The War with Grandpa is a decent, occasionally funny, and often surprisingly sweet film. With one major problem… it’s general premise. Kind of a big problem in an otherwise decent little movie.

Robert DeNiro plays a grandpa who has to move into his daughter’s home due to his advancing age. He takes over the bedroom of his grandson who is relegated to the attic. The kid then declares war on his grandpa over the room and a series of pranks between the two warriors ensues.

What I liked most about this premise is that they continued to express familiar love for each other despite their battle of wits. It was sweet and surprisingly charming. The only problem is that I thought the pranks they pulled were often at odds with the sentimentality of the movie. Now, to be fair, some of the physical pranks (which would be very dangerous to an old man) were played in a more cartoony way, similar to Home Alone. So I guess I can give it a mental pass. But some of the other pranks were emotionally cruel and that’s less forgiving.

I’d have preferred the movie lose the prank premise and just go with a simpler story of a grandpa and grandson at odds over the room in some other way… while still being a gentle and sweet family film. Maybe this is me taking it too seriously or something… all I can say for sure is that I enjoyed a quarter of the movie, laughed at other parts of it, and was kind of turned off by the pranks.

Score: 73