Grandma’s Boy is a stoner comedy flick produced by Happy Madison, Adam Sandler’s production company. It stars Allen Covert, the guy who plays Adam Sandler’s friend in a bunch of Adam Sandler movies. Luckily this movie doesn’t have Adam Sandler in it. Allen Covert stars as Alex, a 35-year-old stoner who works as a videogame tester. He’s kind of a slacker but he gets shit done. He gets kicked out his apartment one day and ends up living with his grandma and her two roommates out of necessity, all while dealing with a major videogame deadline at work and trying to start a relationship with the new office hottie (played by Linda Cardellini).
There really is a plot, but there’s not much of one. Throughout the movie Alex is working on his own game in his spare time. Then his creepy/loser boss steals it and claims it as his own. Alex has to prove that it’s his, and his grandma ends up saving the day by beating the thief in the game, thus proving that her grandson created it. There are lots of cameos and a pretty recognizable cast. Doris Roberts plays Grandma Lily and Shirley Jones and Shirley Knight play her elderly roommates. Kevin Nealon, Nick Swardson, Jonah Hill, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Joel Moore, and a few others play supporting roles or pop up randomly.
My biggest beef with the film is with Dante the Dealer, played by Peter Dante. This movie has a lot of characters and some slightly exaggerated stereotypes, but Dante is too over the top. He orders lions and karate monkeys and is loud and obnoxious. There is no marijuana dealer in the world that acts like him. Maybe the producers are confusing meth heads with stoners, but there’s really no excuse for such a bloated and unfunny caricature of a character. A lot of his jokes aren’t funny; it’s just a set up with no punch line. He drags down the movie in every scene that he’s in, like a live action Jar Jar Binks.
This is a pretty decent comedy. It’s probably the best Happy Madison movie that doesn’t star Adam Sandler. Allen Covert usually plays supporting roles but he proves he can also carry a picture. Grandma’s Boy tanked at the box office, but it has potential to be a cult classic. Check it out if you like stoner comedies, it’s one of the better ones.
Critically Rated at 13/17
Written, Rated, and Reviewed by Brendan H. Young
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