Grandma's Boy

GRANDMA’S BOY (Nicholaus Goossen, 2006)

In GRANDMA’S BOY, Alex (Allen Covert), a stoner video game tester in his mid-thirties, gets booted from his apartment and turns to the only viable housing provider available: his grandmother and her two elderly housemates. A gaming master worshiped by nerdy co-workers, Alex spins his living arrangement as cohabitation with three women who are wearing him out—a true, albeit misleading, story. Pressure is bearing down on him as he needs to complete levels on a game soon to go to market while handling with the chores his elderly roomies want him to do.

GRANDMA’S BOY is what would result if Adam Sandler and his high profile co-stars bailed on a movie and the understudies took over. A terminally unfunny story of arrested adolescence, GRANDMA’S BOY reeks of stale ideas and desperation. Comprised of what might as well be discarded jokes from Sandler vehicles—his production company made the film—GRANDMA’S BOY mucks around with drug humor, non sequiturs, and a paralyzing terror and disgust of old age.

Sandler sometimes looks bored in his movies, but at least he’s able to summon glimmers of impish charisma. Covert, who co-wrote the screenplay, has neither the built-in boyish charm nor the manic range of Sandler at his best. The kindest thing I can say about GRANDMA’S BOY is that it isn’t as awful as I feared. Some pity laughs are to be had at the MATRIX-obsessed programmer who imagines he’s an android and the tester who lives with his parents and wears pajamas with feet. Nevertheless, GRANDMA’S BOY is still pretty terrible.

Grade: F