Dirty Grandpa (2016) (English Language)

Review

102min

Genre:      Comedy

Director:   Dan Mazer

Cast:        Robert De Niro, Zac Efron, Aubrey Plaza…and more

Writer:     John Phillips

-Synopsis-

Following the recent death of his beloved wife, a debauched grandfather co-opts his straight-laced uptight grandson into joining him on a sex-fuelled Florida spring break road-trip in this outrageous lewd comedy starring the great Robert De Niro.

It should be clear from the trailers, posters and title that ‘Dirty Grandpa’ is every inch the irreverent filthy comedy so you’ll do well to expect no more than outrageous lowbrow entertainment, but as Seth Rogen and many others have proved over the decades, there’s always room for silly lewd comedy if it’s injected with some measure of wit and creativity.

But minutes into ‘Dirty Grandpa’ you might fear that you’ll find none of that in the debacle you’re watching, and those fears are well founded.

All the incredibly off-colour humour and crass language might be forgiven if the context was remotely creative, and if this “comedy” was in any way consistently funny, but funny is not the appropriate term to describe this film, more like stupid, not silly and entertainingly stupid, just stupid.

It’s clear that the producers have used the novelty of the great Robert De Niro engaging in the most outrageous behaviour possible as an excuse to avoid developing a remotely entertaining comedy story, instead they’ve opted to just stuff ‘Dirty Grandpa’ with as many dick jokes, comedy clichés and ridiculous stereotypes as possible without the execution to make the whole actually funny.

They probably could’ve saved millions of dollars by casting a well-chiselled mannequin for the Zac Efron role as the uptight grandson, indeed only a couple of the professional comedians in the supporting roles do any justice to the concept of a comedy film.

It would be impossible for a 100 minute comedy film to fail to provide any laughs, even though ‘Dirty Grandpa’ does try, nevertheless there are a few laugh-out-loud moments, and watching a 72 year old double Oscar-winner behave like a sex-crazed frat boy does have its merits.

But not even the “Raging Bull” himself can save this patchwork of crude and infantile comedy set-pieces, here’s hoping that Mr. De Niro now stays away from this kind of stuff, thereby not challenging our theory that no amount of mediocre work can undo the remarkable cinematic legacy established by greats like Bobby D. and Mr. Pacino.

The Bottom Line…

No doubt it will find an audience with teenagers, but despite the novelty of Robert De Niro behaving as outrageously as possible, ‘Dirty Grandpa’ is an incredibly puerile and offensive shock comedy, not offensive to social sensibilities but to those who believe in the concept that a comedy film should be consistently funny.

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Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999)

After a case of mistaken identity, a hapless fish tank cleaner becomes a gigolo to pay off a debt, but the world of man-whoring is more complicated than it seems in this irreverent comedy starring Rob Schneider.

Directed by Mike Mitchell and starring Rob Schneider, Eddie Griffin and Oded Fehr among others.

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