"Bad Grandpa" PG 13
Irving Zissman, Johnny Knoxville in pounds of makeup, is a widower and has a daughter on crack who is going to jail, and leaves him grandson Billy, to take to his father across country. Thus begins the hidden camera casing road movie of the summer, Bad Grandpa.
The old man bits on Jackass are usually tired except for the last one in part 3, but this movie refreshes the concept by ditching Spike Jonze in drag and transforming him into a corpse that gets into a lot of trouble. Jeff Tremaine and the others are along for the ride behind the scenes, and are not featured directly.
Also note that although having a corpse might seem like Weekend at Bernies it is a lot funnier than that movie because here they so not reanimate it.
The trailer directly riffs from the independent road movie Little Miss Sunshine, the inspiration for the Honey Boo Boo series, (Toddlers and Tiaras/Honey Boo Boo being a direct rip off also), and then turns it head over heels into a parody of Victor Victoria. If you're going to homage a classic why not make fun of two, for the price of one.
Clearly they have also been inspired by the work of Walter Matthaw, Neil Simon and the classic old sketches of what to do with a body, and they use this quite a bit including a funeral home scene that although similar to something Mel Brooks would do, was a fun homage not a rip off.
A lot of the funniest stuff isn't in the trailer, including what seems to be an ode to Robot Chicken's humping robot, involving Zissman and a vending machine. Yikes. Also because Jackass is always joking about the penis, there is bound to be a penis joke somewhere.
The breakfast diner scene where they turn the roadie movie cliche about having a man to man talk with the boy is just incredible! They are so making fun of several movies like this, including Little Miss Sunshine again, which is a lot considering that movie was a cult hit. Why not make a nod or two?
The reactions make the story as hidden cameras and staged bits come together to make puerile comedy gold. If you liked Jackass you won't get so many stunts, and might not like that, but you will get Sasha Coen type pranks. Some critics have called them out on this, but actually Knoxville and team are the American form of Ali G show, of which Sasha is the lead, so it's kind of a nod too, not a rip off. In fact, Knoxville has better timing.
Yes, in Borat Sasha dud ruin a wedding, but he was just spoofing wedding movies, and when Jackass did it in at least one episode and in one of their movies, doing it here isn't ripping of Sasha. It's them just doing what they did before. Now what would have been sweet would have been to have Sasha show up in a cameo, but they didn't do that.
The movie was dedicated to Ryan Dunn, the Jackass guy with the cars and the long beard, who died in a car accident. This caused the audience to react positively to the end also.
It should make a lot of money but will likely not get the Oscar. The comedy awards might be the place to go, and it is one of the best of the year.
Review by Adam Browne
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