Crazy Party

One of the funniest movies I have ever seen, if not the funniest. As many others have said, this isn't highbrow comedy, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. The puns and gags are highly memorable, and there are a lot of lovable actors, many of which you wouldn't expect to see in a movie like this, which makes them even more entertaining.

Whenever my friends have a LAN, we have to watch this movie at least once, as most of them are game designers. Many people have said that the movie is unrealistic, but beyond the obvious physical and logistical deviations, the general attitude and behavior of the characters isn't too far off from what I see when I've been around my friends.

I can't believe anyone could rate this a 1. If you did, call the morgue, you are dead inside.

First and foremost, I only gave this movie a 9 to out weigh all the 1s that morons are giving it, I believe that it truly deserves about a 6.5-7.0 (currently it has a 5.5 with 87 votes). Look this is a funny movie, it's not ground breaking and it is certainly low-brow but it's actually quite enjoyable. The critics are trying to make it into the worst movie of the new year, which is sad because, in my opinion, it's as funny as anything that came out last year, including wedding crashers (although wedding crashers, I'll admit is a better film). The story relies on comedy to get by, the plot bobs and weaves, sometimes awkwardly, in the name of telling a joke rather than flowing an interesting plot line, that said, I enjoy the filmmaker's willingness to disregard any attempt to make the story realistic or to make the transitions genuine. The flow of the story seems as if it is constructed in an alternate universe where random parties come together with ease, while it may sound as if I'm being sarcastic I'm certainly not, I believe that most movie transitions are simply labored and lame attempts to get from point A to point B, they just jump almost directly to what they want to do next in Grandma's Boy ala the first Wayne's World, which keeps the movie from sagging. All and all, I believe this is a great comedy, it's certainly not for those with high brow taste, remember, critics typically like comedies like Sideways and Broken Flowers, movies that, while entertaining, find it difficult to make a young person laugh. If you liked There's Something About Mary and previous Sandler films, with the exceptions of Spanglish and Punch Drunk Love, you will enjoy Grandma's Boy.

Well, obviously some viewers didn't like this one, and that's the case with all comedies that we could compare to Grandma's Boy. I still haven't quite gotten a handle on what those viewers aren't seeing in these films that they would like to see. The typical answers are that they want something funny, something not stupid, not clichéd, and so on, but of course that doesn't tell us much, because lots of us do find these movies funny, not stupid and not clichéd.

So how do you know whether you'd like Grandma's Boy if you haven't seen it yet? It's worth noting that Adam Sandler it, it features a lot of Sandler regulars, and it's the vein of Adam Sandler comedies like Happy Gilmore (1996), The Waterboy (1998) and Little Nicky (2000). Actors like Rob Schneider, David Spade and Kevin Nealon have cameos or small parts, and it's also not off base to compare Grandma's Boy to the Deuce Bigalow movies (1999 & 2005), or Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003). Chances are that if you like "those kinds" of movies, you'll find a lot to appreciate in Grandma's Boy, too, and if you don't like those kinds of movies, you should know (or should have known) to stay away from this one.

Of course Grandma's Boy is exaggerated and not realistic and even ridiculous and absurd at times. That's part of this subgenre of comedy, along with an ever-present irreverence and regular jabs of "crudeness" that work because at least in theory, they tend to appear when you least expect them. The idea at this point isn't to top the irreverence and crudeness of previous films, because to do that a filmmaker would basically have to resort to doing various illegal things in front of the camera. The name of the game is to give the false impression that maybe you're going to play things straighter this time around, so that the crazy stuff works in context. Director Nicholaus Goossen shows that he understands this well.

Grandma's Boy is about game designers, which by extension makes it about geeks and nerds. This may not be how most game designers (or most grandparents and their friends) really are, but this isn't a documentary, it's a very funny comedy, and this is at least about how those of us who aren't in the business imagine or want them to be. That's part of what makes comedy work--it has exaggerated, fantasy elements by way of caricatures/grotesques of (stereo)types that exist at least in popular, contemporary "mythology".

There are plenty of gags that people who like these sorts of comedies will remember for a very long time. They arrive about once every two or three minutes at least--just enough time to wipe away your laughter tears from the last gag. You can't get a much better recommendation than that. And if you know you don't like these kinds of films, please, do yourself a favor and just avoid this one, too.

A 35 year old video game tester (Allen Covert) gets evicted from his apartment and is forced to move in with his grandma (Doris Roberts) and her two elderly friends (one of them is played by Shirley Jones). He tells his goofy friends at work that he's living with three babes, but the "jig is up" after they show up at the office.

This is one of those C-list acting B movie comedies that should be awful but it's really pretty funny. There are laughs throughout the entire film. Most of them are juvenile, toilet, and stoner jokes but they work for the most part. The film is loaded with toilet humor on the same level as the American Pie films. There is also a sweetness to it that helps balance things out.

The film does begin to fall apart towards the end and a some of the writing is pretty predictable. But this is a fun movie that will probably go by the waste side due to lack of stars, so catch it on DVD. It's pretty enjoyable and certainly a guilty pleasure. (**1/2)

A middle-aged video game tester is forced to live with his grandmother to make ends meet. He falls for a female video game employee, but he's in conflict with the biggest nerd of all: his boss.

I was happy to see Linda Cardellini after my recent run of watching "Freaks and Geeks", but she doesn't seem to be the same. Blond and set to be the girlfriend and nothing more in the film, this is quite the step down from her leading role. Nice to see her just the same.

I had no idea what this film was about, but didn't expect much. When I found it to be a funny film, with Adam Sandler connected to it (but not appearing in it), I was very pleased. I'm not very interested in drug humor, and there is plenty of that, but there's enough other stuff to make the drug references not completely overwhelming.

If you're into comedies like those with Adam Sandler, this is probably a good choice. I found that it had more heart than the "American Pie" films or anything with Will Ferrell.