WAR WITH GRANDPA, THE

Name: WAR WITH GRANDPA, THE
Released: 2020-10-9
Cast: Christopher Walken, Jane Seymour, Laura Marano, Oakes Fegley, Rob Riggle

PG
1h 34m
2020

30%

age 8+

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In this star-studded comedy for the whole family, young Peter (Oakes Fegley) is not too pleased when his mom (Uma Thurman) makes him give up his beloved bedroom to accommodate Grandpa (Robert De Niro). Desperate to get his room back, Peter decides to wage all-out war and devises all sorts of wild schemes to make Grandpa give up the room. However, Grandpa refuses to surrender easily and soon takes the fight back to his grandson.

Director:

Tim Hill

Producer:

Marvin Peart, Phillip Glasser, Rosa Morris Peart

Writer:

Matt Ember, Tom J. Astle

Cast:

Christopher Walken, Jane Seymour, Laura Marano, Oakes Fegley, Rob Riggle, Robert De Niro, Uma Thurman

Rotten Tomatoes® Score

TOMATOMETER®

30%

Critics Consensus: Fitfully funny but mostly misguided, The War with Grandpa will leave audiences with a handful of chuckles -- and a lot of questions about what this talented cast was thinking.

Reviews

The News-Herald (Willoughby, OH)

Mark Meszoros

You can't say The War With Grandpa is terrific, but it has its moments - and it's likely to entertain the kids for an hour and a half.

February 21, 2021

FULL REVIEW

Richard Crouse

A harmless family film but the movie lover in me couldn't help but cringe just a bit watching The Deer Hunter co-stars De Niro and Walken return to battle against a bunch of tweens.

The film attempts to check all the boxes of a children's comedy, but fails to make a connection. They are the shells of these archetypes without making them novel in any way.

A "comedy for the whole family" assumes adults want De Niro and Riggle sharing multiple scenes where the latter reacts convulsively to Grandpa's accidentally exposed penis.

Another pleasing, undemanding feather-light Robert De Niro comedy and yet another example where you survey the reviews after seeing the film and wonder if everybody else saw a different version. It's an unassuming, straight up-and-down family comedy.

January 1, 2021

FULL REVIEW

Common Sense Media

age 8+

Common Sense Says

Mischievous slapstick comedy has multigenerational appeal.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The War with Grandpa is a family comedy based on Robert Kimmel Smith's 1984 book about a resentful boy named Peter (Oakes Fegley) who pranks his grandfather (Robert De Niro) in hopes that he'll move out of his room. Eventually, Grandpa engages, and the two start a "war" that actually ends up creating a bond between them. If you can suspend your disbelief, it's funny enough, and it promotes the value that a relationship with grandparents can add to kids' lives. But Peter's tactics come off more mean-spirited on-screen than they did on the page. His "pranks" cause many accidents for Grandpa and his elderly friends, including electrocution and falls that in real life would cause broken bones, cracked skulls, or even death. A recurring joke involves Peter's older sister being caught kissing her boyfriend (though the actual kissing is never shown), and the older characters have a couple of jokes about drinking (and they spike their own drinks). Mild language includes "hell," "boobie," and "wiseass"; there's also some potty humor, a glimpse of a character's underwear, threats, and remarks about a bully punching a kid in the face.