Grandma's Boy Movie Review

Grandma’s Boy is incredibly stoopid. Yes, that kind, with two o’s in place of a u. The kind of funny wholly dependent on the amount of chronic you’ve inhaled prior to screening, that kind of funny that 12-year-old boys wet their pants over, that kind of funny that really just isn’t that funny outside of the movie theatre.

I can see where they were going with this movie. The whole advertising campaign, in fact the entire production, is an attempt to sell the film as a late '70s, early '80s teen sex comedy. The poster art is reminiscent of the cartoonish painted posters for films like Animal House, even the title credits are superimposed against clips of Space Invaders (or is that Galaga?).

But there aren’t any teens in Grandma’s Boy, the lead character is 35 and most of the peripheral characters are in their mid-20s. So what gives? Crass exploitation. Nah, this film doesn’t have a crass bone in its body. I think it’ s more likely that the filmmakers got really high, made a movie, and then needed to figure out just how to package it.

Allen Covert stars as Alex, a video game tester who can’t be beat. He’s also a doofus with no life, no apartment, and nothing to live for other than goofy pot concoctions that his dealer Dante (Peter Dante) plies him with. That changes when a sexy corporate exec (Linda Cardellini) moves into the office to try and turn around a video game the company needs to release while Alex moves in with his grandmother, Everybody Loves Raymond’s Doris Roberts. The usual undemanding comedy shenanigans ensue (i.e. grandma gets stoned, a villain emerges, the best friend gets laid, the chimp learns tae kwon do, etc.) but Grandma’s Boy is less concerned with a tight plot than it is with meandering pothead humor.

Besides looking like a Lethal Weapon era Mel Gibson, Covert is odd leading man material. He’s not a good actor by any stretch but he’s got an engaging smile and a nice sense of timing. Obviously his writing the screenplay and appearing in every one of Adam Sandler’s films helps. But the show belongs to Nick Swardson who, as Alex’s friend and coworker, pulls off a flawless hipster nerd, Napoleon Dynamite-like performance. He’s both incredibly deadpan funny and grossly unappealing.

Most of the film plays like a series of stitched-together sketches. There's some cubicle humor, Office Space riffs, Porky’s sex jokes (including a few gross out Farrelly Brother-esque scenes, most notably a early encounter with a Tomb Raider action figure), and whole hemp fields of pot gags, but the majority of the jokes fall flat. All in all, Grandma’s Boy is a Neanderthal picture; it’ s funny but so lowbrow you’ll actually feel your brain cells dying. I felt like I was watching a USA Up All Night broadcast of Zapped!

Oh yeah, I do highly recommend the soundtrack.

Which one's grandma?