer (I Give It A Year) and stars Robert De Niro (let me just remind you of what this man usually makes - Goodfellas, The Godfather, The Intern), Zac Efron (17 Again, High School Musical), Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation, Safety Not Guaranteed) and Julianne Hough (Rock of Ages, Safe Haven). "Right before his wedding, an uptight guy is tricked into driving his grandfather, a lecherous former Army Lieutenant-Colonel, to Florida for spring break". Hollywood's hottest actors of the past and today in a movie together - surely this is a perfect collaboration?
This movie is a disaster. To be honest, my hopes were never that high for this film - the trailer didn't really catch my attention and once I saw it was a January release, my expectations hit rock bottom. And how did I still leave this film feeling underwhelmed? Dirty Grandpa isn't funny and the comedy is offensive and disgusting - I think this is the Get Hard of 2016. The only thing going for this film is the chemistry between Zac Efron and Robert De Niro - everything else is toxic waste that should have never hit the big screen. It didn't surprise me to find out that under $12 million was spent on this film, it had no cinematic value and just felt like it was made to make money and jump on the 'party' movie craze - its 3 years too late though.
So before I go all bad, I will touch on the few things that I like about this film. However, none of what I am about to say should be a selling point for you to pay to see this. The chemistry between Zac Efron and Robert De Niro is good - they have a believable grandson/grandpa relationship and both actors do give good performances - it's just a shame that the script gave these two silly and hateful things to say. I think Robert De Niro is definitely in need of a new agent after this film - how can he go from playing a cute and lovable elderly person in The Intern to a crude and disgusting elderly person in this film? I don't have a clue how someone would think that this is a perfect role for De Niro - I don't think this was a good move for an actor who has such a big legacy and is highly thought of.
All of Dirty Grandpa's jokes were crude and dumb - I think the writers obviously weren't that smart as they couldn't think of any jokes that weren't to do with sex or drugs. The jokes rarely provided laugh - I did laugh when Zac Efron does the Macarena but that is about it - the film just goes too far. The moment where a little boy tells his Dad he has stroked Zac Efron's characters bee (which was covering his private area) is extremely tasteless and turns something that was originally funny to something that was very uncomfortable to watch. I also didn't want to see De Niro touching himself in private areas whilst watching porn - all of this was too uncomfortable and cringey to watch - it just wasn't funny. If the jokes weren't tasteless and to do with sex, they were being racist and offensive to groups of people. If the span of jokes in Dirty Grandpa ranges from sex to racism then these writers definitely don't have any comedic intelligence.
The story for the film isn't clever or original - it is just a typical road trip film and kind of follows a very similar story to Bad Grandpa which was actually a good film. The story kind of loses its way in the final two acts - it just turns into a spring break movie and the whole point that set the story off in the first place is almost forgotten. I also thought Zac Efron's character was really dumb and made the most stupid decision a male character could make - SPOILER - who would ditch their very soon to-be wife for a girl they have known two days? I thought this was absolutely ridiculous and I actually felt sorry for Julianne Hough's character (even though she was very controlling). I also hate the way this film reinforces the current stereotypes of males and how they are 'lads' - even the tagline for this film reinforces that - Efron's character wants to be a career-mined individual but his Grandad wants him to be a person that is sex-crazy.
Other than Efron and De Niro, the performances weren't all that impressive. Julianne Hough was ok but she was quite an annoying character so it didn't really give her a chance to shine. I thought Aubrey Plaza wasn't very good at all and she is a terrible portrayal of a woman in a film - she is sex-crazy and her main goals in life is to have sex with many different types of men. None of the other actors were very impressive and I don't expect to see them to get any major work after this.
I'm going to briefly mention the music which can sometimes work for a film like this - however, I don't think any really good music choices were made to make any more scenes be any more effective.
Dirty Grandpa is a disaster of a film - the chemistry between Efron and De Niro can't save this film from it's terrible writing. The jokes can start as funny but then they go too far by being tasteless and disgusting. Well Done John Phillips - didn't you do a great job! - no wonder this is his first ever job in Hollywood. The story is cliche and unoriginal and loses its way as the film goes on. Dirty Grandpa really is a dirty film and is very uncomfortable to watch. Zac Efron hasn't had a great role in a while, Robert De Niro needs a new agent and well, at least Julianne Hough had Grease: Live!? Dirty Grandpa is a waste of time and money.
1.5 STARS
F
What did you think of DIRTY GRANDPA? Do you think De Niro should have accepted this role? - COMMENT BELOW
See You Soon!
3 comments
Loving the header photo! Want to see Deadpool so bad, this film hasn't really appealed to me at all and reading your review has proved why, will probably watch it on DVD if that!
ReplyDeleteMeme x
www.thedayinthelifeof.co.uk
Thanks! I'm seeing it on Wednesday so review will be up then!
DeleteI wouldn’t call it a disaster. But I wish there could be less dirty things as I still respect De Niro. Still zac is sexy, Robert is amazing. but I was adored way more by The Intern with De Niro http://viooz.as/274-the-intern-i-2015.html
ReplyDelete