Most people would have read about Robert De Niro’s new movie being awful. Intrigued by all the hate, I attended the premiere expecting it to be as horrid as I have been hearing. So does it really deserve the “worst movie his career and year” comments?
Dirty Grandpa revolves around a recently widowed elderly man, Dick Kelly (De Niro) who asks his grandson, Jason Kelly (Efron) to drive him to Florida for some bonding time. After some hesitation and time-crunching, Jason takes him up on the offer. While also trying to finalise his upcoming wedding to preppy fiancé, Meredith (Julianne Hough). As Jason arrives to his grandfather’s house, he quickly learns that his grandfather is not the kind of man Jason thought he would be after losing his wife.
As one would expect from a comedy, the story is nothing new nor does it have much depth. With that being said, it doesn’t pretend to be anything else other than crude entertainment out to shock and offend viewers. Which is a smart move from the film makers because surely no one goes to watch a comedy and expect it to be thought provoking or serious.
Whether you like comedies or not, Dirty Grandpa will make you laugh out loud a lot, perhaps on occasion it may be an uncomfortable chuckle but none the less, the laughs will be there. The constant penis jokes in the beginning do become stale quickly, thankfully, the script does switch it off to a tolerable level after the first quarter.
The love aspect in the story has barely any build up and is greatly unconvincing, it would have been better if the writer had left that part out. As it is, Efron’s character doesn’t have much chemistry with his main love interests, Meredith and Shadia (Zoey Deutch). There are also two dumb police officers who seem like cheap additions in an attempt to inject more unnecessary humour into the film. These characters just drag the story down.
Much is being made about Robert De Niro taking on this role with his calibre of work and age. This is baffling and infuriating as an established actor should be allowed to take on different types of roles at any age as they wish, without ageist uptight comments disguised as “politically correct” or “concerned”. There is no one else that could have tackled this part other than De Niro. He has the ability to easily shift between serious to comedic without taking himself seriously. Same applies for Efron, which is why the two work well together on-screen in Dirty Grandpa.
If you are easily offended and not a fan of crude humour, please do not watch this. The title and the posters should say enough. However, this is a must see film for those who do enjoy this type of genre. Zac Efron fans will also thoroughly appreciate Dirty Grandpa. Let’s just say, he doesn’t leave much to the imagination in this one and we can’t blame him. He and his bee pouch are quite pleasant to look at.
Dirty Grandpa is hardly one of the worst films out there, despite the story needing some tweaking, there are plenty of genuine laughs that will entertain lovers of the genre.
I rate it 5 out of 10 stars.
Dirty Grandpa is in cinemas now.
