Dirty Grandpa Movie Review (Spoiler Free)

Frequent nudity, a lot of sex-talk & even more profanity. Zac Efron & De Niro’s new comedy is more repulsive than it is funny! I didn’t need to watch half of it!

Genre: Comedy

Director: Dan Mazer

Cast: Robert De Niro, Zac Efron, Zoey Deutch, Aubrey Plaza, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Jason Mantzoukas, Julianne Hough, Adam Pally & Dermot Mulroney. 

Run Time: 102 min.

US Release: 22 January 2016

UK Release:  25 January 2016

German Release: 11 January 2016

If you would set Jackass’ Bad Grandpa on a collision course with The Hangover, the result would be Dirty Grandpa. Dan Mazer (I Give it a Year) directs his second comedy for the big screen, and boy is it a miss in every possible way! Just having seen Deadpool recently, I can’t help to compare both because these two films try to be as shockingly vile as possible. But whereas Deadpool has a reason to be the way it is and succeeds in being funny, Dirty Grandpa just manages to pull one unfunny dirty joke after another, coming off as offensive and needy.

The movie revolves around the deteriorating relationship of Jason Kelly (Efron) and his grandfather Dick Kelley (De Niro), who recently lost his wife. To bond with his grandchild, Dick asks Jason to drive him down to Boca, Florida, and Jason reluctantly agrees against his Father’s (Mulroney) and his fiancée Merideth’s (Hough) objections. On their way down South, Jason meets former college classmate Shadia (Zoey Deutch) and her friends Bradley (Bowyer-Chapman) and Lenore (Plaza); the latter has an immediate crush on Dick. Jason’s grandpa finally convinces him to follow them to Daytona Beach and enjoy himself.

I have no problem when a film tries to be offensive; as I said, I just watched Deadpool a couple of days ago and adored that action-comedy; if you are interested, my review for it is on here. This movie, though, simply tries to be repugnant to tick people off. Granted it does have a couple of jokes that did make me giggle, but for most of the time I was just sitting in the theatre bored out of my mind, while people around me were making offended noises. Simply put, the script for it is a goddamn awful joke.

The fact is, Dirty Grandpa has no artistic value at all. This comedy simply exists to tell a string of vulgar and revolting jokes, displeasing its audience along the way. I don’t really know if that is the smartest move for a film. 

The road trip adventure that the grandfather and grandson go on has been wasted completely; it is as if the writer and director went purposely out of their way to make a compelling movie, as it has that potential, yet it never uses it. It also is about fifteen minutes too long, in my opinion, as there are segments in this movie where one of the lead characters tries to create a bonding moment with the other, but those scenes are stretched out way too long and fail miserably at creating any kind of emotion.

De Niro is one of the reasons that makes this “comedy” mostly watchable, as he plays an elderly widower who just wants to have one last (sexual) adventure and takes his grandson with him to help him find his own path through life. However, I am still wondering what it was that made De Niro think this might be a suitable role to take. His performance overall is alright; he uses some personality traits from other characters he played, such as Jack Byrnes of the Focker trilogy, yet other than that, I need to confess that I wasn’t really emotionally invested in his character.

Zac Efron is really a surprise! Yes, he still looks like a schmuck Abercrombie model; he also seems to be sporting some sort of hair helmet in this film, but in the end he keeps showing us that he is capable of doing comedy. Even if this movie is utter crap and his character is mostly that of a dislikable, corporate conservative with a stick up his bum, it was the combined effort of Efron and De Niro that made this bearable.

Julianne Hough portrays Jason’s fiancée Meredith, who is one of the most unlikeable personas I have witnessed in film history. She is a bitchy, dominant and stuck-up brat, with no real reason to be in this movie other than to make the main character realise that he chose the wrong woman to marry. No worries, this is definitely not a spoiler, as it becomes evident in the first five minutes of the opening scene.

Jason Mantzoukas and Adam Pally both play minor characters (a drug dealer and Jason’s cousin, respectively), who just kept popping up every once in a while for no reason. Their personas are incredibly tiresome as well as over-the-top and unrealistic. Included in a long list of annoying and senseless characters who simply appear in the story are two cops played by Mo Collins and Henry Zebrowski.

The best thing about this comedy is the cinematography. The lens that is used in combination with the colour palette gives it a mild retro look, which does suit the vibe the filmmakers try to go for. Other than that, there is nothing special about this film; it is a mindless flick that uses a minimal amount of effects.

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Verdict: Dirty Grandpa is a comedy that will make viewers laugh here and there, but has no emotional attachment whatsoever. The plot merely exists to set up a string of vile punchlines, and the side characters are incredibly irritating. The movie has no real reason to exist other than to discomfort the audience. The makers clearly try to emulate the success of similar comedies like The Hangover trilogy, but fail to create an engaging and funny film. Robert De Niro and Zac Efron are alright, but nothing out of the ordinary and the script is bad and completely unrealistic. Don’t go see it; it's not worth your time or money! I will therefore give Dirty Grandpa a 3.0 out of 10.

Did you go see Dirty Grandpa yet? If so, what do you think of this juvenile humour comedy? Let me know and leave your opinion in the section below. Thank you very much for reading, and if you liked this review, please make sure to share it with others.