Grand-Daddy Day Care

I liked it, I mean it isn't going to win any awards for groundbreaking ideas, but it was a movie that I made it through in one sitting (with my attention span that's saying something). I've seen reviews saying "ageist", I don't see it. There's a guy who sees and opportunity for making money from people pawning off a group of people who are typically seen as incapable or in the way, but a heartwarming tale ensues with a good amount of head trauma. Basically a coming of age movie for an adult.

Seeing these actors from the 70s and 80s try to lift this pathetic script into a comedy is sad and pathetic. This movie has as many laughs as a book of carpet samples. Just terrible.

OK, this came up on Bounce, broadcast TV, so it is not like I paid anything. Firstly, the actors were great. I love Danny Trejo. I was astonished to see how obese George Wendt has gotten. He is in a life-threatening situation, so I guess that is one way to make me care about a character, wondering if he will have a stroke on camera.

The script was a bit formulaic, but when the ex-con played by Trejo knew not to let a government employee into the house, I felt the need to write a review to defend the movie against all the negative reviews. Learn from Danny, never let a government employee into your house. (Yes, I do know they don't need a warrant to inspect a home business, but it's OK dramatic license.) I thought the interplay of a street-smart jail-house lawyer and a nice middle-class family was well done.

This movie was a little "corporate," in the somewhat unbelievable diversity of the cast, I don't want to watch a movie based on demographics, but on believable relationships. But it was not too far off the mark, and having seen friends go to assisted living homes, with a stint in a nursing home now and then, there was charm to the plot, and dialog, and characters.

I liked the sub-plot of the shy son liking the cute girl. He might have been type-cast, but he really came across like a nice shy kid, so I really liked that actor. He did his role very well.

This is not a sit-com humor, it is more subtle and gentle, so don't look for howling snarky knee-slappers, just a nice knowing chuckle, especially if you have hung around a retirement village at all.

Thanks to IMDb, I looked up the writers, Robbie Fox and David H. Steinberg. These guys are not slouches, they did pretty good job making a nice clean entertaining movie. The direction is pretty good too, like the kid's audition sequence inter-woven with a montage. Not Citizen Kane, but good solid stuff.

I also liked that the government guy was a pain, and officious, and a nice bureaucrat just doing horrible things since he felt he could. The banality of evil.

OK, the movie has 15 minutes left, including the commercials. I am glad I stuck it out, it's actually interesting to me to see what happens. What more can you ask of a free movie?

As a parting note, I clean up a joke told me by a pal that spent a little time in San Quentin: "I spent so many years pleasuring myself in the shower, now that I am out, I can only make love to my wife when it rains."

Let me lead off with being a fan of nearly every performer in this movie. I've seen, and gone out of my way to see, most of these actors works, whether it be on TV or the big screen. I know family friendly comedies will be safe, middle-of-the-road and take few risks so I watch it with all these expectations. Safe but entertaining, amusing and a chance to see some faces you don't see much these days (Hal Linden, Julia Duffy, Barry Bostwick, George Wendt, James Hong, Linda Gray). The idea of a stymied author making some much needed money on the side by taking in various elderly folks in the neighborhood so they can also keep his newly-moved-in father-in-law (Danny Trejo) company is fine. However, some of these folks aren't that old, yet they have them behave...across the board...as decrepit, frail, clueless, just out of it. Take every old person stereotype you can think of, it's here. Take every old person "joke" and it's them. The writer of the movie seems to have forgotten that old people don't think of themselves as old, most of the time. They are just people that sometimes get held back by their age, but their interests and desires are not "old". The people in this were young in the 60s, 70s and 80s, but they don't use references or show interests that reflect that. Again, it's just really rough, broad stereotypes, skeletons of characters never fleshed out. A movie that could have been Grumpy Old Men (and Women) on steroids becomes a cringe-worthy exercise in laughing *at*, not with, the elderly. The cast deserved so much better than this.

Dan trejo is eduardo, father to frank (reno wilson), who is father to jordan. And now that eduardo is out of the joint, all three generations will be living under one roof. Hijinx ensue. Frank comes up with the bright idea of setting up a senior day care, but he didn't know how wacky and needy they would be. It gets pretty silly. And frank keeps falling on his butt. Lots of chuckles. With a side of serious thrown in...when eduardo starts to have episodes where he doesn't know where he is. Some fun co-stars. Hal linden, george wendt, julia duffy, garrett morris. Directed by ron oliver. It's ok... pretty weak script; with all that acting talent they hired, they should have provided a better script for them.