Review of Dirty Grandpa (2016) by Andrew M — 01 Mar 2016

Every joke in the film -- every single one -- is raunchy, drug related, and/or simply juvenile. The couple of running gags it has simply don't work. At the end of the movie, it's worn itself quite thin.

Still, every now and then there's a genuinely funny bit, and that's more than I can say about some of the other comedies I've seen lately. Yes, many of the jokes are, "He's a septuagenarian chasing college tail!", but I have to say Robert De Niro has enough charisma that it mostly works. It's also well under two hours long, so thankfully it wraps up before it becomes grating.

As for everything else:

Efron has his moments, Plaza's hamming it up, but everyone else is kind of flat. Musically, the soundtrack varies from 60s to modern pop, mostly pretty good although if I ever hear that "I'm in love with the coco" song again it will be too soon. Those hoping for a bit of nudity with the R rating and some of the promotion will be disappointed, unless you want to see the leads' asses or little Bobby.

I'd never recommend watching this in a theatre, but if you're one who likes the occasional dirty joke, you may enjoy this late at night with a few beers... or other... around. Certainly not one for the masses, but there's an audience for this.