The Review: Wednesday night, 2-for-1, Kevin Bacon adverts, 25 minutes of commercials, lights dim down (small black mark on the centre of the screen which you can choose have distract you, especially if the picture is white) and – boom – Bad Grandpa's first reel rolls and there's an ei9ght year-old kid in a doctor's waiting room telling an unsuspecting, genuine punter, that his mum is a crack *. The unsuspecting woman shrugs her shoulders and isn't sure how to respond. She's also unaware that she's being filmed.
In fact, everyone who isn't the eight year-old stooge (Jackson Nicoll) and Bad Grandpa himself (Johnny Knoxville) is not in on the game. Did you see Borat? Okay, you get the general idea.
And the general idea – i.e., the interaction between Nicoll and Knoxville – sadly, are the weakest moments in this 85 minute movie. By turns shocking and hilarious, but for long, long stretches merely tedious and long-drawn-out. The 'story' goes that Knoxville needs to transport his eight year-old grandson across country to his deadbeat father, who's only too happy to take him because of the child benefit pay out. They carry Grandpa's wife's carcass in the trunk of the car and hightail it across – wherever. And when the public aren't involved, God damn is this tedious stuff. Why? Because the film's glue – its narrative – is unfunny because both participants are in on the same joke we are.
Funnily enough, this is where the Jackass movies got it right. It had no pretensions that it was anything other than a series of skits. Bad Grandpa (which reunites director Jeff Tremaine, Knoxville and Spike Jonze in their usual roles) hasn't understood why Borat has worked, and made a movie out of the least funny parts of their Jackass movies. If Bad Grandpa was a series of skits without all the faffing around, then it'd have been way funnier. The central conceit just doesn't work – as evidenced by the other audience members, who sat for prolonged periods of time in stony silence. The funeral scene near the beginning of the movie is so desperately unfunny, as is the drink machine "incident" – I started to wonder if the film had crossed the line into downright surrealism.
Perhaps this film is best viewed as a psychological and sociological experiment. Some of the reactions aren't funny at all, but rather worrying – a woman overreacts, we suspect, to Knoxville's prank at his in-house sale. A fascinating reaction, in my view. But hardly funny.
That's not to say that the film isn't funny. I think I laughed about four, maybe five times throughout the movie. Dickhouse and MTV productions, also responsible for Jackasses 1, 2, 2.5, 2.7, 2.8, 3, 3.5, 3×15-8=16 etcis famous for including behind-the-scenes material during the closing credits. In Bad Grandpa, we're treated to Knoxville and co. revealing that they were 'punking' the public, and their reactions to it. While this is a nice touch, it's not terribly funny. And Bad Grandpa doesn't come close to Borat's crescendos, or the sheer balls-out lunacy and bravery of Bruno.
If you're really planning on a trip to the cinema for this one, then see it for the wonderfully stoic performance from newcomer Jackson Nicoll. How on Earth he has the mettle and temerity to keep a straight face during the thick of the pranks is astounding. I'm tempted not to spoil any of it, but the trailer for the movie has done a damned fine job of doing just that – so if you want the skinny on the best of the funny, then just head on over to YouTube and save 82 minutes
Reviewed By: Andrew MacKay
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