The War with Grandpa movie review - Aussieboyreviews

IS THERE MORE MISCHIEF THAN LAUGHS IN THE WAR WITH GRANDPA?

The mischievous characters and clever pranks are what’s meant to get you laughing. There’s a decent amount of funny moments, but The War with Grandpa is a reasonably slow and average comedy for kids.

Storyline

Upset that he is forced to give up his bedroom for his Grandpa who moves in, Peter is convinced by his friends to declare a war in an attempt to get it back, provoking a series of pranks between the two.

Movie Images

Movie details

Director: Tim Hill
Cast: Robert De Niro, Uma Thurman, Rob Riggle, Oakes Fegley, Laura Marano, Cheech Marin, Jane Seymour, Christopher Walken
Writer: Tom J. Astle, Matt Ember
Release Date (Australia): 3 December 2020
Runtime: 94 minutes/1h 34m
Genre: Comedy, Family
Country: USA
Language: English

CONTENT GUIDE (WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS)

Themes (PG)

Themes include instances of crude humour, pranks and scenes of bullying.

Violence (G)

There is slapstick violence depicted throughout the film that includes characters falling from high places, being hit by objects and kicked.

Coarse Language (PG)

The film contains a use each of the words “crap” and “ass”. There is also a use of a cut-off term using the words “what the f…”.

Nudity (G)

There is very mild nudity in which a man’s lower buttocks are very briefly viewed in a comedic context.

Sex (G)

The film contains verbal sexual innuendo.

mpaa rating

PG (for rude humor, language, and some thematic elements)

Aussie boy's thoughts

It’s difficult to avoid declaring that The War with Grandpa is just an average slapstick prank-wars comedy for families, but the watchable design takes most credit. Despite the fact that parents and adults will feel like they’re just witnessing recycled pratfalls and silly jokes, it’s definitely enough to entertain kids. Plus there’s also some unexpectedly spectacular messages worth including on everyone’s notes, mainly recalling well-spoken lines such as “war hurts” and “war isn’t meant for fun”. It’s definitely worth pointing those words out an extra time to your family.

But other than those lines and the satisfactory performances delivered from the cast, this prank-wars-related comedy is exactly what most young kids will appreciate. It’s watchable enough, but there are the usual sections that won’t engage many adults. That includes the clever but old slapstick humour and average karma.

Without the talented Robert De Niro playing the film’s Grandpa, it’d probably feel like less to most people. But what will probably disappoint most critics and audiences is just the story itself. You’ll watch the trailer and gain high anticipations believing it’ll be an exciting, hilarious and entirely entertaining comedy, but we’ll all leave feeling like we didn’t receive exactly what we had expected. It isn’t as fast and fulfilling as most families will expect, but is a popcorn-fun watch.

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