Susan Granger’s review of “The War With Grandpa” (Universal Pictures/Prime Video)
If you’re looking for a frivolous, if forgettable family comedy, featuring esteemed actors like Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and Jane Seymour – along with Cheech Marin – bouncing on trampolines, playing dodgeball with four rowdy kids, try this…
After the death of his beloved wife, Ed (De Niro) becomes irritable. That’s perhaps why he has an unfortunate encounter with a grocery self-checkout machine, resulting in a police record.
So his daughter Sally (Uma Thurman) insists that he move into the suburban home she shares with her husband Arthur (Rob Riggle) and their three children: teenage Mia (Laura Mararno), preteen Peter (Oakes Fegley) and tiny, Christmas-obsessed Jennifer (Poppy Gagnon).
Problem is: Ed is given Peter’s room, so the resentful sixth-grader must move into the bat-and-mice infested attic. Furious, Peter draws up a formal declaration of war on his grandfather. Although they theoretically agree on the ‘rules of engagement,’ they’re all-too-often ignored.
Most of the laughs, many a bit vulgar, are generated by Ed and his retired buddies (Walken and Marin), along with a cheery-yet-cheeky supermarket clerk. (Jane Seymour).
Adapted from the 1984 children’s novel by Robert Kimmel Smith, who died last April, it’s scripted by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember and directed by Tim Hill.
FYI: when you see the name Tre Pearl as ‘executive producer,’ you should know that he’s a Marlboro, New Jersey, high-school freshman whose idea it was to turn the book into a movie – with the help of his parents, Rosa and Marvin, who previously produced the animated “Escape from Planet Earth” and “Life on the Line” with John Travolta.
NOTE: While this is available on Prime Video, it’s cheaper at Redbox, the rental company with kiosks at convenience stores, fast food restaurants, pharmacies and grocery stores. You can return rentals to any Redbox location, not just the one from which you rented the DVD.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The War With Grandpa” is a silly 6, filled with childish, slapstick pranks.
