Film: Bad Grandpa

Director: Jeff Tremaine
Genre: Comedy
Source: USA (2013)
Rating: R
Location/Format: Charlotte Studio Movie Grill
Grade: D+

I was prepared to really like this movie. Saw it with one of my closest friends as a warm up to seeing Pearl Jam live in concert. I was in a good mood, I was ready to be entertained, I knew the "real" show was coming later. I did laugh during the movie, to be sure, but as I thought about it more after the fact, I realized that mostly my entertainment was due to wanting to have a good time, not due to the quality of the movie itself. Old people saying demeaning things, kids saying offensive things, and poop/genitalia jokes can be funny, and there were a few moments of comedy. But mostly this was a disappointment. I wanted it to better than it actually was.

Part of that is due to the (I'm assuming) scripted narrative that overlays the "Candid Camera" style humor of Johnny Knoxville doing ridiculous things to unsuspecting bystanders. His age make-up (surprisingly good) and body language are pretty authentic, and it's interesting to see what effect such an offensive old coot has on people who don't know it's a joke (at least at first; the credits fortunately reveal the camera crew coming clean to several of the victims of Knoxville's gags, which is at least a nice reminder that practical jokes are not as fun if they're just mean-spirited). But the storyline of Bad Grandpa forging a relationship with his abandoned grandson is pretty flat, and whatever "growth" occurs is both not particularly believable or at all surprising. Even worse, the desire to connect these stunts and scenes with a narrative just makes the whole thing feel kind of hollow. In Jackass, the only narrative is "Here are a bunch of dumb idiot friends acting like fools." Here it becomes "Here are terrible people acting like jerks." It's harder to get behind, and it never strikes the right balance.

Even worse, the trailers for the film reveal most of the best gags. The bombing of the beauty pageant, for example, is really the film's ultimate prank, but you've seen all there is to see already if you've seen a preview, so whatever energy would have been there is sucked out. It's too bad, because it really is an absurdly offensive moment in all the right ways--mocking the child beauty pageants, the inappropriate sexualization of little girls, and the "pageant parents" responsible for both. It's a nice bit of satire that could have really been a nice surprise. Frankly, it's the scene that stands out most, so why include it in the preview? 

Because there's not that much else to offer. Bad Grandpa is an interesting experiment that sits in a weird middle ground between narrative film and comic documentary, but it's just not very successful at either. Disappointing.

Pearl Jam, though. That show was awesome.