A stoner game developer must move in with his grandmother and her two roommates.
Grandma’s Boy is perhaps one of the most underrated stoner comedies of all time. It is comedy gold. Much like the best animated shorts and just best comedies, this movie throws reality out the window and has fun in the story. They play fast and loose with reality and it works amazingly well. This movie is just a nonstop series of laughs. Whether or not you are a stoner or gamer, you will find this movie hilarious.
Allen Covert is always a scene stealing supporting player in Adam Sandler’s movies. I always thought he killed it whenever he came on, but he never got to do too much. He was the friend or the jerk who interacted with Sandler’s character, but he was not a main. Here he gets put center stage as an older video game programmer named Alex with a love of marijuana.
Grandma’s Boy is not for kids. There is inappropriate humor galore in this movie. Aside from the drug jokes there is quite possibly the funniest yet grossest joke I can remember in a film since the 80s. Alex cannot sleep after getting kicked out and finding himself at his co-worker Jeff’s (Nick Swardson) house where he lives with his two roommates (his parents). Alex cannot sleep so he takes Jeff’s Lara Croft doll and goes into the bathroom to, well, relieve his tension. I won’t spoil things too much, but you can check out the scene below.
That scene alone is hilarious and completely inappropriate and should cement Grandma’s Boy’s position among the great comedies. That scene in my opinion is absolutely the funniest thing you will see in any comedy movie. It is also kinda gross. But funny. But kinda gross. But so very funny.
Linda Cardellini is the love interest of the film named Samantha. Samantha is the new boss brought in to get the latest project at Brainasium back on track. Freaks and Geeks has been called a comedy and I know she’s done Scooby Doo, but this is probably the most ludicrous thing she’s ever done and she kills it here. She’s not a weird character but she’s certainly a humorous character and Cardellini can hold her own in her scenes.
The story kicks off when our hero Alex gets kicked out of the house he shares with his friend Josh (Jonathan Loughran) because Josh has been spending the rent money on Filipino hookers down at a local massage parlor. Rob Schneider cameos in the opening scene as their landlord Yuri. Alex is eventually forced to move in with his grandmother Lilly (Doris Roberts) and her two eccentric friends Bea (Shirley Knight) and Grace (Shirley Jones).
Bea is an overly medicated individual prone to hilariously clueless non sequiturs that the characters barely notice. And Grace is quite possibly the dirtiest old lady you ever saw in a movie. The Partridge family was light comedy, but this movie is downright raunchy stuff. I never knew she had that in her. Her acting in the scene mentioning Charlie Chaplin is classic. This is part of a subplot where Jeff becomes involved with Grace. That relationship is uncomfortably weird and very funny.
Actors who are normally in the background in supporting roles of Adam Sandler projects get pushed into the foreground. Peter Dante for example plays Dante (his characters often use at least part of his real name) who is a stoned out of his mind drug dealer that orders a lion to guard his stuff and after the lion escapes buys a monkey and hires a karate instructor for that monkey. What!?
Mr. Cheezle (Kevin Nealon) is the owner of the video game company which Alex and most of the characters in the film work for. He is an over-the-top New Age hippie type. Nealon delivers his lines with a tender seriousness that makes them 10 times funnier. His dream interpretations are pee-your-pants hilarious.
The script for Grandma’s Boy is just pure gold from start to finish. The jokes are fast and steady. And they are genuinely funny jokes. Writers Barry Wernick, Allen Covert, and Nick Swardson don’t worry about hurting feelings. They didn’t hold back. They went for the funny. The idea was to make you laugh and not to avoid offending people. It should be noted that you need to have a good sense of humor to watch this as there is no joke off limits.
There is a game and here called ‘Demonik’ which plays an important part in the resolution. What you see is actually footage from a game of the same name that was being developed at the time which unfortunately never got released. I would have loved to of played it. It looked really cool.
In the film Alex has been secretly developing a game (Demonik) on the side for about three years and it gets stolen which leads up to him quitting and some rather funny moments. It is stolen by the film’s nemesis J.P. (Joel Morgan) who is a weird douchebag and videogame making prodigy. During the movie he is mercilessly mocked by the other characters.
This is a well-constructed inappropriate comedy which is kinda rare. The groundwork is laid out early in the film and then the plot begins with a steady progression towards the resolution even if you don’t see where it’s going. You can look back and see how everything led up to the finale. There wasn’t any fluff and the resolution didn’t come because they ran out of time. The resolution occurred because that was the progression of the story.
Grandma’s Boy is a great is a classic stoner comedy. It is hilarious from beginning to end. If you want a good laugh this is one you should check out. This is an amazing film!
Warren Watched A Movie 