Why do I feel I should be more surprised that Robert De Niro and Aubrey Plaza make kind of an awesome couple?
There’s been a green-band trailer for DIRTY GRANDPA for nearly a month now, but this one is able to lean into the main selling point of this film: dirty, cussy De Niro. You now get to see him say things like “I’d rather let Queen Latifah shit in my mouth from a fucking hot air balloon,” or “You’re chuggin’ a beer, not takin’ down a horse cock!” It’s shameless and puerile, no doubt, but admittedly kinda funny.
But his chemistry with onscreen grandson Zac Efron (who will no doubt exchange dumb life lessons with him and vice versa) looks like filler compared to his stuff with Plaza. Instead of going the “old man leers at young hot totty” route, they’ve made Plaza’s character just as into De Niro as he is into her, and I can’t say there’s anything in this trailer that looks more appealing as the two of them flirting and cavorting together.
Everything else looks kind of old hat (the presence of Zoey Deutch as yet another character seemingly meant to epitomize the main character’s dream girl is a bad warning sign), but as someone who saw both LAST VEGAS and GRUDGE MATCH in theaters (though THE INTERN was a step too far for me), I can’t pretend like I won’t make an effort to catch this with an audience. Who knows, maybe it’ll be as good as NEIGHBORS…or at least MEET THE FOCKERS.
DIRTY GRANDPA tests how funny cursing De Niro is on January 22nd, 2016.
