DIRTY GRANDPA Review

Dirty Grandpa is the kind of movie that longtime fans of Robert De Niro will scoff at and that others will see as Zac Efron continuing to hang his movie stardom on the only game in town that seems to work for him: R-rated comedies. By this point in time though, De Niro isn't hurting his legacy as much as he is simply continuing to do what he loves, but with less demanding material. The guy's legacy is cemented in the films he made and the roles he personified in his prime that are still discussed today. Dirty Grandpa won't hurt his legacy because no one will remember Dirty Grandpa two months from now. Efron, on the other hand, has been testing this reliable formula since Charlie St. Cloud and the indies he attempted didn't hit. The moment that not only The Paperboy failed to connect, but both At Any Price and Parkland failed critically and commercially it was as if Efron told his agent to only send him one type of script. Over the past two years Efron has starred in That Awkward Moment, Neighbors, We Are Your Friends and the movie we're discussing in this review. Just around the corner, the actor has four movies in some stage of production all of which are comedies, and all likely rated-R. So, what does this tell us about Dirty Grandpa? Well, it tells us to expect nothing more than the tried and true formula that has kept Efron afloat and that will continue to give De Niro paydays in the vein of The Intern and Last Vegas. These are perfectly fine, broad comedies that do what they are intended to do and little more. They open up with an accessible premise, do their job for an hour and a half, and wrap everything up nicely so we can go home feeling good about the ten bucks we invested in it. Dirty Grandpa certainly tries too hard in certain moments and director Dan Mazer (I Give it a Year) doesn't know how to balance the raunch with the heart very well, but I laughed often enough to qualify it as more of a win than a waste of time. At the very least there is genuine character development happening as the arc of the film depends on it and there is clear effort being made to craft a legitimately funny movie which is more than I can say for the total cash grab that is Ride Along 2.

THE D TRAIN Review

The D Train is an odd movie. It's an interesting one, don't get me wrong, but it's an odd one for sure. I'm a rather faithful comedy fan and have said many times on this site before that I carried a rather rabid affinity for the fan appointed "Frat Pack" that originally consisted of Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Owen and Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell. Any time any of these guys decided to head up a film there was a desperate hope they would include a couple of the others in the proceedings. Soon, Judd Apatow and his gang emerged and the universe has been expanding ever since. In the wake of this merger it always felt like Black was somewhat left behind. This was obviously unfortunate given Black is one of those guys who can make you laugh with a simple facial expression, but his output has become increasingly stale since hitting a high mark in 2008 with Tropic Thunder and Kung-Fu Panda. Looking back through his filmography it is almost alarming how little he has done in the past few years with his last out and out feature being the horribly marketed and little-seen The Big Year in 2011. With The D Train, Black seems to be making something of a statement in that, at the very least, he'd like to see his career go in a more mature way, one that puts him in the position of actually investing in his characters and developing his skills rather than simply cashing the quick check and making the same faces. We've seen this before from the comic, especially in the underrated Bernie, but here it is more of a concentrated effort than the seemingly haphazard way in which Black picked projects prior.

THE WOLF OF WALL STREET Review

Just because a film depicts the excess of its main character doesn't necessarily mean the film itself falls under those qualities, right? Sure, many movies make it easy to relate much of a films overall tone and attributes in a way where one can speak unanimously about the main character and the film itself, but the big question with Martin Scorsese's latest is does he allow his film to fall into the trappings of the same temptations and indulgences his protagonist does? For the most part I would say the answer is a solid no. There is no way to look at the film and really get the sense that what the director and his now five time collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio are doing here is glorifying a man who doesn't deserve to ever have his name spoken in good regard again, not to mention in such a high profile film that numerous people will see and wonder how we'd even allow a dirtbag like this to seep into our competent consciousness. The reason why we don't mind watching this despite the unjust attention it will draw to the main character, why we find the tragic tale of someone like Jordan Belfort so intriguing is because he seemingly had everything anybody could want in order to experience a satisfying existence on this earth, but couldn't step back and appreciate how far he'd come, no, he always kept his eye on the future and how far he still felt he had to go. The Wolf of Wall Street can be an excessive film, it had a strong stopping point just after the two hour mark that would have made for a more than satisfying experience and would have allowed it the convenience of wrapping up the story with a few cue cards, but instead it continues on for almost another full hour hitting the narrative beats we've already seen before again only to result in conclusions we could have called the first time we got a real taste of just how far Belfort's greed, drug use and consistently unsatisfied carnal desires really went. Yet, at the same time it is very aware of itself and the point it intends to make. There are moments throughout the film where Scorsese hints at greatness, entire scenes even where you wish you could stay tucked in that little moment for a little bit longer while others go on for far too long and rather than re-enforce the throughline plot or contributing to character development, stand as evidence that more time was needed to fine tune the film. This is by no means a disappointment, as it is a strong film with easily the best performance of DiCaprio's illustrious career, but it is not the coherent masterpiece individual aspects of the ensemble piece hint it very well could have been.