Robert De Niro Review : Dirty Grandpa Sobers Up

War With Grandpa

Starring Robert De Niro,Uma Thurman,Rob Riggle,Oakes Fegley,Cheech Marin,Jane Seymour, Christopher Walken

Directed  by  Tim Hill

Rating: ***

What happens  when the world’s greatest actor decides  to melt down  to the lowest common denominator? Five years  ago Robert de Niro did  the  filthy Dirty Grandpa with Zack Efron where the two actors  indulged in the most X-rated activities with a straight face.

Looks like De Niro decided to make amends for his 2015  sins  of  transgression, War With  Grandpa looks like  an  antidote to  Dirty Grandpa and  quite  a  wholesome  antidote at that with some  skilled  lowbrow writing that allows not just the mighty de Niro  but also his other distinguished co-stars Uma Thurman(playing  De Niro’s daughter), Jane Seymour(playing de Niro’s special friend at the supermarket who helps him with the  new checking-out technology)  , Chistopher Walken and Cheech Marin(playing de Niro’s buddies) letting their hair down.

Happily it’s just the hair that these actors let down. The  smartly-written  lines and some genuinely  funny situations ensure that we  don’t gag on the gags.  Many times  I found myself laughing at  the silliness  of it all.

There  is a sequence where DeNiro sits on toy chairs with his  his  grandson Peter(Oakes Fegley) negotiating about  the room that they have to share,  with De Niro’s cute little grand daughter(Poppy Gagnon) serving as  the mediator(who has been bribed by her grandfather with a chocolate-chip cookie). This sequence milks the cuteness  out of the  situation, and gets away with  it because…well.. cuteness  never hurts.

The  feelgood film is essentially about  a grand father re-structuring his life around his daughter’s home, with the  “war” with the  grandson serving as  the core conflict.  It’s all  harmless fun with oddles of goofy  laughter and  innocuous  digs at  the question of ownership that frequently  causes  a rift in joint  families.

 This is  Robert de  Niro having  fun. We can’t grudge him  a break from the Scorcese  grimness . God knows everyone needs  a spot of sunshine at this  point in time.Even the Irishman needs  to lighten  up at times.