Bad Grandpa

In a world overrun by forgettable, banal reality television, Jackass has distinguished itself as a franchise with unexpected staying power. Who would have thought that a television show about pulling pranks on unsuspecting members of the public would go on to dominate the silver screen as well? That's precisely what Johnny Knoxville and his compatriots have done, however. Bad Grandpa marks the Jackass crew's fourth foray into the realm of feature films. The movie is itself more ambitious than its predecessors, betting that one character - an apparently doddering 86-year-old man - can carry an actual plot and an enormous arsenal of pranks. Surprisingly, it's a gamble that pays off: Bad Grandpa is frequently as funny as it is in bad taste.

The ostensible plot of it all goes something like this: Irving Zisman (Knoxville) is saddled with his grandson Billy (Jackson Nicoll) when his flaky daughter is sent to prison and his wife Ellie (Catherine Keener - yes, really!) passes away. Resolving to palm his grandson off to his ne'er-do-well son-in-law, Irving embarks on a road trip across America - an adventure that takes them from strip club to diner, from funeral to beauty pageant, and everything in between. Along the way, they meet people from all walks of life: most of them unsuspecting, several of them kind, all of them pretty good sports.

Much of the thrill of watching Bad Grandpa comes from knowing that it is a hidden-camera comedy - one that draws its greatest laughs and amusement from people who have no clue that Irving isn't actually a senior citizen. Many of the pranks border on the tasteless (Irving gets a crucial body part caught in a vending machine, grandpa and grandson engage in a flatulence contest in a diner with disastrous results), but the horrified looks on the faces of innocent passers-by make it all work. There are even some moments of inspired comic genius: chiefly, the set-pieces that take place in a strip club and at a beauty pageant. (To spoil you any further, dear reader, would be criminal.)

It takes a pair of seasoned performers not to crack and give the game away. Knoxville, of course, has years of experience and bodily injury under his belt, and he is astonishingly good at playing a bawdy old man with very few social (and some might say moral) filters. The great surprise is Nicoll, a child with the most perfectly deadpan of faces - he's hilariously convincing whether he's asking a complete stranger to adopt him or re-enacting a scenario reminiscent of Abigail Breslin's wildly inappropriate grind-bump dance in Little Miss Sunshine.

This is - evidently - very far from great cinema, even though director Jeff Tremaine does actually manage to sneak a little more sentiment and plot into the film than you might expect. But great cinema does not always equate into a fun, brainless night out at the cinema - which Bad Grandpa, if you set your expectations as low as they can go, will almost indubitably provide you.

Bad Grandpa is a film I certainly wasn't anticipating. Unlike a lot of people my age, I don't support Jackass, or enjoy any of their films. They just seem a little too over the top for my liking. But despite this, surprisingly, I adored Bad Grandpa!

I'm going to keep this short and to the point. Johnny Knoxville is fantastic as Irving, an incredibly raunchy and hilarious 86 year old man. Thrown into real life prank situations, he steals the show, pranking people in some bizarre and incredible ways that I just couldn't stop laughing at! His grandson within the film, Billy, played by Jackson Nicoll, is awesome as well, managing to create some fantastic scenarios which will leave you in stitches. I'm really surprised that I didn't mind this child actor, as I normally have a problem against their type. Nicoll though, killed it as Billy.

Despite the fact that a lot of these jokes presented are incredibly over the top, I really enjoyed the comedy here. It had me laughing the majority of the way through, and I honestly couldn't believe what they were doing in public. Jackass knows how to make pranks work, and here is easily their best work.

I didn't have expectations for Bad Grandpa; none good at least. I was pleasantly surprised though! Whilst not nearly the best comedy released in 2013, this is surely the funniest. If you love pranks, or Jackass, or both, you'll adore this film!

8.6/10

Bad Grandpa (2013)

**** (out of 4)

Johnny Knoxville dresses up as old man Irving Zisman and takes a trip from Nebraska to North Carolina to take his grandson (Jackson Nicoll) back to his real father. BAD GRANDPA comes from the JACKASS team and while I did enjoy the show and the three previous films, all of them simply wore out their welcome after a while but that's certainly not the case with this film. I'm not going to go into great detail about the various pranks in the film because it's best to go in without knowing too many of them. I will say that this here doesn't resort to physical violence all that much, although there are a couple examples. The main focus is just this weird old man who puts his grandson into all sorts of bad situations and usually makes them worse. I think the film is remarkably funny and I'd probably call it one of the funniest films I've seen in a very long time. Again, I'm not a JACKASS die-hard but even if you hate that show you'll simply fall for the variety of dirty humor here. We get stuff dealing with the old man's sex life, his dead wife, various scenes of him playing drunk and causing trouble and of course there are some of the moments that everyone saw in the trailer like the beauty pageant. Why four stars? Why not? The film really is a laugh riot from the opening scene to the very last one and a lot of credit has to go to Knoxville and the various writers. What really makes this film work is a little "story" built around all the jokes about this grandfather coming closer to his grandson. It's oh-so-silly but that's the point. The various situations the two find themselves in are certainly the highlight of the picture as we get some downright shocking scenes. There are even moments that you'll see coming from a mile away but then you'll get a twist that will just have tears running down your face. BAD GRANDPA certainly earns its R-rating but it's also one of the funniest films in a very long time.

I laughed my ass off! Amazing character transformation. Crude content! It is "R" rated!!

There are three stars in this film, the shining John Knoxville, the stellar fat kid and the bit actors that are American society. Knoxville has undoubted talent and shines throughout disguised as a senior citizen behaving badly as his libido flourishes entering widowhood. The fat kid being his screen grandson who seems to have inherited the granddad's on screen bravado and Knoxville's real world talent. A laugh out loud road movie that circles the underbelly of American society with its tongue and leaves you with a sweet lingering taste of other America on your palate. There is an insight in this comedy and this is that every American appears to be hanging around waiting to be in a movie. All the world is a stage but the USA appears to be a rolling film lot, waiting for the next crew to hit town with all the residents switching to bit part mode at any perceived opportunity. They may not be the brightest stars in this film but the ordinary people do shine and without them the other stars would not seem so bright. Yes its laugh out loud slapstick but the humanity and kindness of the real people give soul to a film that badly handled could have been exploitative and cruel. Go and enjoy it, no animals or Americans where harmed in the making of this film.