Dirty Grandpa is a comedy about a lecherous grandfather and his uptight grandson who go on a road trip that one of them really wishes wasn’t happening.

Starring Robert De Niro, Zac Efron, Aubrey Plaza and directed by Dan Mazer, this is one of those movies that has a good number of funny moments. The only thing is, those great moments are unfortunately followed by a few ill-advised scenes with dialogue and story development that needed more work/editing.

I enjoyed watching De Niro in the role of an outrageous and expletive filled senior citizen, the opposite of what he did most recently in The Intern (2015) but  overall, the writing script down.

As for the other characters, ‘Caricaturish’ is sadly the word that comes to mind for Julianne Hough’s role as Meredith. I don’t know if my objection is to the type of person she portrays, the way she played her, or both. Lenore, (Plaza) is probably the only one that didn’t make me cringe in parts. I’m not quite sure what some might think that suggests about me; hopefully it says that I enjoy language and love to see it used creatively.

Dirty Grandpa, for me, is a story of bonding between a grandson and grandfather. I thought there was no need for the clichéd young romance. But then again, I’m not a teenager, or a Zac Efron fangirl.

It’s probably fair to say that the actors did the best they could with the material at hand. I certainly wouldn’t tell someone looking for a really great comedy to make time for Dirty Grandpa. But, if you’re a big fan of at least one of the actors, even I know that I can’t stop you.

Happy Film Loving 🙂

G