This vulgar stoner comedy about an underachieving, over-age video-game tester cheerfully invites the audience to descend to a level where no joke is too silly or raunchy.
Grandma's Boy (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:57
Fresh:9
Rotten:48
Average Rating:3.5/10
Consensus: A gross-out comedy that’s more gross than comedic, Grandma’s Boy is lazy and unrewarding.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for drug use and language throughout, strong crude and sexual humor, and nudity.
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Jan 6, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $5,935,826
Synopsis: Alex (ALLEN COVERT) has one sweet life. After walking away from his death by accounting job, he's now a video game tester at Brainasium, the company responsible for the worldwide gaming phenom of... Alex (ALLEN COVERT) has one sweet life. After walking away from his death by accounting job, he's now a video game tester at Brainasium, the company responsible for the worldwide gaming phenom of "Eternal Death Slayer." At 35, he may be the oldest tester in the business (he's called "Gray Bush" by his co-workers), but he's also the best. But when his roommate fails to pay the rent for six months because he's spent every last cent at Madame Wu's Filipino Palace ("They're not hookers, they're massage therapists!"), Alex unfortunately finds himself on the street. His friendly dealer Dante (PETER DANTE) can't let Alex crash because he has a business to run and besides, the guard lion will be arriving any day. His friend Jeff (NICK SWARDSON) agrees to put him up, until that unfortunate accident involving Alex and the action figure in the bathroom…which Jeff's mom happens to, well, catch. Alex's last resort is to move in with three hot babes—that's what he tells his friends, at any rate. In actuality, the 35-year-old finds himself living with his sweet and loving 80-year-old grandma Lilly (DORIS ROBERTS), along with her two roommates: the "been there, done that repeatedly" octogenarian Grace (SHIRLEY JONES) and the not-quite-all-there, overly medicated Bea (SHIRLEY KNIGHT). Lilly dotes on Alex and keeps him housed and fed—in exchange for a few simple chores around the place, like taking out the trash and sandblasting the house. So things are busy for Alex both at his new home and at work. Brainasium's New Age-y honcho Mr. Cheezle (KEVIN NEALON) has brought in hotshot (and really hot) gaming exec Samantha (LINDA CARDELLINI) from New York to help whip "Eternal Death Slayer Three" into shape before its street date. Seems the series' creator, über-nerd wiz kid J.P. (JOEL DAVID MOORE), has been coasting on his rep—he was a millionaire by the time he turned 13—and his newest entry has a few bugs. The game's kinks are no prob for Alex and the Brainasium testers (most of whom just started shaving), which leaves time for Alex to help Lilly with the house and to try and bag his new hot boss while continuing to work in secret developing his own game, called "Demonik." Things start to get tricky, though, once the cat's outta the bag about who Alex is really rooming with—that is until the gray ladies warm to Alex's friends at an after-work party, thanks to that special tea they found in his room. Who knew 80-somethings could be so at home with video geeks, a low-key dealer, an African tribesman and a smattering of strippers, along with their colorful clientele? Amazing what a few tokes and tequila slammers will do to loosen things up. But when jealous nerdboy J.P. swipes Alex’s "Demonik" and tries to pass it off as his own, it becomes a battle of Gen-Xers versus gin players when Samantha produces a secret weapon: Alex's grandma (and now master gamer) Lilly. --© 20th Century Fox [More]
Starring: Allen Covert, Shirley Knight, Shirley Jones, Linda Cardellini
Starring: Allen Covert, Shirley Knight, Shirley Jones, Linda Cardellini, Peter Dante, Doris Roberts, Kevin Nealon
Director: Nicholas Goossen
Director: Nicholas Goossen
Screenwriter: Allen Covert, Nick Swardson
Composer: Waddy Wachtel
Studio: 20th Century Fox
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Reviews for Grandma's Boy
Those who like America Pie and its spawn will likely find comfort in the jokes here.
Even if you aren't under the influence, you might find yourself chuckling at various points during the movie, if only in disbelief at some of the things the cast is asked to do.
Kind of like Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle crossed with "The Golden Girls".
Sufficiently oddball and the performers sufficiently likable to keep the whole thing from being painful.
There is no doubt that it belongs in Hollywood's sewer, but it's the gem of the sewer this year.
You have to give credit to a movie that focuses 90 percent of its energy on video game and ganja jokes. Even if you make the best movie ever, gamers and tokers are perhaps the two least motivated groups to get out and see a movie.
What distinguishes this freewheeling, strangely honest comedy (directed by first-timer Nicholaus Goossen) is its puff-and-pass-it-along view, an inviting, goofy-grin attitude toward insular losers.
Grandma's Boy is a better series of spoofs than anything we currently see on that show. It's an affectionate and tight-knit comedy.
The real shame of Grandma's Boy isn't the juvenile humor, it's that there's a lot of solid humor potential here, and it's just not realized.
If nothing else, Grandma's Boy answers the question of what a ramshackle early Adam Sandler movie would be like without Adam Sandler.
What are acclaimed veteran actresses Doris Roberts, Shirley Jones and Shirley Knight doing in a movie like Grandma's Boy? They deserve better.
As a short it could have emerged as inspired, but as a feature it feels tired, deflated, and far too familiar.
If he's schooling punks on Dance Dance Revolution or making out with Shirley Jones, Nick Swardson steals every scene he's in, giving the material a distinctive twist through unexpected line delivery and crack comic timing.
Like the dead kitty left to rot under grandma's couch, this movie stinks!
The nicest thing that can be said about this stoner comedy is that it's not the worst of its lowbrow kind.
Just as a few bong hits would probably make the movie a tiny bit funnier, they would also probably make all memories of the film blissfully vanish.
Covert is so obnoxious, so lacking in the basic understanding of comic timing, that we understand why he has to get his buddy Sandler to give him work.
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