The War with Grandpa – A Painfully Dated Exercise

Let’s face it, there’s a reason why The War with Grandpa simply sat on the shelf for 3 years before finally getting released recently and after having watched the film, it’s easy to see why. Not everything is going to be a winner and in a year such as this one, now seemed as good a time as any to finally cut ties. A lot has been said about the film with the majority of it being negative which is understandable now in 2020 as the film has the sensibilities of a 1990s straight-to-video family film and that was only the tip of the dated iceberg. All of that adds up to an incredibly painful watch from top to bottom that is sure to leave viewers dumbfounded and wondering what everyone involved both in front of and behind the camera were thinking. The only war going on here will be between viewers and the clock as many will be left wanting for it to end but its 94 minute running time is a deceiving one as it will inevitably feel longer than that.

The bulk of The War with Grandpa is revealed within its trailer but beyond the title, the film is about a 12-year-old boy named Peter (Oakes Fegley) who wasn’t thrilled about his Grandpa Ed (De Niro) moving in with his already dysfunctional family and taking over his room. Not willing to give it up without a fight, Peter and Ed engage in a war of sorts, pulling increasingly ridiculous pranks on one another until either waivered. Based on that fact alone, many can probably predict where things go from there and the answer is yes as the film simply devolves into a mess of slapstick and various other dumb gags (exactly what you think they are) that were just as unfunny and intelligence-insulting the first time as the dozens of other times that followed. Meanwhile, each brought their own circle of friends into the action and the subsequent ridiculousness thus further emphasizing the film’s battle of young vs. old. Though that contrast had the potential to be somewhat entertaining, the film of course had to be riddled with horrendous dialog where the kids didn’t talk like kids (from today or 2017 at least) and the seniors tried too hard to be young that was more cringeworthy than funny (and oddly inappropriate at times).

While there appears to be some sort of lesson buried deep within The War with Grandpa, it and anything else it may have tried to offer essentially doesn’t matter because the film overwhelms viewers with its dated and derivative (even for 2017 when the film was shot) plot and humor. Though the humor is sure to illicit reactions from some, the film as a whole is just sad more than anything else considering the names involved such as Thurman as Peter’s mother and Ed’s daughter Sally, Rob Riggle as Peter’s father Arthur, and Jane Seymour and Christopher Walken as Ed’s friends Dianne and Jerry just to name a few, as they all got pulled into the gutter thanks to some truly atrocious material. Suffice it to say that the performances definitely took a hit across the board and weren’t good by any means, with some merely going through the motions (a.k.a. paycheque mode) but that can mostly be attributed to the juvenile material and direction or lack thereof. Though in the end, they knew what they were signing up for so it’s hard to genuinely feel bad for any of them.

At the end of the day, The War with Grandpa is an embarrassing experience that should not be spoken of ever again.

still courtesy of VVS Films

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.