Dirty Grandpa - Review

Written By: Travis Lantto

What happens when you put a seasoned actor in the shoes of a perverted old army general who has an uptight Grandson lawyer, played by an actor who's trying to really find his footing in the acting world?  You get a movie called Dirty Grandpa which will play greatly to the teenage crowd with it's subpar story and hormone filled antics.

If you plan on going to see Dirty Grandpa don't expect it to be an award winning movie. If you have seen the trailers for this film what you see is what you get. It's crude, vulgar and absolutely insane but let me tell you I had one hell of a time watching it and I think you will too.

The film follows Jason Kelly who is about to get married to his long time fiancee.  Jason's Grandfather, Dick (played by Robert De Niro) who is a recent widower who wants to take a road trip from Atlanta to Florida to get his mind off his dead wife but to also play golf and to visit his long time army friend.  Dick however can't go alone because his license is revoked so he enlists his stuck up lawyer grandson Jason (Zach Efron) to drive down with him.  He figures it will also be a good way to spend some time with his grandson before his wedding to do some bonding. Jason agrees knowing how him and his Grandfather have become so distant.  The next morning when Jason goes to pick up his grandpa he walks in on him maturbating and from there sets the tone of how this movie is just dick joke after dick joke. Vulgar language and just about anything will make your grandma scream in fear after seeing it just because she likes Robert De Niro.

The comedy in Dirty Grandpa is very reliant on shock humor and giving the audience the maximum number of antics.  It doesn't attempt to stick to the conventions of a situational comedy like we have grown quite accustomed to over the years.  This movie knows what kind of audience will find it entertaining and doesn't care much for what anyone else will think.  It embraces the idea of being a dumb comedy.  The story is sub par and no way believable which I would consider to bring audiences back to the days of the Naked Gun series. 

Robert De Niro and Zach Efron did a really good job in this movie. They actually have really good chemistry with one another and it looks like they had a load of fun shooting the film. Except for Danny Glover as Dicks old friend the rest of the cast is relatively unknown. While Dirty Grandpa is not a perfect movie and not for everyone by any means I think it may have the potential to eventually become a cult classic over the years.

FINAL SCORE 3.5 / 5