I can’t seem to pinpoint when it exactly began but comedy
took a turn for the worse within the last decade. Then again perhaps it was
PORKY’S that changed comedies from movies with well thought out dialogue to
simple jokes about body parts and how they are used. Whenever it began the
truth is most of these movies have moments where you laugh at some of the most
obscene things occasionally but for the most part just wonder how they keep
being made.
The latest in this long line of off-color comedies is DIRTY
GRANDPA starring Zach Efron and Robert DeNiro. Yes THAT Robert DeNiro. I know,
it’s stunning to think of what many considered to be the actor of his
generation now in a film where he’s trying to bed a hot college co-ed. And yet
here we are.
Efron stars as Jason Kelly, an up and coming attorney about
to get married to the boss’s daughter Meredith (Julianne Hough). As the film
opens he’s at the funeral of his grandmother where his cousin Nick (Adam Pally)
acts inappropriate between sexual comments, conspiracy theories, drinking and
smoking a grass filled ecig. After the funeral Jason’s grandfather Dick
(DeNiro) guilts him into driving him across from Georgia to Boca Raton,
Florida.
What should be a bonding between grandparent and grandchild
begins with Jason finding his grandfather masturbating followed by what most
would be considered an over usage of the F bomb as he tries to get Jason to
help him find someone young to have sex with. The best chance of this is a
coincidental meeting in a restaurant with a young woman Jason went to school
with, Shadia (Zoey Deutch), and her two friends Lenore (Aubrey Plaza) and
Tyrone (Brandon Mychal Smith). This trio is headed for Daytona and Dick
convinces Jason to head there as well.
What follows is the usual debauchery one expects with spring
break in Daytona, a drug and alcohol fueled exploration of beaches, bars and
hotel rooms with nothing but attractive men and women in the tiniest of
swimwear. During a drinking contest with two addle minded lacrosse jocks Dick
considers competition for his chance with Lenore he slips several crushed
capsule he has with him in a drink to slow them down. Unfortunately Jason ends
up drinking this cup, the result of which is him disappearing only to resurface
drunk out of his mind and wearing only a stuffed animal over his most sensitive
area.
More sequences like this happen and in the middle of them we
learn that Jason wanted to be a photographer at one time, Shadia is an
environmental activist and that the pair have a mutual attraction. Tell me you
can see where this is leading. The weakest part of this movie is the feeling
that you’ve seen this before, the same exact story, but with slightly altered
settings and moderately modified characters. I know every time I saw cousin
Nick in this film I kept expecting to discover he was now being played by Zach
Galifianakis. Perhaps that’s the worst thing about this film, the extreme
predictability of it all from the plotline to the characters involved. If
you’ve guessed which is the shrewish female in the bunch then you know what I’m
talking about.
I was reading a book the other day discussing film comedies
and how they’ve changed, how in recent years most comedies have become guy
films: crude, rude, loud and drug fueled. The few exceptions to the rule,
comedies with female leads, have still found the need to have the same
characteristics. To me that’s sad. Perhaps it’s just because I’m older. If I
were a teenager maybe these movies would all seem like soon to be classics to
me. Somehow I don’t see these as being movies kids will look back fondly on
when they grow older. Or mature.
The production value of the film is top of the line. The
performances are well done. Yes there are a few laughs to be found here, even
among the crudest moments. But the film relies on those and the more shocking
the funnier some will think they are. A shock laugh is the easiest laugh you
can get. It’s why the greatest comedies written don’t resort to that.
As the movie began I really hated it. The overly used
formula was written all over its face. I knew the ending of this movie 10
minutes in and I wasn’t surprised when it happened. But as it went on I found
myself laugh now and then, more than I’d care to admit. By the end I felt that
I could say it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t anything I’d remember down the road. If
you’re easily offended then by all means steer clear of this one. If this type
of film makes you laugh you may even want to add it to your collection. For most
of us in the middle of that road, we’ll watch it once, laugh occasionally and
then forget it a month from now when the next film like this comes out.
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