Robert De Niro helps Zac Efron lighten up, bro down in the Dirty Grandpa trailer
Sometimes judging a movie by its premise risks setting unrealistic expectations—for example, streaming The Full Monty because you liked Magic Mike XXL. Other times, movies practically beg you to judge a book by its cover: Joining the ranks of films like Bad Santa and Snakes On A Plane, the producers of Dirty Grandpa are probably fine with audiences immediately recognizing that this movie will be a raunchy buddy comedy, with a straight-laced Zac Efron being led astray by his carnally focused grandfather (Robert De Niro).
De Niro is unapologetically crude and unabashed in his desire to have unprotected sex with women young enough to be his granddaughters. (And yes, of course his name is “Dick.”) Efron is naively committed to his relationship, stupidly concerned about getting herpes, and just begging to be tricked into smoking crack by Jason Mantzoukas. The obligatory third act lesson, where Efron and De Niro presumably learn to listen to one another and temper their respective extreme perspectives, is absent, because this trailer is about killer parties, killer jokes, and killer ass.
While Efron and De Niro are the ostensible stars of this movie, the real attraction here is the female cast. There’s Julianne Hough as Efron’s fiancée, who is horrible and emasculating enough to justify Grandpa Dick’s world view. There’s Aubrey Plaza as Lenore, a spring-breaker who lends her comedic talents in service of premature ejaculation double-entendres. And while we’re on the subject of butts, we can’t overlook the legion of butts, thongs, boobs, and bikini tops which appear to be the real attraction of Dirty Grandpa. They might even be attached to people, but whatever, bro.