Dirty Grandpa

Dan Mazer’s Dirty Grandpa is advertised as an outrageous comedy starring Zac Efron as a groom-to-be and Robert De Niro as his rude grandfather, in the typical comedy duo dynamic, in a wild promiscuous Miami Spring Break setting.

Given a title such as Dirty Grandpa, one should expect a lot of dirty humour. The film delivers, but not necessarily in a comedic way. De Niro’s character constantly blurts out explicit comments with no real varying intensities from one to the other. Because of this, his pure lack of inhibition quickly becomes boring.

While it could be argued the characters are established quickly, there isn’t much in the way of character development. The story suggests that Dick’s (Robert De Niro) personality in the film contrasts from what it was before, but there is virtually nothing shown at the beginning of the film to illustrate this contrast. Most of the scenes consist of Dick dragging or tricking Jason (Zac Efron) into situations that involve alcohol, drugs, partying or a sexual motive, and Jason’s futile attempts to not only dissuade him but also pull out of these situations himself. As such, Efron is not given much to perform with.

Jason’s fiancée Meredith (Julianne Hough) is given little screen time and no personality other than being mildly controlling, and yet the film portrays Jason’s emotional need as having to abandon her in favour for Shadia (Zoey Deutch), Jason’s former classmate who serves as his love interest for the film. This might have even had the slightest justification if the film had any focus on Jason’s relationship with Meredith other than Dick criticising it.

Shadia and her friends Lenore (Aubrey Plaza) and Bradley (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman) have the closest thing to likeable characters, if only because their wants and motivations are clear. Shadia’s chemistry with Jason is arguably romantic or friendly. Lenore is sexy and funny because of her desire for Dick. Bradley doesn’t ultimately have much to do with the story, but he’s basically harmless as a nice tertiary member of this trio.

Most of the remaining side characters are basically the same: drug-addled, insensitive and loud-mouthed. Such is the case with Jason’s cousin Nick (Adam Pally), the well-known drug dealer Pam (Jason Mantzoukas) and the insufferable cops who enable him, Officers Reiter and Finch (Henry Zebrowski and Mo Collins).

The story isn’t good. The protagonist Jason has no initiative to influence plot points, the romance is lazily told, and as a comedy, the film has little creativity to keep the audience’s interest. On an unrelated note, to Zac Efron’s credit, he displays talent as a singer. But the characterisation of the cast is so one-dimensionally repetitive and tasteless that there’s very little reason to care about them at all. To be fair, the film is not without emotional moments, even if used sparingly. If the film had more of these, or if its humour had some diversity to contrast to and compliment Dick’s relentless obscenity, as well as that of most of the side characters, Dirty Grandpa could have been a better film and a better comedy. The film is good for a chuckle now and then, but overall, not greatly enjoyable.