Don’t Mess with Grandma

Don't-Mess-with-Grandma
Don’t Mess with Grandma

In this day and age, almost everyone has watched a home invasion film at least once or twice, especially after this year saw the releases of The Strangers Chapter One and Abigail. Yet, excess can often lead to originality as filmmakers dig for novel ways to make their movies different. Jason Krawczyk (He Never Died) has also done that in his movie Don’t Mess With Grandma which is a bloody riot subverting all the conventions of home invasion films.

In the movie Trusted Trays, which delivers food to the elderly, Jasper (Michael Jai White) is warm and mild but secretly behaves like a workaholic. Every night, he leaves for two hours driving two hours away from his home to perform tasks for his fierce grandmother, Granna (Jackie Richardson). During the course of repairing her bathroom sink, one night, Granna’s house suffers a home invasion by a horde of incompetent thieves led by Stan (a remarkably unrecognizable Billy Zane). These masked burglars however have no clue that Jasper is brave enough to do anything to defend his Grandmother, including working herself to the bone to ensure that she remains oblivious to all the incidents.

Ignoring home invasion alone fear, which is strong in many horror films, the terror is replaced with black comedy and stylized, extremely violent action thanks to a magnificent performance by White, who is just as adept at delivering comedy as he is at fighting (not that it is a shock to anyone who has watched Black Dynamite). The burglars never gain an advantage, and the rest of the story is simply not very engaging or compelling. Krawczyk uses such techniques instead. There is slight comical build throughout the film but most of it is slapped together and drags on apparently through parody. Krawczyk does not clarify why the burglars choose to target Granna, which somehow casts a faint haze on the events because there is no explanation.

What’s interesting is that this film has only one aspect to concern itself with. One that is purely designed for comedy purposes, and Grandma scores heavily in this regard. Jasper Sure, Jasper is funny especially when he talks to Stan and his crew, who shoot their mouths off just as much as they shoot bullets. Oh my god! How long has it been since there was a gang of such bumbling fools? I mean the last time, there were the Wet Bandits in Home Alone! The film also faithfully records the attempts of these bumbling idiots to invade Granna’s house (it is really quite amazing how many times they try to sneak inside the house in the film as Jasper repeatedly throws them out of doors and windows). One may expect him to steal each scene as he hovers over a member of his crew but Krawczyk surprisingly manages to give each member of his crew the chance to have their moment in the limelight. This unfortunately translates to poor concentration on Zane and the ensemble takes precedence. However, Zane who stays with toilet paper wedged onto his battered backside throughout the movie is a marvelous comedian as good as White.

In any case, it is White who bears the burden of the film but watching Grandma makes one not only remember his great talents but also think how he has been wasted by Hollywood. There are some times when Krawczyk’s writing does a disservice to the actor, as Jasper constantly soliloquies for the simple purpose of exposition to the audience yet, to say the least, everything White does is so delightful that one can just roll with the narration to an extent even if it gets a bit awkward. And we haven’t even begun talking about Rufus, Granna’s pet who treats Jasper with hostility at first only to warm up to him later in the film and help Jasper with his efforts to take down the thieves. It is also this relationship, rather than the one between Jasper and Granna, that turns out to be the emotional core of the story, which no one was expecting.

Don’t Mess With Grandma is yet another solid offering from the previously underrated Tubi, a streamer that is really establishing itself as a go to source for low budget genre films that are actually decent. Focusing on genuine emotional moments, comedically cringing battles, and a good dose of gore, Krawczyk has produced good entertainment that will definitely get lots of chuckles.

For more movies like Don’t Mess with Grandma Visit 123Movies.

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