The War with Grandpa Shoots Slapstick Blanks

Contrary to what the title might suggest, The War with Grandpa is not the continuation of Robert De Niro’s character from the 2016 comedy Dirty Grandpa. Though this seems most apparent in the fact that nobody remembers Dirty Grandpa (or wants to, really), it’s most apparent in that De Niro no longer plays a vulgar and crude elder who spouts obscenities and seeks raunchy sex. Instead, he is positioned in the safe yet morally adrift genre of domestic comedy that ranges from tediously tiresome to woefully misguided in its overlapping thematic elements. A film this mindless should not even think about discussing topics of imperialism and war. But I suppose if laughs in this scenario are meant to be extracted from faking medical emergencies and desecrating dead bodies, all is fair in bad comedies and war.

Ed (Robert De Niro) and his fellow bored grownups. 101 Studios

As the cranky Ed, De Niro performs all the typical old-man bits of a modern slapstick comedy. He can’t figure out the automatic checkout at the supermarket, for example, and in frustration leads a mini rebellion of fellow codgers against those pesky 40-year-old employees. He’s trouble, but at least realizes he’s enough of a burden that he doesn’t want to trouble his daughter Sally (Uma Thurman), turning down her invitation to come live with her family. But after come somber convincing, he accepts and tries to put his best foot forward.

The only person not thrilled by his coming home is Sally’s middle child, Peter (Oakes Fegley). His anger is understandable—he already feels like the lesser kid at school, and now he’s forced out of his room and into the attic. This is the last straw for Peter, and he decides to launch a prank war against grandpa. Ed, rather than reason with the boy as he seems to have reasoned with everyone else, decides to treat Peter’s war seriously. He seems to be motivated less by teaching his grandson a lesson on grudges and more by just wanting something to do. Hammering this home are Ed’s fellow bored elders, Jerry (Christopher Walken) and Danny (Cheech Marin), encouraging him in his pranks.

Grandson Peter (Oakes Fegley) and grandpa Ed. 101 Studios

The prank war proceeds about as expected . . . for the first half of the film. All the hallmarks are present: Peter will blast loud music at Ed in the middle of the night. Ed will sabotage Peter’s homework. Doors fall off hinges. Toiletries are replaced with solvents. As the pranks progress, however, they start crossing a few lines too many. Early on, Ed tells the youngest daughter of the house about his personal marble collection reminding him of his construction days; Peter sabotages the jar, and all the marbles fall down a vent. Later, Peter will make Ed’s smartphone go off with inappropriate music at a friend’s funeral, and fumbling Ed will accidentally drop the phone inside the casket; the audience must endure Ed shoving his hand down the pants of his dead friend. What a prank.

Of course, it isn’t until a big prank wreaks major destruction that they finally realize the futility of their battles. But what’s most displeasing about this lesson to be learned is that it takes the allegory too much to heart. This premise almost nosedives early when Peter equates being evicted from his room to imperialism. The film seems to pull up but doesn’t shy away from Peter pretending he has learned a true lesson about the horrors of war. Tears in his eyes, he confesses that war is terrible and that he never wants to go to war. How easy such lessons seem to be when locked within the void of suburbia, where learning of the world’s horrors comes more through pratfalls.

The amount of talent roped into this farce is staggering. Uma Thurman tries to pull her best angry mom acting but feels woefully subdued for the tone of the film. Cheech Marin is only here for mild commentary, and Christopher Walken’s purpose in the film seems to be falling on his face while literally saying “Epic!” And Rob Riggle, an actor who seems doomed to play the straight-faced comedy dad, is only here to walk in on De Niro in the nude and scream in disgust at his penis. Twice.

Happy family. 101 Studios

The War with Grandpa was clearly intended to be family-oriented slapstick, perhaps most pronounced in a silly game of trampoline dodgeball between Ed and Peter—the game is played as kids versus elders, which comes with the expected dirty trick of one of the old guys faking a heart attack for an easy score. It could have been a mindless exercise in physical humor with maybe a sprinkling of melodrama about getting old and bullying being bad, but the escapism doesn’t allow for much escape when the film wants to make a point about the nature of actual war. There’s a very telling scene in which Walken’s character utters “Semper fi.” De Niro asks whether he ever even served in the Marines, and Walken admits it’s just a saying he heard. This film acts in a similar manner, hearing about how war is bad but having no proper clue how to stage that lesson within such a brainless bit of goofy humor.