The War With Grandpa

Hollywood family entertainment at its most humdrum and stupefying - less a babysitter in motion picture form than an audio-visual bowl of Mogadon-laced Coco Pops.

It depends on your tolerance for watching Robert De Niro flash people.

It's the kind of film that seems to vanish from the mind even as you're watching it.

barely passable piffle

Who knew a dodgeball game between Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Cheech Marin, Jane Seymour and a bunch of rowdy kids could be so bland?

Robert De Niro has made his share of nearly-unwatchable comedies so, although it's tempting to say The War with Grandpa is the worst, I can't say that definitively.

[An]ungainly, ugly, depressing hybridisation of a playful family dramedy and over-the-top physical humor.

You can't say The War With Grandpa is terrific, but it has its moments - and it's likely to entertain the kids for an hour and a half.

A harmless family film but the movie lover in me couldn't help but cringe just a bit watching The Deer Hunter co-stars De Niro and Walken return to battle against a bunch of tweens.

The film attempts to check all the boxes of a children's comedy, but fails to make a connection. They are the shells of these archetypes without making them novel in any way.