Posted on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 by Ezzat Obaid

This movie straight sucked… now go and see it! Considering all the critics bashing it after it came out, its no wonder that the films production company decided against sending it to reviewers before it was released. The film carries nothing more than a sloppy pile of jokes, drug references, and some nudity. The film is almost a parody on the down-and-out-guy-gets-girl genre except that it’s geared to pot smoking gamers and it’s riotously funny!

Alex (Allen Covert) is a 36 year old pot smoking video game tester who has to move in with his grandmother. He gets evicted from his apartment because his roommate spent the last six months rent on massage parlor prostitutes. Alex ends up moving in with his Grandma (Doris Roberts) and her two elderly roommates (Shirley Jones and Shirley Knight).

Alex’s weed-laden-ultra-smile in this film is only outdone by cuts of hilarious silence. In one of the basement scenes all you hear is the pitter-patter of Playstation controllers and all you see are Alex, Dante (Peter Dante), and a monkey, baked out of their minds, on a couch, playing video games on a blank television screen.

Alex’s work buddy, Jeff (Nick Swardson), is a riot but has a weird character transition through the film. At first, you are introduced to Jeff as an over sheltered nerd who lives with his parents, never had sex, wears lime green pajamas with the feet sewn on them, and sleeps in a pre-teen’s bedroom, full of action figures. Jeff goes from a freakish momma’s boy to a seasoned party god in two scenes. Despite the weird transition Swardson’s sharp timing, physical antics, and convincing facial expressions highlight the best scenes in the movie.

The pinnacle of nerd references comes in the form of a game geek prodigy named J.P. (Joel David Moore). The goth-meets-Matrix outfits and the weird high pitch voice that mimics bouts of Tourettes, that is futilely compensated with a hyper-inflated ego, makes this bad guy a really funny bad guy! Throughout the movie, J.P. is ridiculed by everyone, even the breakroom geeks at the game testing lab. He’s the hot shot no one thinks is hot!

The party scene at Grandma’s house was classic. Barry (Jonah Hill), one of the game testers, sucks on his first female breast and keeps sucking for thirteen straight hours. Jeff finally has sex… with Shirley Jones’ character… yeah, it was pretty creepy… actually it made me ill… but it was still funny. All the while, Grandma and roommates get stoned on “Frankenstein weed”.

This was a film I’ll have to see again, but not just for the funny. Unfortunately, some of the delivery put laugh time on top of joke time making it impossible to hear every joke. The dialogue between characters still needed some shaking out as well. The quality of the picture in the beginning also seemed a little rough. I’m not sure if the theater was to blame there or not.

Overall, Grandma’s Boy might get chewed up by critics for its bathroom humor but for pot head gamers who’ve spent way too much time with the folks this year, it might be that perfect bong hit to end off the holidays and start off the new year.

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STARRING: Linda Cardellini, Peter Dante, Shirley Jones, Shirley Knight, Joel Moore, Kevin Nealon, Doris Roberts, and Nick Swardson
GENRE(S): Comedy
WRITTEN BY: Barry Wernick, Allen Covert, Nick Swardson
DIRECTED BY: Nicholaus Goossen
RELEASE DATE: Theatrical: January 6, 2006
RATING: R
RUNNING TIME: 96 minutes, Color
ORIGIN: USA

| Filed under: Movie Reviews