Review of Grandma's Boy (2006) by Hannah D — 13 Dec 2015

Grandma's Boy is the funniest Adam Sandler movie since The Waterboy, which is kind of weird because he's not actually in it. It's made by his production company though - Happy Madison - so you'll see plenty of familiar faces from Sandler's films, like: Todd (the guy who stranglers Sandler to death in a bathtub) from Little Nicky, both of the metalheads from Little Nicky, and Nick Swardson. It's also got this skinny Napoleon Dynamite-esque style guy who plays a hilariously convincing douchebag villain, Kevin Nealon and a pre-Superbad fame Jonah Hill.

The movie is focused on the world of video game developers and testers. Todd from Little Nicky plays Alex, who is a 40 year old developer who smokes too much weed, but kicks ass at video games - both playing them, and making them. He gets booted out of his house for not paying his rent because of his deadbeat roommate, and he goes to stay with Swardson for a while. Unfortunately, Swardson lives with his parents, and that goes sour pretty quick, so Alex is forced to move in with the only other person who will take him in: his Grandma.

Meanwhile at work, the big-shot game developer is some stereotypical Sandler film asshole in nerd form. There's a consistently escalating beef between him and the rest of the team and it's up to Alex to save the day, and win the girl. The girl in this film is some new blood bombshell who joins the company as the only girl around for what I can only imagine are demographic legal reasons, and the traditional nice guy romancing happens, as it always does in Sandler's films.

Alex and his friends spend the majority of their time getting stoned and playing video games, so if that's you're thing, you and this movie will get along great. The movie unfortunately didn't do so hot in theatres, but it made a fuck ton of return in DVD sales, achieving cult status, and carving a good foothold for Hill, Swardson and the villain, who ended up snagging a role in Avatar later on.

TL;DR - 8/10.

Although it's not the funniest movie, it's surprisingly amusing. The actors get along well, and have a definite sense of camaraderie, which helps keep the 'by the numbers' storyline afloat. There's a lot of entertainment here, and the movie does an okay job presenting the world of video game development to someone who has no clue about it. It's the type of movie that Adam Sandler would make if he was still his 90's self today, but the guy who plays the lead really holds it together in his place. All of this, and there's still a good chunk of laughs and memorable/quotable lines. Definitely check it out.