I have now determined that Robert De Niro will only do films with “grandpa” in the title. First we had Bad Grandpa, probably the worst film De Niro has ever made; now, we have The War with Grandpa, a new comedy featuring De Niro and-we hope-the comedic chops of Marisa Tomei.
Tomei is currently in negotiations to join the film alongside De Niro, Christopher Walken, and Eugene Levy. De Niro plays the titular grandpa and Tomei his daughter and the mother of his grandson, who’s forced to give up his room when his grandpa comes to stay. The boy begins enacting a series of pranks against his grandfather in the hopes of driving the old man away, but naturally Grandpa is much tougher than anyone thought. Meanwhile, Tomei’s character is also dealing with a teenage daughter who keeps sneaking out the house. So her plate is pretty full already and now she has to deal with her father and her son battling it out in her house. Poor Marisa Tomei.
De Niro’s most recent cinematic choices have not exactly been pitch-perfect, and this one does seem predictable at best. However, the cast makes things more intriguing than they might otherwise be. Tomei is an excellent comedian, and the idea of Christopher Walken and De Niro in the same film again already entertains me. Robert De Niro can be pretty funny himself when actually given a decent script. So, while I think we will need to approach The War with Grandpa very carefully, I’m willing to be at least a little optimistic that it will not prove to be another unfunny disaster.
The War with Grandpa is set for distribution on April 17, 2017, so they’ll probably be signing Tomei pretty soon. Here’s hoping that the war ends well for all concerned.