I didn’t know what I was going to experience when I cranked up “The War with Grandpa.” After all, it is a “family-friendly” film and that’s usually a dead giveaway that the kids will always outsmart the adults, such as in “Big Fat Liar” (click here to read my review). However, “The War with Grandpa” has an A-list cast including headliner Robert De Niro and co-stars Uma Thurman, Christopher Walken, Jane Seymour and Cheech Marin. Wow. Not the cast of your typical kids’ movie. Still, “The War with Grandpa” manages not to offend by being saddled with too many “family friendly” stereotypes, but it is a cut above because it is not too saccharine. It came out in the COVID year of 2020 and so you may have missed it.
‘The War with Grandpa’
(2020; 94 minutes; rated PG; directed by Glenn Jordan and starring Robert De Niro, Uma Thurman, Rob Riggle, Christopher Walken and Jane Seymour)
IF YOU GO TO WAR, WATCH FOR THE FALLOUT
I have to admit I didn’t realize which actors are in “The War with Grandpa” after Robert De Niro, who is featured on the movie’s theatrical release poster. I thought it would be De Niro and your typical B-side of Hollywood making a few laughs in a “kids’” movie. Well, I could hardly believe it when I saw Uma Thurman as his daughter; Christopher Walken and Cheech Marin as his buddies; and Jane Seymour as the love interest.
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Oh … the De Niro-Thurman-Walken trio would appear better suited to a f-bomb/violence fest from Martin Scorsese or Quentin Tarantino than in a kids’ flick. Well, “The War with Grandpa” is a kids’ flick and it brings them together, but in a family-friendly way that doesn’t insult your intelligence (too much). It’s just a little off-kilter to see these actors in this kind of film. Ah, well, they’re talented, watchable and so the film is OK.
Unfortunately but not unexpectedly, “The War with Grandpa” has some of the stereotypical scenes present in a kids’ movie:
- The opening scene at a Walmart-like store where De Niro has a challenge with self-checkout and gets into a skirmish with an employee, who winds up being attacked by a regiment of geezers supporting De Niro …
- Thurman becomes the unintended victim of a couple of pranks and winds up throwing a mug of coffee and later a snake (yes, a snake) out her car window and onto a police officer on a motorcycle stopped next to her in traffic …
- The grandson reads a “what did you do this summer” report that was re-written by De Niro, but, it includes the exceptionally hilarious line, “I figured out how to freeze my own farts in a baggie” …
- De Niro and his posse hassle the tormentor of his grandson by tossing him into a dumpster filled with yukky stuff …
- The grandson hacks De Niro’s phone and it cooks off in the middle of a funeral and he winds up dropping it into the casket …
- A dodgeball match that pure stereotypical kids’ movie fare …
Stripped down, the film is about De Niro as widower “Ed Marino” and he comes to live with his daughter and her family. To make room, the son, “Peter Decker” played by Oakes Fegley, has to move from his room to the attic and he’s none too pleased. The two become locked in combat over the room after Fegley puts a declaration of war under his former door.
From there, you’ll find the two at war, essentially playing pranks on each other (such as the boy spiking De Niro’s coffee with hot sauce, but it winds up with his mother and ditto with the snake in De Niro’s bed) and generally making each one try to up the battle with the next prank.
On the periphery, you’ll have Fegley’s sister, who just wants to be alone with her boyfriend, but Thurman won’t let her; you’ll have his younger sister, who is totally cute; the longsuffering father; and you get Seymour as “Diane,” who finds love with De Niro. Along the way is a memorable Christmas-themed birthday party for the younger sister.
So, here’s a look at the top of the cast:
- A two-time Oscar winner and seven-time nominee (not for this one) and a Golden Globe winner and nine-time nominee (not for this one), De Niro is De Niro in this one. His talent is so superior that he appears just to deliver his lines and is the character that he is presenting to you. He could just be chirping off on a political statement or doing a scene in this movie. You see De Niro being De Niro, just like in the recent “About My father” with comic Sebastian Maniscalco (click here to read my review). Unfortunately, De Niro has a scene in both “The War with Grandpa” and “About My father” where he accidentally exposes himself to another character. Well, no one said every great actor has perfect scenes in every film. Very few actors who have graced the big screen have this talent. Very, very few. Of course, he won his first Oscar for “The Godfather Part II” and his second for “Raging Bull.” He should have won both an Oscar and Globe for “The Deer Hunter” and his CV is much to extensive to even begin to outline in this review. Click here to read all his awards … or click here to read all his acting credits …
- I can’t say if Fegley was the best choice for squaring off with De Niro (I’m just not that familiar with today’s youngest actors), but filmmakers would have been hard-pressed to get a better effort than the one Fegley gives you in this one. His “Peter Decker” is smooth with an edge and, like in all kids’ movies, is smarter than all the adults. However, De Niro gets his licks in, but Fegley gets four-stars for “The War with Grandpa.” Fegley has 17 acting credits since his first in 2013 and has been in films as well as TV. He was in “Pete’s Dragon” with Robert Redford and Bryce Dallas Howard on the big screen and three episodes of the acclaimed “Boardwalk Empire” on television.
- An Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner and three-time nominee (not for this one), Thurman plays “Sally Marino-Decker” and she’s the mother and wife and, like the majority of mother-wife combinations, keeps this family on the right track. Like others, she is smooth and controlled, even when stressed from a snake crawling around her neck to having to talk to her father about his not being able to live alone any longer. I can name other actors who would be better in a volcanic way with the character, but Thurman tosses a near-perfect game with her effort in this one. She was nominated for both the Oscar and Globe for Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” and she won her Globe for the TV movie “Hysterical Blindness.” I liked her best and she got Globe nominations for each of Tarantino’s “Kill Bill: Vol. 1” and “Kill Bill: Vol. 2,” but she gave a bland effort in the grand stinker called “Johnny Be Good” (click here to read my review) that was her second film credit and third acting credit.
- A Primetime Emmy nominee, Rob Riggle plays “Arthur Decker” and he’s the longsuffering father of “Peter” and Uma’s husband. He doesn’t have a bad relationship with De Niro, but it’s a little strained since De Niro calls him “Artie” and otherwise has to deal with family issues with laconic humor. Riggle does an excellent job conveying his character and while he doesn’t elevate it, I believe this is one time where doing just a smooth job speaks well of the talent of the actor. Riggle had a hilarious small part as a cop in the original “The Hangover” (click here to read my review) and has also been in “Step Brothers” as well as a variety of TV shows. He was nominated for voicing the animated holiday TV flick “Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice.”
- Laura Marano plays older daughter “Mia Decker” (why do filmmakers choose “Mia” as the name of the rebellious daughter, such as in “Uncle Buck” – click here to read my review). Marano is sneaking around to be intimate with her boyfriend and she gives the audience a solid piece of work without going (much) over the top. Marano is convincing and has the most believable conflict with her mother than any of the others. Marano was in “The Perfect Date” and TV’s “Austin & Ally.”
- Poppy Gagnon plays “Jennifer ‘Jenny’ Decker” and she just knocked my socks off! She did work that was far beyond her age (6) at the time of filming. Obviously, she’s cute, but she manages to express her character well and make just about every scene she’s in to be endearing. Miss Gagnon has only four acting credits as of the summer of 2024, with “The War with Grandpa” being the last in 2020. She was also in “Please Stand By” as “small child.”
Now, here’s a look at some of the supporting cast …
- An Oscar winner and nominee (not for this one), Walken manages to push his character a little bit to stand out in the supporting cast. I’m not saying he does a notable job, but he really didn’t have much of a chance despite his talent. Walken won his Oscar and was nominated for a Golden Globe for absolutely sensational “The Deer Hunter” and was nominated for an Oscar for “Catch Me if You Can.” He certainly has been eclectic in his choice of films and I liked him in 2007’s version of “Hairspray” and was also solid early in his career with the 1971 caper film “The Anderson Tapes” with Sean Connery.
- A Grammy award winner and four-time nominee, Marin suffers like many in the cast from having little chance to elevate his character. Marin, also like the others in the supporting cast, is solid and doesn’t manage to drag down the film and I guess that counts for a lot. I thought he did a great job in the not-so-good golf flick “Tin Cup” with Kevin Costner (click here to read my review) and had multiple roles including a character whose name can’t be spoken in polite company in the vampire flick “From Dusk Till Dawn” (click here for my review). He was also quietly good in “Desperado” with Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek. Marin’s Grammy awards are for comedy albums with Tommy Chong and their marijuana adventures was turned into the cult classic film “Up in Smoke” from 1978.
- A Golden Globe winner and four-time nominee and a Primetime Emmy winner and four-time nominee, Seymour is smooth in her role as the love interest for De Niro. She doesn’t stretch any of her considerable acting chops, but, then again, she doesn’t have to with the amount of screen time for her character. It was nice to see Seymour in her first scene and say, “Hey! Jane Seymour!” I first saw her in the “007” thriller “Live and Let Die” (click here to read my review) and she’s also been in “Wedding Crashers” as well as “Head Office” (click here to read my review). Seymour won her Globe for her signature work as TV’s “ Quinn, Medicine Woman” and she got three Globe nominations for it as well as two Emmy nominations. Seymour won her Emmy for the TV miniseries “Onassis: The Richest Man in the World.” She has notched 152 acting credits in a career spanning seven decades since the first in 1969.
Sorry, but I’m not taking the time to review “Peter’s” trio of friends who advise, help and admonish him at times. All three – two boys and a girl – are solid and I look forward to seeing other work from them. They do a nice job in this one and the script doesn’t make them look foolish in most scenes. As to reviewing the trio, I just don’t want to expand this review to 3,000 words, rather than the 2,468 that I wrote and posted.
BTW … in the film, everything comes to a head after the birthday party as everyone comes to grips with the fallout that hits them individually. Of course, most things are tied up with a neat bow … after all, this is a “family-friendly film.”
“The War with Grandpa” was the No. 28 film at the U.S. box office in 2020 with $18.7 million in ticket sales in that year of COVID closing theaters, according to Box Office Mojo. The No. 1 film was “Bad Boys for Life” with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence with $204.4 million and in second place was “1917” with $157.9 million (although its premiere was in 2019 and is technically a film from that year). As of the original posting of this review, “The War with Grandpa” is the first film from 2020 that I’ve reviewed.
Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):
- “The War with Grandpa” was released three years after it was filmed.
- The film reunites several of the actors: De Niro and Walken “The Deer Hunter” and “Mistress”); De Niro with Thurman (“Mad Dog and Glory”); Walken and Seymour (“Wedding Crashers”); and Thurman and Walken (“Pulp Fiction” – although did not have a scene together). Further both Walken and Thuman portrayed villains in the “Batman” world (Walken as “Max Schreck” in “Batman Returns” and Thurman as “Poison Ivy” in “Batman & Robin”) and De Niro was in the spin-off called “The Joker.”
- A sequel called “The World War With Grandpa” was reportedly under consideration at one point, but, as of the end of 2023, no specific plans had been announced.
- Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “Based on the 1984 children’s book of the same name by Robert Kimmel Smith.” Not from IMDb.com: The co-author on a second “War With” book titled “The War With Grandma” with Ann Dee Ellis.
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