| ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. | |
| PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. | |
| OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. | |
| NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Parents need to know that this movie glorifies drugs and prostitution, as well as immature, antisocial behavior. Characters frequently talk about sex and hookers. In one scene, the main character masturbates to orgasm in front of a Laura Craft doll and is caught by another character's mother. In another, a guy sucks on the breast of a half-naked woman for hours. There is also a big party where everyone, including the grandmother, gets drunk. Some characters are portrayed in an ethnically-insensitive manner.
GRANDMA'S BOY is a 13-year-old boy's fantasy come to life. Not only is Alex (Allen Covert) a video game tester (which means he gets to spend all day, every day playing video games) but he's also designing his own gruesome game. When Alex is kicked out of his apartment because his roommate spent six months' rent on Filipino prostitutes, Alex bounces from his drug-dealer friend to his infantilized coworker (complete with footie pajamas) until he finally moves in with his grandmother, played with zest by Everyone Loves Raymond's Doris Roberts.
Just because this movie is a teenager's dream of sex, drugs, and video games doesn't mean teenagers should watch it. The movie wants the viewer to be in on the joke --- it's a hipster's idea of geekiness, where the geek gets the surgically-enhanced hot blonde at the party. The problem is that the joke is lame. Grandma's Boy throws every pop culture cliché at you: self-consciously politically-incorrect portrayals of ethnic characters and women, repeated reference to hookers, gory video games, karaoke, Matrix spoofs, work humor, pot humor, sex humor.
Aside from that, there's really not much plot. More than anything, this is another overly long Saturday Night Live sketch. The movie, much like the main character, drifts aimlessly from party to party, with a tacked-on happy ending and surprisingly sweet romance between Alex and Samantha (Freaks and Geeks' Linda Cardellini). Some of the party behavior seems true-to-life, like the drunken karaoke singing, but that's not enough of a reason to watch this movie -- especially with so many reasons not to. This movie is best viewed by adults.
Families can talk about raunchy comedies. What's appealing about them?
How does this kind of humor affect how kids think about dating, sex,
work, and drugs? How would they handle these situations in real life?
What's the difference between the way Alex exaggerates to impress his
friends and the way he is in his relationship with Samantha?
| Studio: | Twentieth Century Fox |
| Director: | Nicolas Goosen |
| Cast: | Jonah Hill, Kevin Nealon, Linda Cardellini |
| Genre: | Comedy |
| Run time: | 94 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | May 9, 2006 |
| DVD release date: | May 9, 2006 |
| MPAA rating: | R |
| MPAA explanation: | nudity, drugs, profanity, adult themes |