The War With Grandpa

By Joanna Langfield

Among the so many other things I don’t understand lately is why they’re opening this one “in theaters only”. Because while this family friendly fare, based on a popular children’s book, might make for a decent streaming option, it isn’t worthy of spending big bucks on for tickets or possibly risking one’s health to see.

If you could see it at home, you might get a decent laugh or two, watching a newly widowed Robert DeNiro reluctantly move into daughter Uma Thurman’s house, to live with her already bustling family. Since there’s no spare room for grandpa, pre-teen son Oakes Fegley is shunted up to the scary attic and, even though he loves his grandpa, he wants his room back. War ensues. Don’t ask me why, except that it offers opportunities for silly tricks and an even sillier leap to lessons about international conflicts. But there’s got to be something to eat up the 90 or so minutes this good natured picture lasts, although it’s much more fun to watch DeNiro play with the three nice child actors here, to see a game Thurman again and, especially, to laugh heartily at Christopher Walken who, at his most delicious nuttiest, steals every scene he’s in.