Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Don't judge me, monkey.", May 23, 2006
Allen Covert, who we all know from his character parts in numerous Adam Sandler movies, stars in this film. The movie definitely has a familiar Sandler-type feeling to it, but I thought it worked well with the given cast.
It all starts out with a hilarious scene where Alex (Covert) is being evicted from his place while playing video games. It turns out his roommate has acquired a penchant for Filipino hookers and he's spent all the rent money on his addiction. It sounds pretty weak, but it's a great scene and it's really well done.
A good number of actors make guest appearances. Rob Schneider is the Middle-Eastern landlord, David Spade is a feminine waiter at a health food restaurant, Kevin Nealon is an overly spiritual boss, the kid from Dodgeball (Joel Moore) plays a video game designing genius who has a robot as part of his dual personality, the mother from Everybody Loves Raymond plays Alex's grandmother... Nick Swardson (who is a professional stand-up comic) is hilarious in his role as Alex's best friend at work. He really adds to the movie with his personality and one-liner delivery.
There are some really good lines in this movie, as well as some strikingly funny scenes. I found myself laughing out loud more than a few times. If you liked early Sandler movies, you will definitely appreciate this kind of humor. The Unrated version is raunchy and even better than I was expecting it to be. There is also a good deal of bonus material, including some featurettes and deleted scenes.
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30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly funny, June 14, 2006
I'm usually leary of anything bearing Adam Sandler's Happy Madison production label, but much to my surprise, Grandma's Boy is a blast. Allen Covert (who also co-wrote and produced) stars as a 35 year old video game tester working on a hit new game, and in his spare time he is secretly designing his own game while smoking a lot of marijuana. When he gets kicked out of his house, he ends up living with his grandmother (Doris Roberts) and her two room mates (Shirley Knight and Shirley Jones) while dealing with his best friend (Nick Swardson), his ultra tan dealer (Peter Dante), his super hot new boss (the ultra hot Linda Cardellini), and some other weirdos as well. Despite it's predictable plot and gags, Grandma's Boy works mainly because of it's stars and the blast they're having filming it. Covert, Swardson, and Dante (all of which had a hand in either writing or producing the film) are quite funny in their roles, with Swardson stealing the show as a granny loving master of Dance Dance Revolution that still lives with his parents and sleeps in a race car bed. Frequently funny and enjoyable throughout, Grandma's Boy is a surprising stoner comedy that is better than one might think, and it's certainly better than anything that Adam Sandler himself has headlined in the past few years. Frequent Sandler cohorts and SNL alumni Kevin Nealon, David Spade, and Rob Schneider all have brief turns in the film as well.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Idiotic Perfection, June 27, 2006
It's rare that I give a comedy five stars, but "Grandma's Boy" is perfect. Comedic timing, a brief romantic angle, wonderfully silly acting and a fun plot make this one of the most perfect comedies I've ever seen. Allen Covert plays Alex, a recently homeless video game tester who's just looking for a break. He visits his local weed dealer, played tightly by Peter Dante, to see if he can stay at his house for awhile. Alex has second thoughts about staying there when he finds out that Dante's African tribesman buddy, Dr. Shokalu, has acquired an actual lion to protect the stash. His next attempt at bedding down is with his game-testing buddy, played with stereotypical geek charm by Nick Swardson. His sleepover experience at Swardson's home reveals that Swardson still lives with his parents, has a lot of toys, and a really cool car bed. It also leads up to the first really funny (and really wrong) confrontation involving Covert and one of Swardson's family members. From there, Covert ends up staying with his grandma, Doris Roberts, who is basically playing a role similar to that of hers in "Everybody Loves Raymond," but with a whole lot more edge. She and her two roommates, Shirley Knight and Shirley Jones (Partridge Family), welcome Covert into their home with open arms. The result is an all out pot party, geriatric sex, geeks fulfilling their wildest dreams, a kung-fu chimp, dance dance revolution challenges, vegetarian humor, a game programming scandal and a ton of other things that just don't belong together but somehow work here.
There is also a romantic angle to the story involving the cute Linda Cardellini (Freaks and Geeks, the Scooby movies). "Grandma's Boy" takes care to not drag the comedy down with the love story as I've seen in countless other comedies these days. Cardellini plays Covert's new supervisor, and they become close friends as the story rolls along. Even she manages to become part of the lunacy when she takes the boys out one evening.
A number of SNL alumni are in this flick. Rob Schneider makes a brief appearance as Covert's landlord. Kevin Nealon plays the holistic owner of the game company Covert works for. The scene stealer, however, is David Spade as Shiloh, a sexually-questionable waiter at a vegetarian restuarant who takes on Covert and his buddies while they're celebrating the completion of game-testing. The only SNL omission is Adam Sandler, who's Happy Madison company produced this flick. However, it's obvious that he put his stamp on this movie. It features the same stable of actors that are featured in almost every other Sandler flick out there.
This movie is wrong in so many ways, but that's what makes it fun. The really amazing thing is that all of it is pulled off with little or no actual offense to those who are made fun of, and that's an amazing feat these days. If you love dirty comedies like "The 40 year-old Virgin," "There's Something About Mary," and "Wedding Crashers," you're sure to love this flick.
Very highly recommended. A complete surprise that I missed in the theaters that is well worth purchasing.
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