The War with Grandpa

Inconsistency has plagued Robert De Niro’s career, especially over the past decade. But one of the consistent signs of quality has oddly enough been when he stars in a movie with “Grandpa” in its title.

Nearly five years after he and Zac Efron sunnied up January 2016 with the hilariously filthy Bad Grandpa, the screen legend returns in The War with Grandpa, a PG-rated dose of corny, innocuous fun.

As with his Bad Grandpa character, De Niro’s Ed is a recent-ish widower, but instead of heading to Florida for Spring Break with his grandson, he reluctantly moves into his descendent’s room after some silly grocery store and driving incidents suggest he’s unfit to live alone.

The “eviction” and subsequent relocation to the attic leads 6th grader Peter (Oakes Fegley, The Goldfinch) to…let’s say “overreact” and, spurred by his trio of friends, plot revenge on the geezer, whose pleas of innocence somewhat unbelievably go unheard.

Pranks soon follow and are repaid, each enacted with respectable comic timing by director Tim HIll (Muppets from Space; Alvin and the Chipmunks), working from a script by the team of Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember (Get Smart; Home) that nicely updates the late Robert Kimmel Smith’s 1984 novel to include drones and computer games.

Peter’s parents (Uma Thurman and Rob Riggle, both game for some family-friendly goofiness) and sisters (Laura Marano and Poppy Gagnon) suffer occasional collateral damage, most notably running gags of Thurman’s incidents with a motorcycle cop and Riggle’s encounters with a, well, vulnerable De Niro.

But what elevates The War with Grandpa from simple juvenilia to something more respectable is the casting of Christopher Walken, Cheech Marin, and Jane Seymour as Ed’s friends. The veterans’ distinct appeals are allowed to shine and mesh well, resulting in a wealth of funny lines and some memorable visual gags as they join forces to one-up Peter and his gang of tweens.

Excessive slapstick and dumb jokes nevertheless reign supreme, and the filmmakers can’t resist injecting heavy doses of sentimentality, cuing sappy music whenever Ed’s wife is discussed or any significant emotions arise. Such components may repel adolescent and adult viewers, but for its target preteen audience, it’s a near perfect combination of humor and heart.

Grade: B-minus. Rated PG. Now playing at AMC River Hills and Carolina Cinemark

(Photo: 101 Studios)