Netflix users entranced by an awful comedy that wastes more than one legend

Robert De Niro has been facing accusations for decades that he’s been phoning it in, happy to cash in on his legend after establishing himself as one of the acting game’s all-time greats. On one hand, his two Academy Award nominations in the last 10 years would say otherwise, but the compelling other side of the argument lives on through The War with Grandpa.

Coincidentally crafting his own one-man subgenre, the spiritual successor to the horrendous Bad Grandpa gave De Niro the distinction of headlining two widely derided vehicles that assembled a star studded cast to orbit around the iconic star playing a grandfather with an axe to grind.

A 29 percent Rotten Tomatoes score isn’t out of the ordinary, but an 85 percent user rating on the aggregation site is about as bizarre as it is unexpected. Impressively, though, The War with Grandpa did manage to just about exceed its $38 million budget at the box office, something that was virtually unheard of at the time given that it hit theaters October 2020 when business was on its knees.

Now widely available on streaming and on-demand, Tim Hill’s misfire has now managed to become an unqualified success on Netflix. As per FlixPatrol, The War with Grandpa is right on the cusp of entering the platform’s global Top 20, and it’s even sitting pretty as the second-top title in Australia.

De Niro is joined by Christopher Walken, Jane Seymour, Cheech Marin, Rob Riggle, Uma Thurman, and more, all of whom deserve a much better showcase for their talents, whether we’re talking comedic or otherwise.