Dirty Grandpa (2016), R, ★

Robert De Niro and Zac Efron.

Robert De Niro is an icon in the film industry that cements his place in his story with films such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, GoodFellas, The Untouchables, Heat, etc. However, Dirty Grandpa will be in the history book...in my history book...because I will have to look back at this movie and re-think whether or not this may belong in the worst list of 2016. Hey, I know it's January, but I already have seen 3 abysmal movies this year and one good movie. The one good movie surprised me. But, even though, Efron and De Niro try their best to maintain their dignity, the movie does not have dignity to cause me to say "It's a good movie". It's a formulaic and boring movie that had so much potential with its premise.

Jason Kelly (Zac Efron), a lawyer, is at his grandmother's funeral with an obnoxious cousin (Adam Pally) who is high. Jason's grandfather, Dick (Robert De Niro) implores Jason to drive him to Florida as a personal favor. However, Jason and his dad, David (Dermot Mulroney) don't like the idea. Jason is also at another occasion in which he and his fiancee, Meredith (Julianne Hough) are planning over their wedding but she is annoyed that Jason has to leave her before their upcoming rehearsal dinner. She makes Jason to take an ugly pink car to pick up Dick, only to find him masturbating to porn.

The two hit the road and get to know one another. Jason gets re-acquainted with Shadia (Zoey Deutch) who recognizes him from a class they had. She approaches him to talk, but is distracted and thinks she is a waitress causing her to run away with Lenore (Aubrey Plaza) and Bradley (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman) but Jason catches her. He recognizes her. But, Dick is handling his wife's death a little better because all he wants to do is have unprotected sex which annoys Jason. That's what it's all about for the rest of the movie: Plain raunchy dirty jokes and coarse language.

Hey, that's all of the pictures I could find. 

This movie was not as enjoyable as I thought. I expected so much more from a performance by Robert De Niro to portray a rude and dirty-mouthed grandpa. The screenwriter, John Phillips, missed a humongous opportunity to evolve a good story around the grandfather. However, the reason is predictable, causing an epiphany for both of the characters' fate. Plus, we get a scene with a jerk ruining what Jason and Dick were going for in terms of having fun. This is not a movie, this is filth slithering out a pipe to go into a sewage.

Robert De Niro does all he can to play a particularly memorable character and even though a few jokes worked for me as I chuckled, the jokes become flatter as the movie progresses. Zac Efron plays the straight character and is a one-note predictable character who is forced to choose his life and the woman he wants to marry. Aubrey Plaza has nothing to do and Dermot Mulroney has to be thankful to get paid in a small role.

Director Dan Mazer has crafted a boring comedy with repetitive jokes that make me cringe and roll my eyes. I cannot bother to watch this movie again. I mean, they had something going for the first 30 minutes, but it derails entirely. Dirty Grandpa gives a raunchy comedy a bad name because it not only wastes the talents of Robert De Niro and Zac Efron, who is better than in the much-better movie, Neighbors, but wastes my time and my knowledge for cinema in the comedy genre. My time is gone forever. Forever.

*