Dirty Grandpa

Robert De Niro and Zac Efron

Hello its been a while and I need to write.

Last weekend I saw Dirty Grandpa staring Robert De Niro and Zac Efron. Directed by Dan Mazer who has directed the Ali G show and produced films such as: Borat and Burno. If you have never heard or seen these films before click the links to their IMDB pages and watch their trailers at your own discretion.

Seeing Zac Efron and Robert De Niro together in a film made me think of the film Neighbors (american spelling pff) where the frat boys have a De Niro party.

The Dirty Grandpa follows a grandfather, grandson duo on their rediscovery of each other. The film is meant to be one of those stupid funny films. Most of the jokes are about, drugs, sex and sexuality. It tries really hard and I did laugh at times but, over all it wasn't very good.

It's nice to see De Niro in comedy again, though this film doesn't even come close to Meet The Parents or The Intern which I really enjoyed.

Meredith (Julianne Hough)

Okay, so a quick synopsis of the film. Our two leads Dick (Robert De Nrio) and Jason (Zack Efron) come together at a funeral for Jason's Grandmother, Dick's wife. Jason is suppose to take his Grandfather to Florida play some golf and come back to plan his wedding. His fiance Meredith (Julianne Hough) show us what it looks like to have a man whipped. She is controlling and needy, Dick sees this and is trying to save his grandson from an awful marriage.  In the process they meet a group of college students heading  down to Daytona beach for spring break.

The idea for this film isn't horrible, it's not really original but its not bad. The execution of this idea is less than what you would expect. The jokes are very unintelligent and relies heavily on stupid comedy. When I was part of an improv club we were always told to play to the height or our intelligence. Scenes that had smart humour and call backs always had the best type of set ups and long lasting jokes. Sexual jokes can only go so far until the crowd gets bored of them. Maybe the writers of this film should join my old improv club because they could benefit from some creative learning.

The writers even botched the ending to add in a few more sexual gags that would have been better suited in the middle of the film. The ending should have ended near when Dick gives Jason the camera.

I can't talk much about the filmography of the film since its filmed on location. The only thing I can say is that I've been to Daytona beach and it did not look as fun when I was there or as nice. Either things have changed or this is not Daytona beach.

Over all you can go on without watching this film.

Badge: Jar-Jar
Rating 3/10

Jupiter Ascending

This week on MC's Film Critique I look at Jupiter Ascending. Directed by The Wachowskis, brother and sister director duo who brought us The Matrix trilogy.

The trailer looked interesting, so this was on my radar. For those video game savy and fans of other Si-Fi films, let me know if you agree with me that the film looked like Mass Effect meets Star Craft II meets The Fifth Element.

Visually this film looked great. The effects were awesome! There were some really out there concepts in this film such as: owning planets, spliced humans with animals and this super important but rarely mentioned key aspect of the film. 

There is the Abrasax dynasty of who Jupiter (Mila Kunis) is a reincarnation of the head of the dynasty. That's all that made sense to me. After that there is some type of King Lear squabble between her former selves children. Side note, I felt like it reminded me of a Shakespearean play, but I was at a lost until I read this review rogerebert.com. 

Each of the three had like half a goal. POSSIBLE SPOILER One wanted to be closer with her and then is never seen again in the film. One wanted to marry and kill her to inherit the earth to make more money? Then the eldest, Balem Abrasax. First off the actor Eddie Redmayne whispers most of the film so as to not hear him. This motivation was the least clear. He wanted to kill Jupiter so he could keep the Earth? SPOILER OVER

Basically this film had too much going on. It didn't give many answers, and I found myself asking too often "what is going on and why?" While the action scenes are quite choppy, though they had potential. Not to mention a main plot point is excluded. Why anyone wants or should be helping Jupiter will forever be a mystery.

Overall don't watch this unless you bring earplugs and skip the plot to enjoy how pretty the film looks...

Badge:Jar-Jar Badge

Rating: 4.9/10 Being Pretty Doesn't Cut It For a Passing Grade.