Bad Grandpa (2013) Review

3/5

It's funny, entertaining, surprisingly sentimental, and an all around good night out at the theater even if some of the gags fall a little flat.
Johnny Knoxville puts in a memorable performance as Irving Zissman, complete with stunningly brave acts of embarrassing situational comedy and a  physical shift that convinces us and the people around him that he is, in fact, a horny old man. His child counterpart, Jackson Nicoll, has fantastic comedic timing and even sells the drama so you root for these two the entirety of the film. It is a buddy pairing I won't soon forget.
The plot itself is formulaic and predictable, which is one of the things that the original Jackass films avoided by essentially existing as a montage of gags. Here, the acting is good and the script is hysterical, but the cinematic beats are expected.
With a film like this, however, those things don't matter all too much. You will get what you paid for with this comedy, and try your best to avoid spoiler-y reviews and trailers...the less you know going in, the better. Some of the gags are so unexpected that they will leave you laughing from shock as well as from genuine comedic sentiment. I recommend this film as a night out that will leave you laughing, and with a smile long after you've exited the theater. A welcome addition: one-liners for years and years of repetition.