RogerEbert.com
The film as a whole isn’t weird enough to earn the darker places it goes, and so it occupies a bland and mushy middle ground instead.
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The War with Grandpa
A boy goes to war with his grandpa (Robert De Niro) who's moving in and taking his bedroom in this family comedy based on the award-winning book by Robert Kimmel Smith, co-starring Uma Thurman and Christopher Walken.
Peter (Oakes Fegley, Pete's Dragon) is stoked that his grandpa is moving in with the family, but devastated when he learns at the last minute that he has to vacate his room and sleep in the attic. Furious, Peter and his friends start pulling stunts to get the old man out, but Grandpa Ed is tougher than he looks... and he plans to get even.
2020Rating: PG, violence94 minsUSA
Kids & Family
- Director:
- Tim Hill ('Hop', 'Alvin and the Chipmunks', 'Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties')
- Writer:
- Tom J. AstleMatt Ember
- Cast:
- Robert De NiroOakes FegleyUma ThurmanChristopher WalkenJane SeymourLaura MaranoRob RiggleCheech MarinT.J. McGibbon
The War with Grandpa / Reviews
Variety
The combat is neither funny nor intense. The War with Grandpa is like “Home Alone” replayed as a tit-for-tat battle of logistical booby traps that never rises above the innocuous slapstick benign.
Full reviewIndieWire
The War With Grandpa is a sluggish hodgepodge of slapstick humor that barely holds together its illogically motivated plot.
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Slant Magazine
Only when left to their own devices do the film’s stars enter the less manic, more heartfelt realm of the book.
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The Guardian
It’s a very minor victory to report that rather than being bad, it’s merely bland, an adequate milquetoast time-waster for a very young and very undiscerning audience.
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A.V. Club
There’s a pleasing kernel of genuine warmth glowing at the heart of this movie, but it’s been heavily insulated—almost buried—by juvenile silliness. One could argue that this merely echoes the family dynamic, but your tolerance for buffoonery will still need to be quite high.
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Vulture
The amiably bland family comedy The War With Grandpa genuinely surprises with how un-special it is. It’s the kind of film that seems to vanish from the mind even as you’re watching it.
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New York Post
“Grandpa” is, at least, not as moronic as much of De Niro’s recent résumé. But that’s a low, low bar.
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Hollywood Reporter
The War with Grandpa will probably prove riotously funny to small fry while providing some compensations to adults with its supremely overqualified cast.
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CNN
Whenever and wherever kids do see it, they're apt to enjoy it, while the theme reminds the adults in their lives that the differences and that come between families -- from politics to something as frivolous as a kid's bedroom -- finally aren't as significant as the deeper bonds that they share.
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Stuff
If you like what you see on the poster, or if you were a fan of the book, then you'll probably like what you see on the screen.
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