Dirty Grandpa

Year: 2016
Genre: Comedy
Directed: Dan Mazer
Stars: Robert De Niro, Zac Efron, Aubrey Plaza, Zoey Deutch, Jason Mantzoukas, Dermot Mulroney, Julianne Hough, Jake Picking, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Adam Pally
Production: Lionsgate

If anyone ever wanted to see a raunchy, offensive and bacchanalian Spring Break comedy where absolutely every actor including our main lead is on autopilot, I hardily recommend Dirty Grandpa. The main conceit of the film is based on the idea that everyone young and old would love to see acting legend Robert De Niro acting like an irresponsible college senior. Not going to lie, I myself was intrigued by the idea while still aware that I was going to get a Wal-Mart bargain-barrel assemblage of d**k jokes. In that regard, mission accomplished movie; now if only Robert De Niro gave a darn.

Nope, still don't give a s**t

The movie begins with the wake of Dick's (De Niro) long-time wife. Jason (Efron) his grandson is a corporate lawyer set to wed a shrewish woman (Hough) who seems to decide everything for him, down to the color scheme of the wedding. Partially out of a fear of old age and partially out of a desire to see Jason liberated, Dick convinces Jason to drive down to Boca Raton with him because "it's what your grandmother would have wanted." On the way down Jason bumps into an old flame from college (Deutch), her libidinous best friend Lenore (Plaza) and their tag-along Bradley (Bowyer-Chapman). Dick convinces Jason to follow them to Spring Break and take part in an escalating array of tomfoolery.

In fairness to Mr. De Niro if there is any actor on the planet who deserves to coast it would be him. His career spans sixty years. He has been nominated for seven Academy Awards (winning two) and has been an invaluable stable player to the likes of Martin Scorsese and David O. Russell. Even as he got older he had no trouble transitioning into challenging roles and even made the successful transition to self-parody playing his machismo to comic effect. This is the first movie I have seen him in where he seems completely aloof (that includes The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000)), yet on his very worst day he's still does a better job than half the cast in this movie.

There are multiple characters that could have had moments to shine; Danny Glover, Mo Collins and Adam Pally are so underutilized that they might as well have been written out of the movie. In fact, the only real stand out is Plaza who during the first and second act does a convincing job flirting with De Niro. She's profane, she's lascivious, she's ribald and we love her for it. Armed with a barrage of witticisms and blunt sexual innuendo, she's easily outperforms Zac Efron's boring straight man shtick and whatever the hell Jason Mantzoukas is trying to do.

Hey guys! Laugh at me...please!

The main problem with Dirty Grandpa is it's vulgarity has nowhere to go. Few of the jokes manage to be funny and when they are they seldom further the story in any meaningful way. In-fact most of the gags just get in the way, and after an hour of setups that go nowhere, it started to feel grating. Let's face it, after the shock of seeing Efron waking up on the beach with a swastika made of penises and De Niro saying the N-word wears off, all you're left with is a boring and cliche script.

Don't care champion (2009-2015)

Dirty Grandpa just doesn't live up to it's premise. It wastes the talent of its cast, the humor is scattershot and crude and the script is as cliche as a rated-R comedy can get. Literally everyone in this film is there for the paycheck and only Aubrey Plaza seems to be having any kind of fun. It is said that the script for Dirty Grandpa was on 2011's Black List; an industry survey that votes on the most "liked" un-produced scripts of the year. Surveys in years prior have included award winning movies such as Juno (2007) and Slumdog Millionaire (2008). If you ask me they should have left this turkey on the blacklist out of concern for the living.

Final Grade: F