THURSDAY REVIEW OF DIRTY GRANDPA

year: 2016 cast: Robert DeNiro, Zac Efron and a bunch of completely worthless nobodies

NEIGHBORS has put pretty boy Zac Efron into the anything-goes comedy genre, ignited by Judd Apatow over a decade ago, and the veteran "I'll do any movie to remain relevant" legend Robert DeNiro is along for the ride in this literal road comedy where Efron's uptight lawyer takes his grandfather, a day after Zac's Jason's grandmother died and who, obviously, was married to the title character, Dick Kelly, played by the man himself, DeNiro, trying way too hard to be outrageous without using his old-age-card, uttering modern pop culture references like a snappy Millennial as the more old fashion character is the grandson: thus the plot, involving the odd couple duo rolling into Daytona Beach, Florida, competing with buff bullies while Efron, on the verge of getting married back home, meets a too-perfect hippie girl while his grandpa just wants to get some... really, really bad.

It's that simple: the situation and the movie itself. One of the worst of its kind. Making the similar LAST VEGAS, where DeNiro and Michael Douglas, the latter about to marry a young lady but with second thoughts (as Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline are along for the partying weekend), at least have one good, deep conversation between them... But DIRTY GRANDPA, which pales to BAD GRANDPA (though neither have a thing to do with each other), fails at any sort of connection between the two main characters, seeming thrown into the same vehicle without (either) connecting with an audience who paid for... God only knows.

RATING: *1/2