I'm just going to get straight to the point: thanks to this movie I have now just seen Robert De Niro having a wank.
Just gonna let that linger for a moment.
Dirty Grandpa, a 2016 "sex comedy" which seems to be a thing now and is potentially just code for: how many dick jokes and vulgar references can we cram... erm... actually let's just leave it there I think... stars Robert De Niro as the eponymous Grandpa and Zac Effron as his Grandson. I think I can figure out why this movie finds itself on a bucketful of bad movie lists, and it would be dead easy to go all highbrow and criticise this movie for it's vulgarity and copious glamorisation of taking drugs but that's not what I'm here for.
Jason (Zac Effron) is all set to marry his controlling, conceited fiancee Meredith (Julianne Hough) when his Grandpa (Robert De Niro) who recently lost his Wife decides to take one last bash at trying to be a better father figure, and at the same time rescue Jason from his purgatory relationship; by scooping him up, feeding him drugs and trying to get him to cop off with the first college girl they set eyes on, whilst at the same time hoping he gets to bang the other college girl, Lenore (Aubrey Plaza). Eventually Jason realises how much marrying Meredith would blow chunks and he reunites with Shadia, the aforementioned first college girl and they run away together. And Grandpa gets to fuck Lenore. The end.
It's a college film. It's a stoner film. It's a party crowd pleaser. There's girls in bikinis, Aubrey Plaza's ass, Zac Effron gets naked a few times, there's jokes about dicks. Lots of jokes about dicks. Basically if your expectations were set any higher going into this, then maybe you picked the wrong film to write about in your newspaper.
At no point really did I feel like it crossed boundaries it shouldn't have crossed. Grandpa comes across initially as slightly homophobic but redeems himself later. His whole character is portrayed as misogynistic but then he talks about his relationship with his wife; being faithful, enjoying her company e.t.c. and it was vulgar and crude but never disgustingly so that it crossed a line, or at least not in my opinion, but I'm a pretty liberal guy I guess.
Was it a good film? Well... it was just ok. It didn't bring anything new to the table. It was the same predictable plot; guy follows his heart in the end and runs away with the girl. The regular cast of characters; muscle for brains jocks, black gangster guys into rap and drugs, ditzy college girls e.t.c, it was funny in places, Jason Mantzoukas can absolutely fuck off because his character went from zero to irritating in seconds, the bits with the cops was just... boring... but it redeems itself in parts because Zac Effron is just really good in general, and I will watch anything with Aubrey Plaza in. But unfortunately this film took an immediate direct hit when it had to show me Robert Nero stiffing one out. I really didn't want to see that shit movie. 2 out of 5.
