Enjoy watching pranks on Youtube, excessively crude and brutally honest jokes? If so, this is the movie for you. Johnny Knoxville makes a triumphant return to the silver screen as Irving Zisman whose wife has just passed away, daughter going to jail and now having to take his grandson across the country to live with his father. The general idea of being dropped into a comedy movie is that it is all scripted and everything folds out the way the production crew wish and plan, yet the outcome of this is really different. They rely heavily on the use of public pranks with actual reactions (which also made jackass famous). The melding of a minor story and pranks is a different aspect in the comedy genre. It's also how Sasha Baron Cohen does so well with his Borat character but with the exception of added script. As far as the story goes, it is fairly basic and occasionally feel like it is trying a little to hard to be taken seriously, whether this is a ploy at getting you to interact with the characters or to feel some sort of emotion for them which you just can't take seriously.
Otherwise, the movie is a really enjoyable tale and fantastically acted. Without Billy (Jackson Nicoll) this movie would have made this review very different. Billy adds a new layer to the pranks that is a refreshing take on a relationship that is very limited nowadays. Then you have The Bad Grandpa himself - Johnny Knoxville. At many points through the plot, you will sit there and forget that Irvine isn't a real person and is just a character but Johnny plays this off perfectly and makes it refreshing to watch a comedy actor take on a role without being seen as the same dude who played this one person.
So, for filming, it's a mash of secret cams which aren't the highest of quality but do help to enforce the idea that they aren't scripted and really place you in the area. The reason you're here is probably
because you want to know how funny this film is - very. I'm still thinking back to certain scenes and laughing to myself. It's not always about the punchline of a joke that really kicks it home, it's the shocked reactions of the public which is guaranteed to crease you up. Most of the jokes are fairly tame in nature, trying to avoid anything too sensitive and give it the 15 rating which defiantly benefits the movie by opening it up to a bigger audience.
Overall, it's a loose story that develops and evolves with the pranks pushing everything forward. If you're looking for a serious night out with the girl/guy you've been seeing, it's probably a pass but with a group of friends, you'll have a brilliant time and well worth it, even if it is 90 minutes long and costs a small fortune. For it's comedy aspect and the style it brings to the genre, I feel Bad Grandpa deserves a 7/10. Enjoy the film guys!
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