GRANDMA’S BOY(R)
***1/2 (out of 5)
January 6, 2006
STARRING
Linda Cardellini as SAMANTHA
Allen Covert as ALEX
Peter Dante as DANTE
Shirley Jones as GRACE
Shirley Knight as BEA
Joel David Moore as J.P.
Kevin Nealon as MR. CHEEZLE
Doris Roberts as GRANDMA LILLY
Nick Swardson as JEFF
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Directed by: Nicholaus Goossen
BY KEVIN CARR
Listen to Kevin’s radio review…
January is a special time for movies. For those of us in fly-over country, it’s a time to see all the Oscar hopefuls that the elite in New York and L.A. have already been seeing for a few weeks in limited release. Aside from these films and the holiday hits, there’s not much out there. Indeed, January has a reputation of being Hollywood’s sewer.
But if you tend to like what comes out of the sewer, you can find some good stuff.
Being award season, the public is faced with an onslaught of so-called significant movies. Not that there’s anything wrong with significant, but there’s only so much you can take of gay cowboys, transvestite struggles and Jane Austin.
After being subjected to these meaningful, awards-worthy films, I found it a relief to go to the theatre and watch “Grandma’s Boy.” I forgot what it was like to laugh in a big room full of strangers.
Let’s get something straight… there’s absolutely, positively nothing significant about this movie. It’s about a video game tester (Allen Covert) who is kicked out of his apartment and forced to live with his grandmother. He’s hot for his new boss (played by the beautiful Linda Cardellini), and also vying for her attention is the creepy video game designer genius (Joel David Moore) who works in the office.
That’s about it when it comes to plot. Sure, there’s plenty of crazy stuff to fill up the rest of the film like Tae Kwon Do monkeys and raunchy sex jokes, but that’s not pertinent to the plot. In fact, this really isn’t what you’d call a plot-driven movie at all.
Produced by Adam Sandler’s company, “Grandma’s Boy” stars Allen Covert, whom you’ve really only seen in Adam Sandler movies. He’s always been funny in those, and it’s nice to see that he’s getting his own flick. The film’s strength, like other pre-respectable Sandler films, is that it doesn’t pull any punches. And I can respect that.
I wouldn’t call “Grandma’s Boy” a particularly well-made movie. In fact, it’s pretty rough. The cinematography is uninspired and awkward. There are bizarre transitions and some pretty rough editing. Some of the jokes are hilarious, but others really fall flat.
Still, when it’s on, it’s on. And fortunately, the funny stuff is on through about half of the film.
There’s your fair share of extreme humor in this film, notably in the first ten minutes with a screamingly funny “hair gel” scene to rival that in “There’s Something About Mary.” Also, the geek humor is some of the best I’ve seen. Having grown up a geek on the outskirts of society, I can completely relate to the secondary characters of this movie. If only we could each have a Linda Cardellini walk into our lives… sigh…
Don’t go to this film expecting anything more than a low-brow, gross-out, garbage humor movie. There is no doubt that it belongs in Hollywood’s sewer, but it’s the gem of the sewer this year.
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